I cannot determine an exact pattern. It generally crashes (freezes requiring a system restart) within the first 10 minutes of play, though it has frozen longer into things.
I am happy to supply any files you need to diagnose.
The only interesting thing I have seen when this happens, is that there is more than one java engine running at the time. It seems like a thread doesn't get destroyed when the launcher is closed perhaps? I have noticed that this appears to be happening even more frequently now that the new launcher (1.1.1) is being used...
Please attach crash reports (
[minecraft|http://hopper.minecraft.net/help/finding-minecraft-data-folder]/crash-reports/crash-XXXX.txt
)