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Master Craps – Tricks and Strategies: The History of Craps

Be cunning, play clever, and become versed in craps the right way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about one hundred years old. Current craps formed from the ancient English game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard through a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French headed down south and found safety in southern Louisiana where they after a while became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is gotten from the term for the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He added the Do not Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

Posted in Craps.


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