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Become Versed in Craps – Tricks and Plans: The Background of Craps

Be cunning, play clever, and pickup craps the right way!

Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the 12th century. It’s believed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard through a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is acquired from the name of the bad luck toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi scows and all over the country. Many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He put in place the Do not Pass line so gamblers could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

Posted in Craps.


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