Learn to Play Craps – Hints and Tactics: The History of Craps
Be cunning, play brilliant, and learn how to play craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is just about 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights bet on Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when banished by the English, the French headed south and settled in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was acquired from the name of the bad luck toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi river boats and throughout the nation. Most consider 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 lose. Later, he created the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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