Craps Strategies

Be smart, play clever, and discover how to play craps the ideal way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Modern craps formed from the 12th Century English game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s soldiers played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French colonists imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French headed down south and discovered sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it fair mathematically. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was gotten from the term for the non-winning toss of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and throughout the nation. A few think the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He added the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he established the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.