Craps Strategies

Be clever, play brilliant, and pickup craps the correct way!

Dice and dice games date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Modern craps come about from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is believed that Sir William’s soldiers enjoyed Hazard amid a siege on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the English, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they after a while became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which is derived from the term for the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the country. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In 1907, Winn created the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he invented the spots for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.