Craps Strategies

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Dice and dice games goes all the way back to the Crusades, but modern craps is only about 100 years old. Modern craps evolved from the old Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is theorized that Sir William’s horsemen bet on Hazard during a siege on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when expelled by the British, the French moved down south and located refuge in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was gotten from the name of the bad luck throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and across the country. A few think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In 1907, Winn developed the modern craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the spaces for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.