Be a Master of Craps – Tricks and Strategies: The Past of Craps
Be clever, play clever, and master craps the proper way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Current craps come about from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for certain the origin of the game, however Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen enjoyed Hazard through a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when exiled by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the bad luck throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and throughout the country. A good many consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He appended the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to lose. Later, he designed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.