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Master Craps – Tips and Techniques: The Background of Craps
Be clever, play smart, and become versed in craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps developed from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the origin of the game, however Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s knights enjoyed Hazard amid a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was gotten from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the English, the French relocated south and found safety in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favored game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is believed that the Cajuns changed the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the losing toss of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi riverboats and all over the nation. Most consider the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn designed the modern craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players can bet on the dice to lose. At another time, he designed the spaces for Place bets and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.