Craps TipsBeginner Craps Tips

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Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps come about from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the 12th century. It is supposed that Sir William’s paladins gambled on Hazard through a siege on the fortress Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.

Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when banished by the English, the French relocated south and located safety in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they left Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning throw of snake-eyes in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi river boats and all over the country. A great many acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the current craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he established the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.