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Master Craps – Tips and Schemes: The Past of Craps
Be cunning, play smart, and pickup craps the proper way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps come about from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the ancestry of the game, but Hazard is said to have been discovered by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard during a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the castle’s name.
Early French settlers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when displaced by the English, the French relocated south and discovered sanctuary in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns broke down the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the name to craps, which was gotten from the name of the bad luck throw of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and all over the nation. A good many think the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn designed the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so players could wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.