What is Hazard, the dice game?

Every roll of modern craps echoes a game played by candlelight 700 years ago. Hazard is that game - older than the printing press, complicated enough to ruin Chaucer's characters, and playable here exactly as history wrote it.

Quick answer: Hazard is the medieval English dice game that craps descends from, played in taverns since the 14th century and mentioned by Chaucer. You call a 'main' from 5 to 9, then roll: hitting the main wins instantly, 2 or 3 loses, and other totals set a 'chance' you must repeat before the main.

How Hazard is played

Before rolling, you call a main - any number from 5 to 9. Roll your main and you win instantly (a 'nick'). Roll a 2 or 3 and you're 'out' - an instant loss. A 12 nicks only if your main is 6 or 8, and loses otherwise; an 11 loses on every main we offer (it only nicks a main of 7). Any other total becomes your chance: roll the chance again before the main to win even money, or roll the main first and lose.

The craps connection

Squint and you can see modern craps: the main is a configurable come-out, the chance is the point, nicks are naturals and 'crabs' - the losing throws - probably gave craps its name. When the game reached New Orleans around 1805, Bernard de Marigny's circle fixed the main at 7 permanently, and those simplified rules became street craps and then the casino game. Hazard is the original that the 'simplification' conquered the world with.

Choosing your main

The strategic hook is that your main changes your odds. Mains of 6 and 8 pick up the extra 12-nick; a main of 7 - the mathematical sweet spot, which is why New Orleans kept it - isn't offered, so every call from 5 to 9 is a genuine trade-off between nick chances and chance-versus-main races. It makes Hazard the thinking player's table, and the hardest variant to master here.

Play 700-year-old Hazard

Related questions

Where does craps come from?

Craps descends from Hazard, an English dice game played since the 14th century - Chaucer mentions it. Bernard de Marigny brought the game to New Orleans around 1805 and simplified it, and John H. Winn added the don't pass option and the modern layout around 1907.

Why is it called craps?

Two explanations compete, both from the game's New Orleans days. 'Craps' may come from the French 'crapaud,' meaning toad - a nod to players crouching over street games - or from 'crabs,' the old English name for the losing throw in Hazard, the game craps descends from.

What is street craps?

Street craps is craps with everything stripped away except the dice: just pass or don't pass at even money, using the classic rules - 7 or 11 wins the come-out, 2, 3 or 12 loses, then point before 7. No table, no layout, no props. Pass wins about 49.3% of decisions.