How to Play Hazard: Dice Game Rules, Odds and History
Hazard is a historical two-dice game in which a number called the main determines the immediate results of the opening throw. If that throw produces neither an immediate win nor loss, another total becomes the chance; the caster then tries to repeat the chance before rolling the main.
This guide reconstructs the rules described in the unsigned “Hazard” article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1911). It does not claim that those rules were universal. Historical descriptions differ in terminology, setup and the method used to establish the main.
- Classification
- Historical two-dice game
- Dice
- Two six-sided dice
- Typical objective
- Win immediately or establish a chance and repeat it before the main
- Featured ruleset
- Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), “Hazard”
- Reconstruction status
- Editorial paraphrase of the named historical description
- Editorial role
- Desk research, source comparison and arithmetic review
- Sources checked
- One featured procedural text, one historical comparison text and one museum collection record
On this page
Essential Hazard terms
- Caster
- The participant who calls the main and throws the dice in the featured description.
- Setter
- A participant who accepts or “sets” a stake against the caster. The term describes the historical participant relationship; it does not by itself establish a permanent casino house or house edge.
- Main
- A number from 5 through 9 called before the opening throw in the featured ruleset. It controls the opening outcomes and becomes the number that defeats the caster after a chance is established.
- Nick
- An opening result that wins immediately. Which totals count as nicks depends on the selected main.
- Chance
- An eligible opening total that produces neither an immediate win nor an immediate loss. Once established, it must be rolled again before the main for the caster to win.
- Throw out
- An opening result that loses immediately under the featured rules. The exact totals depend partly on the main.
- Resolution
- The point at which the rules declare the sequence won or lost.
Terminology caution: Main and chance should not automatically be replaced with modern craps terms. Although the games are historically related, their documented procedures are not interchangeable.
Historical source and rules used in this reconstruction
How this page labels the evidence
- Documented rule: a procedure stated by the featured historical text.
- Modernized paraphrase: the same procedure restated in contemporary English while retaining the source terminology.
- Editorial clarification: organization or explanatory wording added to make the sequence easier to follow.
The numbered sequence and tables below are modernized paraphrases. Organizing the opening results into separate win, loss and chance branches is an editorial clarification; it does not add a new outcome. No payout has been reconstructed because the source does not provide a complete modern paytable suitable for expected-value analysis.
Dice, participants and setup
- Equipment: two dice.
- Caster: calls a main from 5 through 9 and rolls.
- Setter: accepts a stake against the caster in the source’s participant terminology.
- Decision before the roll: the caster chooses the main.
- Banking structure: the text describes setters opposing the caster. This page does not reinterpret that arrangement as a standardized casino-banked game.
- Payout: no complete paytable is reconstructed here.
Details not needed to resolve the dice sequence—such as table limits, turn order among several prospective casters or a formal casino procedure—are not supplied from modern practice.
How a Hazard dice game round proceeds
Text equivalent
- Call the main. The caster chooses 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9.
- Roll two dice. Add the two face values.
- Check for an immediate win. The main itself is a nick. In addition, 11 is a nick when the main is 7, while 12 is a nick when the main is 6 or 8.
- Check for an immediate loss. Totals 2 and 3 lose for every main. Eleven loses when the main is 5, 6, 8 or 9. Twelve loses when the main is 5, 7 or 9.
- Establish the chance if neither immediate result applies. The eligible opening total from 4 through 10 becomes the chance.
- Continue rolling. The caster wins by rolling the chance before the main and loses by rolling the main before the chance.
- Ignore other continuing totals. A total that is neither the chance nor the main leaves the state unchanged, so the caster rolls again.
The opening branches are main-dependent. For example, 11 wins immediately with main 7 but loses immediately with main 6; 12 wins immediately with main 6 or 8 but loses with main 7.
Worked example: from main to final resolution
This example uses a main of 7 and illustrates the chance mechanism. It does not represent a prediction, recommended wager or guaranteed sequence.
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Initial state: main 7
The caster calls 7 as the main before rolling.
Applicable rule: In the featured source, the caster calls a main from 5 through 9.
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First roll: 2 and 4, total 6
With main 7, a total of 6 is neither an opening nick nor an opening throw-out. It therefore becomes the chance.
Updated state: Main 7; chance 6.
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Second roll: 3 and 5, total 8
Eight is neither the chance nor the main. The roll does not resolve the sequence.
Updated state: Main 7; chance 6; continue rolling.
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Third roll: 1 and 5, total 6
The chance, 6, appears before the main, 7.
Final result: The caster wins the dice sequence under the featured rules.
Plain-text summary: The caster called main 7, rolled 6 to establish the chance, rolled an irrelevant 8, and then repeated 6 before rolling 7. No monetary payout is stated because this reconstruction does not supply a complete paytable.
Each roll remains independent when fair dice and the rolling conditions are unchanged. The totals shown here do not make any later result more or less due.
Outcome rules in the featured version
| Called main | Immediate win or nick | Immediate loss or throw-out | Totals that establish the chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 5 | 2, 3, 11, 12 | 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| 6 | 6, 12 | 2, 3, 11 | 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| 7 | 7, 11 | 2, 3, 12 | 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 |
| 8 | 8, 12 | 2, 3, 11 | 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 |
| 9 | 9 | 2, 3, 11, 12 | 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 |
| Later result | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Chance appears before the main | Caster wins |
| Main appears before the chance | Caster loses |
| Any other total | No resolution; roll again |
Conclusion: Totals 2 and 3 always lose on the opening throw in this version, but the treatment of 11 and 12 changes with the main. Once a chance exists, only the chance or main resolves the sequence.
How documented Hazard rules vary
The table separates reviewed source descriptions rather than merging them into an invented standard. “Not stated” means that the cited text does not provide enough information for this comparison.
| Feature | Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition (1911), “Hazard” | R. F. Foster, Foster’s Complete Hoyle (1897), Hazard description |
|---|---|---|
| Source role | Featured reconstruction | Secondary historical comparison |
| Main | Called by the caster; permitted values 5 through 9 | Uses the same restricted main range in its described play |
| Chance | An eligible non-immediate opening total from 4 through 10 | Uses the same central chance-before-main resolution structure |
| Immediate outcomes | Main-dependent treatment of 11 and 12; 2 and 3 are opening losses | Substantially corresponding nick and throw-out structure in the compared passage |
| Continuing rolls | Chance before main wins; main before chance loses; other totals continue | Same central resolution order in the compared passage |
| Participant structure | Caster opposed by one or more setters | Caster-and-setter terminology is used |
| Complete modern paytable | Not stated | Not stated in a form used for this page’s expected-value analysis |
Comparison result: The two checked descriptions support the central rules reconstructed here, but that agreement should not be mistaken for proof that all periods and venues used identical setup or settlement procedures. Other descriptions must be evaluated by name and edition before their rules are combined with this version.
Hazard probability and why there is no universal house edge
Two fair six-sided dice have 36 ordered outcomes: each of the six results on the first die can occur with each of the six results on the second die. Results such as 2–4 and 4–2 are separate ordered outcomes even though both total 6.
| Total | Ordered outcomes | One-roll probability |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 1/36 |
| 3 | 2 | 2/36 |
| 4 | 3 | 3/36 |
| 5 | 4 | 4/36 |
| 6 | 5 | 5/36 |
| 7 | 6 | 6/36 |
| 8 | 5 | 5/36 |
| 9 | 4 | 4/36 |
| 10 | 3 | 3/36 |
| 11 | 2 | 2/36 |
| 12 | 1 | 1/36 |
These are probabilities for the opening roll, not the probability of winning the complete multi-roll round. Once a chance is established, the final result depends on the chance and main frequencies and on which appears first.
House edge: Not applicable as a universal figure. House edge is expected player loss as a percentage of a specified initial wager under defined rules and payouts. The historical descriptions used here do not establish one universal house-funded wager and complete payout schedule, so this page does not publish a Hazard house-edge percentage.
Modern craps figures must not be transferred to Hazard. See how ordered outcomes, multi-roll probabilities, expected value and house edge are calculated. For payout analysis requirements, see why a complete dice-game paytable is necessary.
Hazard and the development of modern craps
The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Hazard as an old dice game from which modern craps descends. This supports a broad ancestral relationship, but it does not establish that every Hazard rule passed unchanged into craps or that Hazard had one continuously standardized form.
- Documented at a broad level
- Hazard is historically associated with the development of modern craps.
- Not established by the museum record
- One uninterrupted rules lineage, one official Hazard ruleset or the transfer of every main-and-chance rule into modern craps.
- Requires separate evidence
- Specific inventor stories, precise origin dates, disputed etymologies and detailed geographic claims.
There is a structural resemblance in the use of a first-stage roll followed by a number that can govern later resolution, but the terminology and outcome rules differ. Learn the current game in the modern standard craps guide, including come-out rolls, points, Pass Line resolution and attached odds.
Previous rolls do not make a result due
When fair dice are rolled independently under unchanged conditions, previous results do not alter the distribution of the next roll. A run of high totals does not make a low total more likely, and repeated misses do not create a recovery opportunity.
The gambler’s fallacy is the mistaken belief that earlier independent outcomes make a balancing result due. Historical rules, recorded patterns and knowledge of the 36 ordered outcomes cannot predict the next fair roll.
Historical sources, reconstruction method and review record
Methodology ledger
- Featured procedural source
- Unsigned “Hazard” article, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911
- Comparison source
- R. F. Foster, Foster’s Complete Hoyle, 1897, Hazard description
- Historical context source
- Metropolitan Museum of Art collection record for Thomas Rowlandson’s Kick Up at a Hazard Table
- Research method
- Editorial desk research with procedural, comparative and contextual sources assigned separate roles
- Wording modernization
- Historical terms including caster, setter, main, nick and chance are retained; sentence structure and table organization are modernized.
- Reconstruction decisions
- The source’s opening outcomes are organized by main, and its post-chance rule is displayed as a three-branch sequence. No unstated payout or casino procedure is added.
- Calculation assumptions
- Two independent, fair six-sided dice with 36 equally likely ordered outcomes
- Secondary arithmetic check
- The total-frequency counts sum to 36. For the main-7 example, 8 immediate-winning, 4 immediate-losing and 24 chance-establishing outcomes also sum to 36.
- Editorial reviewer role
- Source comparison and arithmetic review; no hands-on testing or academic credential is claimed
- House-edge status
- Not applicable as a universal figure because no universal house-funded wager and complete paytable are established
Sources by role
- Featured rules: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition — “Hazard”.
- Historical comparison: R. F. Foster, Foster’s Complete Hoyle (1897), Hazard description.
- Historical relationship: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Thomas Rowlandson, Kick Up at a Hazard Table.
- Probability arithmetic: Direct enumeration of the 36 ordered outcomes for two fair six-sided dice.
Correction history
No substantive correction is recorded in this edition.
Report a correction or source issue
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