Pickup Craps – Tricks and Plans: The Past of Craps
Be brilliant, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the ideal way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is just about a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, but Hazard is said to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the twelfth century. It’s supposed that Sir William’s paladins enjoyed Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was acquired from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when expelled by the English, the French headed down south and located safety in the south of Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they were driven out of Acadia, they took their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it more mathematically fair. It is said that the Cajuns changed the name to craps, which was derived from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi riverboats and throughout the country. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the founder of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn built the modern craps setup. He appended the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.