Pickup Craps – Tricks and Strategies: The Background of Craps
Be brilliant, play brilliant, and pickup craps the right way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date all the way back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but current craps is only about a century old. Modern craps evolved from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody knows for certain the origin of the game, but Hazard is said to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It’s presumed that Sir William’s paladins bet on Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers imported the game Hazard to Canada. In the 18th century, when exiled by the British, the French headed south and settled in the south of Louisiana where they a while later became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the non-winning throw of two in the game of Hazard, referred to as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and all over the country. A great many think the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of current craps. In 1907, Winn designed the current craps setup. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Later, he created the spots for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.