Pickup Craps – Tricks and Schemes: The Background of Craps
Be brilliant, play clever, and learn how to play craps the ideal way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately 100 years old. Current craps evolved from the 12th Century English game called Hazard. No one knows for sure the birth of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been created by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard amid a siege on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when driven away by the British, the French headed down south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they eventually became known as Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns modernized the game and made it mathematically fair. It’s said that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which is gotten from the term for the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game extended to the Mississippi barges and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice builder John H. Winn as the creator of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the modern craps setup. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so players could bet on the dice to not win. Later, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.