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Pickup Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The Background of Craps
Be smart, play cunning, and pickup craps the correct way!
Games that use dice and the dice themselves date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is only about one hundred years old. Modern craps come about from the ancient English game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been invented by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It is theorized that Sir William’s soldiers wagered on Hazard amid a blockade on the citadel Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was derived from the citadel’s name.
Early French settlers brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 18th century, when driven away by the English, the French headed south and located safety in southern Louisiana where they a while later became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they brought their favorite game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was acquired from the term for the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi barges and all over the nation. A good many consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps layout. He created the Do not Pass line so gamblers can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he created the spots for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.