Pickup Craps – Tricks and Tactics: The History of Craps

[ English ]

Be clever, play cunning, and become versed in craps the ideal way!

Games that use dice and the dice themselves goes back to the Crusades, but modern craps is approximately one hundred years old. Current craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game called Hazard. Nobody absolutely knows the origin of the game, but Hazard is believed to have been invented by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, in the 12th century. It is theorized that Sir William’s knights wagered on Hazard during a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortress’s name.

Early French colonists brought the game Hazard to Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French headed down south and settled in southern Louisiana where they at a later time became Cajuns. When they fled Acadia, they took their best-loved game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It’s believed that the Cajuns altered the title to craps, which is acquired from the term for the losing throw of two in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."

From Louisiana, the game moved to the Mississippi scows and across the nation. A few acknowledge the dice maker John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In 1907, Winn built the current craps layout. He created the Don’t Pass line so gamblers could bet on the dice to lose. Afterwords, he designed the spaces for Place wagers and put in place the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.

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