Pickup Craps – Tricks and Schemes: The History of Craps
Be smart, play brilliant, and become versed in craps the correct way!
Dice and dice games date back to the Middle Eastern Crusades, but modern craps is approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the ancient Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one knows for sure the ancestry of the game, although Hazard is believed to have been made up by the Englishman, Sir William of Tyre, around the twelfth century. It’s theorized that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the fortification Hazarth in 1125 AD. The name Hazard was derived from the fortification’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Acadia. In the 1700s, when displaced by the English, the French relocated down south and discovered sanctuary in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they took their favorite game, Hazard, with them. The Cajuns simplified the game and made it fair mathematically. It is believed that the Cajuns altered the name to craps, which is gotten from the name of the non-winning toss of 2 in the game of Hazard, recognized as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Most consider the dice maker John H. Winn as the founder of current craps. In the early 1900s, Winn created the current craps setup. He created the Do not Pass line so players can wager on the dice to not win. Afterwords, he invented the spots for Place bets and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.
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