Pickup Craps – Tips and Tactics: The Past of Craps
Posted in Craps on 12/27/2018 04:25 am by Philip
Be clever, play clever, and become versed in 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 approximately a century old. Current craps evolved from the old Anglo game referred to as Hazard. No one absolutely knows the beginnings of the game, although Hazard is said to have been made up by the Anglo, Sir William of Tyre, sometime in the twelfth century. It is presumed that Sir William’s horsemen played Hazard amid a blockade on the castle Hazarth in 1125 AD. The title Hazard was acquired from the fortress’s name.
Early French colonizers brought the game Hazard to Canada. In the 1700s, when displaced by the British, the French relocated down south and discovered refuge in the south of Louisiana where they at a later time became known as Cajuns. When they departed Acadia, they brought their preferred game, Hazard, along. The Cajuns streamlined the game and made it more mathematically fair. It’s believed that the Cajuns adjusted the title to craps, which was derived from the name of the bad luck toss of two in the game of Hazard, known as "crabs."
From Louisiana, the game migrated to the Mississippi barges and across the country. Most think the dice builder John H. Winn as the father of modern craps. In the early 1900s, Winn assembled the current craps layout. He put in place the Don’t Pass line so gamblers can bet on the dice to not win. At another time, he created the boxes for Place wagers and added the Big 6, Big 8, and Hardways.