As the legend goes…

In Crested Butte’s early days, when the prospects of becoming a rip-roaring ski community was almost laughable, there was a young man who lived in the yellow house on the corner across from the old school house. One cold winter a drifter blew through town in need of a place to bunk for a couple nights. So he ended up in that yellow house, with it’s various occupants. Being the cold winter that it was they found themselves inside with not much to do. So this drifter asked, “Y’all wanna learn a game?”

The game was called 10,000 or Zilch. Take your pick. They all proceeded to play while the drifter stayed with them. When he was picking up to go the man who owned the yellow house asked him to write the rules. So he did and long after the drifter had passed through town the game had been learned by all the Crested Butte locals and visitors and had become a town sensation. The only change made from the original rules the drifter had written was the addition of the 4 deuces and the consequence of your score being cut in half. This added an extra edge and higher probability of it being anyone’s game write up to the bitter end. The game is typically played with a $1.00 ante from each player. Of course you can raise the stakes if you want.

It was there that Zilch was forever morphed and invigorated to become “Crested Butte Craps”. And I emphasize that the sheet you see above is the OFFICIAL RULES OF CRESTED BUTTE CRAPS. Accept no impostors. Let it be known that the man who owned and lived in that yellow house across from the old school house was my pa, the one and only, Homer Fenton, Crested Butte original and ski-bum extraordinaire. And the original rules penned by that lone drifter are still in existence today.

Download rule sheet as a pdf here. For a set of six matching dice you’re on your own.