World Famous Comics: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
By: Ben Mezrich Publisher: Free Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Free Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: September 09, 2003
The amazing inside story about a gambling ring of M.I.T.students who beat the system in Vegas -- and lived to tell how.
Robin Hood meets the Rat Pack when the best and the brightest of M.I.T.'s math students and engineers take up blackjack under the guidance of an eccentric mastermind. Their small blackjack club develops from an experiment in counting cards on M.I.T.'s campus into a ring of card savants with a system for playing large and winning big. In less than two years they take some of the world's most sophisticated casinos for more than three million dollars. But their success also brings with it the formidable ire of casino owners and launches them into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas with its private investigators and other violent heavies.
Filled with tense action, high stakes, and incredibly close calls, Bringing Down the House is a nail-biting read that chronicles a real-life Ocean's Eleven. It's one story that Vegas does not want you to read.
Download Description: "It's Friday night and you're on a red-eye to the city of sin. Strapped to your chest is half a million dollars; in your overnight bag is another twenty-five thousand in blackjack chips; and your wallet holds ten fake IDs. As soon as you land in Las Vegas, you are positive you are being investigated and followed. To top it all off, the IRS is auditing you, someone has been going through your mail -- and you have a multivariable calculus exam on Monday morning. Welcome to the world of an exclusive group of audacious MIT math geniuses who legally took the casinos for over three million dollars -- while still finding time for college keg parties, football games, and final exams. In the midst of the go-go eighties and nineties, a group of overachieving, anarchistic MIT students joined a decades-old underground blackjack club dedicated to counting cards and beating the system at major casinos around the world. While their classmates were working long hours in labs and libraries, the blackjack team traveled weekly to Las Vegas and other glamorous gambling locales, with hundreds of thousands of dollars duct-taped to their bodies. Underwritten by shady investors they would never meet, these kids bet fifty thousand dollars a hand, enjoyed VIP suites and other upscale treats, and partied with showgirls and celebrities. Handpicked by an eccentric mastermind -- a former MIT professor and an obsessive player who had developed a unique system of verbal cues, body signals, and role-playing -- this one ring of card savants earned more than three million dollars from corporate Vegas, making them the object of the casinos' wrath and eventually targets of revenge. Here is their inside story, revealing their secrets for the first time.
An Entertaining and Effortless Storyline There is a lot of discussion regarding the veracity of this book which if important to you should be a consideration. I cannot comment on how accurate any of the writing is as my only knowledge of this subject comes from this book.
What this book does offer is a short and easy to read storyline regarding the lives of MIT students who took many casinos, most prominently in Las Vegas, for considerable money with a team effort card counting system for Blackjack. This book does not go into significant depth on card counting and jumps around slightly regarding the narration from the protagonist's point of view to chapters on the author's actual research.
The book as a whole is interesting and will be an enjoyable read for anyone looking for an interesting storyline without any of the expectations of noteworthy insider secrets of gambling and card counting. The writing style, while not the most articulate, provides effortless reading as I expect the author's intent was to provide a book for the masses.
If you are looking to get a little insight into how the big money card counters make their money and the lifestyle and potential dangers they encounter, you will find this book is both worthwhile and enjoyable.
better than movie the book was naturally a lot more detailed than the movie. they changed a lot about the characters in the movie. if you read the book and then watch the movie afterwords, you will probably be disappointed.
The Real Revenge Of The Nerds Winning gambling strategies, including counting cards, are mostly a tedious grind, so making it fast-paced and glamorous takes an art. The book is hard to put down as you keep waiting for these students to make a mistake and get caught.
The one question I kept asking myself as I was reading the book was if any of these MIT mathematical whiz kids would have lived to tell this story if organized crime was still operating the casinos instead of big corporations.
Brilliant book about an almost brilliant idea.
Great read and interesting development I read this book for my monthly book club. This book was a fast read and the characters and plot was an interesting development. I still can't believe that this is a true story!
I'm definitely looking forward to the movie to see if it lives up to the expectations that the book has already set.
Takes All The Fun out of playing the game! You know the phrase that cheating doesn't really amount to anything except in this case when the card counting teams from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) organize, rehearse, and prepare to take money from casinos whether Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or the casino boat in Chicago, Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in Connecticut. Sadly, the book is really for people who enjoy gambling at the casinos like myself. I'm not a high roller. In fact, I'm so far down on the todem pole of rollers that I barely qualify for comps at all. Anyway, the book is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be only because I am fond of playing card games. I just think that the whole idea of card counting and these teams ruin and take away the fun of the sport. Unlike Poker, blackjack can be beatable if you know the system. Then again, it still takes away the fun of playing. Yes, you lose money but you have to be prepared to lose when you walk in the door. Gambling is chance and randomness rolled into one. The house or casino takes their cut and they are going to always have a heads up. When I read about how the kids began to live double lives, I felt sorry for them. I felt sorry for Mickey Rosa, the MIT genius who brought the teams together and trained them. They decide to go without him and if I was on the team, I would have left at that point. Enough was never enough for the players, they wanted more. They got off the adrenaline and high of beating the house at times. The players were more like actors than players. When I go to a casino, I don't expect anything but to break even or lose some money. I don't expect to get it back but that's the fun. If this book has a lesson, it's enjoy the game and stop worrying about cheating and card counting. The house managers know better and they have security, pit bosses, and cameras everywhere. They follow the high rollers for a reason especially if the house is losing. By following the high rollers, they know what they like and if they are going to gamble thousands at a time, they are profitable to the house. Everybody uses everybody in gambling and casino industry. Gambling like prostitution has been around since the beginning of time. If you can control your gambling habit, you are better off. Don't spend a lot of money or worry too much about the cards. You are there to enjoy the game and pray for the chance to win some money. Don't bet your life savings, your house, your car, your children's college fund, your savings, or your plane tickets because you won't see it again. The house doesn't care if you go broke as long as you do it there.
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Trevor
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