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Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (平装)
by Ben Mezrich
| Category:
Games, Gambling, Thriller, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A good Las Vegas story and a real page turner, this book is a lesson in greed. Recommended for a long-haul plane ride. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 14 items |
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Zack Roberts, USA
<2006-12-23 00:00>
Have you ever wanted to go to Vegas and not lose money? This book is about six kids who do just that. They go through the ups, the downs, and everything in-between. This book is very enjoyable to anybody who enjoys playing card games and wishes to learn about a blackjack team who beat the casino.
In my opinion bringing down the house is a very well written book. This book really prooves that blackjack can be beaten.
Six kids (and eventually more) learn several ways of card counting. The one that was most used by the team was the hi lo method. Any card 10 or higher is -1 (one less face card in the deck) and any card 6 or lower is +1 (one more high card in the deck) There were six decks in one shoe so this made it easier for the team to win more money. They could get deeper into the shoe (the six decks of cards) without having a re-shuffle so they could count more cards and make more money.
One of the more interesting aspects of the book was how the MIT students learned how to work as the team. They had three positions. The positions were spotter, gorilla, and big player. The spotter bets the table minimum burning up low cards until the count got high enough where he/she could signal the big player in and he could have a successful run at the cards. The gorilla is an actor. The act is usually a rich kid who has had too much to drink and can't get away from the blackjack table. The gorilla usually bets the minimum until told by the spotter to raise his bet. The gorilla sometimes hits until he busts just to get a certain card to him. If the gorilla is a skilled shuffle tracker he makes strange bets such as hitting on an 18 or 19 just so he gets the card he wants. When he gets the card he is looking for (usually an ace) he puts close to the maximum bet in the betting circle saying he has to leave and wants to use all his chips. The only time gorilla play is used is when there are only two or three people in the casino. The most important role is the big player. The big player is called into the table by the spotter when the count starts to get high. He then tracks the count himself raising and lowering bets when appropriate. He stays at the table until the count starts getting back toward zero. After he leaves the table he waits until another spotter calls him in.
Another reason why this book is so great is because it's real. Six (and eventually more) college kids went to vegas and outsmarted it. Another great thing is the team went undetected for over three years. The eyes in the sky (The vegas cameras on the ceiling) never spotted the MIT players until long after the team had taken vegas for millions.
Toward the end of the book the team starts getting a lot of heat. The team disbanded when Martinez and Fisher got badly beaten up at a casino in the Bahamas. Supposedly the man who had it in for the MIT team was Vincent Cole. He was head of Plymouth security which many of the casino's in vegas started using after they found out lots of counters were playing in their casinos. Rumor had it he once back roomed a card counter, he made him go through the usual procedures filled out some papers took his picture and told him to never come to the casino again. Supposedly Cole forced the counter to eat a 500 dollar chip. The guy almost choked to death but the chip somehow made it down. The guy never counted cards again.
Even after the team heard the rumors they still didn't want to stop playing. Fisher started a new team and so did Kevin. Kevin's squad was much smaller including only four people including himself. They didn't go to Vegas on a regular basis, it was more like a hobby. Two of Kevin's teammates Dylan and Jill, who were married came home one night to find that their house had broken into. Their safe containing over 200,000 dollars in chips and cash had been taken. Kevin quickly rushed to his house to find everything in order. He sat down at his kitchen table relieved until he saw a lone purple chip right in the center of the table. He looked outside and saw a lone figure standing in an alley way talking on a cell phone. Kevin knew this was it, he had to give it all up now, he couldn't get into anymore trouble or he could get himself into some serious trouble.
All in all the MIT team made out pretty well. Totaling around 10 million dollars over 3 years. That isn't a bad three years playing cards in Vegas getting VIP treatment. This was one of my favorite books. I like to play cards myself and i think its interesting when people can beat the odds and make money off Vegas. I recommend this book to anybody who has any interest in gambling or card playing. It is a really suspensful, interesting, well written book and most people would enjoy this book. |
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G. Raphael, USA
<2006-12-23 00:00>
Sure, a few parts were a little unlikely, especially the Bahamas incident, but most of the skepticism I'm seeing in the reviews is misplaced. I belonged to a blackjack team for a few years and the parts about how this team worked (there have been several MIT teams) rang true for me. I suspect I've even met some of the characters.
Regarding winning: A good team playing good strategy has a positive edge over the house. If they have enough players putting enough hours in, the team should tend to win most of the time, just as the casino tends to win against normal players. Regarding staying in the hotels: most normal players who bet $500 a hand don't play anonymously - they expect special treatment. They expect to get a limo, free food, shows, a nice suite. To turn down all the comps actually can look a little suspicious and might even make you MORE likely to get spotted as a counter. Plus, you could waste a lot of time getting to and from that off-strip room, and time is money.
Moving money around like they did is hard to avoid if you're doing weekend trips - you fly in Friday night, you want access to your money right away. Plus, the person who needs the money next might not be the one who had it last, and you can't safely give the whole team access to a safe deposit box in another state. Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone who is curious how big-money blackjack teams work. It's a good read. |
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Gregory McMahan, USA
<2006-12-23 00:00>
Mr. Mezrich hits his stride in the book with this one passage:
"Kevin looked around the room at the cabal of young blackjack players. When it was just Martinez and Fisher, it seemed seedy but manageable. Two rebellious geniuses siphoning money from the casino. But this was something else- organized, calculated, put together by a charismatic adult with bad teeth and a brilliant pedigree."
I liked the writing, as it had a good, escapist and sarcastic tone. However, taking this story, as it is told, as fact is too much of stretch for me. Rather, Mezrich embellishes every chance he gets, and in hopes of getting the book optioned for a movie, has written something that reads little more than a first-treatment for a script to be produced by the likes of Dreamworks or New Line Cinema.
While I see it as more fiction than fact, Bringing Down the House does possess a few redeeming merits. The kids, bored with the usual academic games which they have thoroughly mastered and fully excel at, decide to turn their attention to the oldest and lowest form of the Vegas Heist- card counting. The kids, all of them brilliant, all of them pampered, cultured and most importantly, cocooned, seek to break out of their rut by sticking it to The Man. The trouble is, The Man in this case has a history of dealing a death hand to people who try to cheat him.
Which, in my mind, makes this story much, much less than credible. Mezrich overtly tries to imply throughout the book that Las Vegas has parted with its more colorful and violent gangster roots, and all activity in Sin City is above-board and legitimate. If you believe that, then you also believe in such lovely fantasies as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Rather than going legit, the Good Fellahs who run Vegas have found a way to legitimize their thoroughly illegitimate activities. Only now, much like the Asian protagonist with the Anglicized name, the hoods running the big gambling houses also have Anglicized their names.
In the end, this book definitely qualifies as every (male) nerd's wet dream. It shows geeks on the inside - hobnobbing with celebs, beautiful (and preferably big bosomed) girls at their beck and call, swank digs, and free-flowing booze on demand, and as such represents more of an unattainable fantasy than the more pedestrian reality.
Why do I say this? Because the author always shows them winning. Granted, in one scene they lose a small amount, and in another, they get roughed up a bit, but in the end, they win big. This is not what happens in the real world.
In sum, enjoy this book as really good faction, but please, whatever you do, don't act on it, as you might the reality to be much more painful (and permanent) than that which Mr. Mezrich depicts. |
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A reader, USA
<2006-12-23 00:00>
I'm not a blackjack player, but I do enjoy a good book. Bringing Down the House is a fast exciting read. But as I read I wanted to know more. Was the author being honest? After reading more than a hundred reviews I gained a new perspective in terms of the author, the subject, and the book critics.
Readers who don't play the game, if they excuse some of the author's errors, will enjoy this book. It read likes fiction. If you take it at that level, with the understanding that some of what you're reading is true, you'll probably enjoy it immensely. You'll have to ignore some of the author's mistakes. For example, when he writes that Kevin's cheerleader girlfriend is touring with the Rams in the "spring" it's pretty obvious that something is very wrong. Was the author misled? Maybe Kevin, the central character, was dating a cheerleader for the professional Arena Football League and wanted to spruce up his story by making her an NFL cheerleader? Hard to say. But it causes credibility problems given how glaring this mistake is.
The second issue here is the depiction of playing blackjack. In the last chapter "Kevin" acknowledges that there will be periods of time where one loses and that it takes a huge bankroll to carry you through to the other side. That really isn't depicted in the book. One gets the impression that these MIT kids swooped in and kicked butt on every pass. The truth of matter is likely somewhat less glamorous. They probably won a lot and lost a lot, but came out ahead in the end.
Another issue critics have raised is that anyone can count cards and one doesn't have to graduate from MIT to do it. Given the final chapter that seems to make sense. The author is guilty of some hype by stressing the MIT angle (let alone the fact that the title is extremely misleading). And "Kevin" is certainly guilty of embellishing his story and stressing parlor tricks (cutting the deck and playing so that a specific card is either given to the dealer or the player) over logical play.
Then there is the issue of the math presented in the book. It's never clear just how much these people won. Some point to "Kevin's" claim at the end of the book that they never got less than a 30 percent return each year on behalf of their investors. Some charge that this proves there winnings were unimpressive. However, if Kevin's statement is taken along with the author's, then they did quite well.
So do the math. The author states quite clearly that investors got 12 percent of the take. Say you have a total investment of 1 million dollars. The investors get 300,000. Now do the equation: .12x = 300,000. With x equalling total profit you get the total sum of 2.5 million dollars. That comes out to a 150% profit - not 30%! For every million they brought into the situation they took out an additional 1.5 million - each year. If (and it's a big if) this is true that makes for a fairly good profit margin.
There seems to be two schools of thought regarding this book and its effect. There are those who think that the author gave away key secrets and has jeopardized card counting for all blackjack players. Then there are those who say the casinos love this book and would be happy to hand out copies to gamblers because it gives the impression that they can easily beat the house - which means more money for them. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. To succeed at this, at least on the scale presented in the book, you likely need a large enough bankroll to absorb expected losses (which aren't really depicted in the book) and the ability to play intelligently and patiently. Chances are, the average gambler cannot do this. So perhaps its a little bit of both. The casinos like the false hype and are scared at the same time that someone will come along who can actually walk the walk.
Last Word: Enjoy the fast read, but don't get caught up in the hype. |
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1 2 Total 2 pages 14 items |
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