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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1720922
EAN: 9780743225700
ISBN: 0743225708
Label: Free Press
Manufacturer: Free Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: October 08, 2002
Publisher: Free Press
Release Date: September 18, 2002
Studio: Free Press

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Editorial Review:

Product 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.

Master storyteller Ben Mezrich takes you from the ivory towers of academia to the Technicolor world of Las Vegas, where anything can happen -- and often does. Bringing Down the House launches you into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas -- deep into the realm of back rooms, ever-present video cameras, private investigators, and the threats and tactics of pit bosses and violent heavies. Equipped with twenty different aliases and disguises, the group of young card counters struggles around these roadblocks to live the high life -- until one fateful day when Vegas violently follows them home to Boston. Suddenly, there can be no more hiding behind false identities; the high life folds like a bad hand of cards.

Filled with tense action and incredibly close calls, Bringing Down the House is a real-life mix of Liar's Poker and Ocean's Eleven -- and it's a story Vegas doesn't want you to read.




Rating: - Interesting story, decent writing...I just wish it was true.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I actually read after seeing the movie. I was not surprised that they made some changes and added and subtracted some things for the movie, but I have to admit that I was surprised at how much they went out of their way to make the movie bankable. It was a bit frustrating to discover that they literally made up huge chunks of the movie because they obviously didn't think the whole "overprivileged Asian kids beating Vegas" was dramatic enough.

As ... Read More

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Rating: - Great book
Pros: Great book about MIT students who use their brains for more than science, but to take advantage of inefficient markets. Well written, fast paced and exciting.

Cons: None

Summary: Fast read about a real story that's exciting and fun.

Overall: 9/10

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Rating: - Interesting and Amazing
In Bringing Down The House, Ben Mezrich tells the true story of a group of MIT students who count cards in blackjack. The story focuses on Kevin Lewis, and how he came to be an expert card counter. At no time is this story dull or boring. It will keep you into it until the very end. The story itself is unbelievable, which makes the book even more amazing. Mezrich does a great job of describing the thoughts and actions that each student took during the book. He also does a good job on showing each ... Read More

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Rating: - Tired of being lied to
Looks like Ben Mezrich can join the ranks of James Frey, Dave Pelzer and Kathy O'Beirne, who write fiction but call it non-fiction. After reading this book I decided to do some online research. Didn't take long to find this comment in Wikipedia "In 2008, Boston magazine and The Boston Globe investigated the accuracy of Mezrich's non-fiction, identifying occasions in his blackjack books where scenes were invented out of whole cloth." Very disappointing to discover another best seller that is so fabricated ... Read More

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Rating: - I enjoyed reading it until I did some background research
Not sure what to say. There might be a kernel of truth to what happened, but it certainly didn't happen as described in this tripe. Anyone who falls for this sure is naive.

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