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

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Book Summary Information

Author: Ben Mezrich
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-09
ISBN: 0743249992
Number of pages: 257
Publisher: Free Press
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Book Reviews of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

Book Review: A Gamblers Dream
Summary: 4 Stars

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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Summary of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

#1 National Bestseller!

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.

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