Rating: 
(401 reviews)
Author: Ben Mezrich
Publisher: Pocket Star
Product Description
The long-running New York Times bestseller that has become a cultural phenomenon, Bringing Down the House is an action-filled caper carried out by the unlikeliest of cons — supersmart geeks. Gambling pervaded the M.I.T. campus, and genius kids with money and glittering futures were just as likely to be found in a Paradise Island casino as in the school library. A highly elite group of mathletes was recruited to join The Club, a small, secret blackjack organization dedicated to counting cards and beating the major casinos across the nation at their own game. As a successful ring of card savants, backed by a mysterious ringleader and shadowy investors, they infiltrated Vegas and won millions.
The Boston Herald acclaimed it as “a suspenseful tale that portrays the players as Davids going up against Goliaths.” And Bill Simmons of ESPN magazine exclaimed, “This book made me want to gamble! Vegas! Vegas!” Filled with tense action, high stakes, and incredibly close calls, Bringing Down the House is a nail-biting chronicle of 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.
5 Comments
Very disappointing given I was looking for facts and not a bestselling fictional account of a story that would have been very intriguing on its own. Even as fiction, the story jumps back and forth in time too much and is very disjointed.
I picked this book up at Logan International Airport in Boston after finishing a meeting at MIT. I had no backgound of the story, other than it involved a modified card counting scheme in Vegas. It was a compelling, fast-paced story that was made more fantastic given I had just left the campus. The book was finished by the time I landed at Dulles. I have a 14 year-old math wiz that I can see being drawn into the high stakes game. For Ben Mezrich’s first outing in non-fiction, I feel he did a great job.
21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions my review for the book is excellent. and this was my first time using amazon and i was very pleased.
I saw the movie 21 and this was still a suspenseful account, with lots of interesting details about learning card counting that didn’t make it into the film.
Nice writing.
I’m not much of a book reader, even though I enjoy buying books I hardly ever read one completely and almost never a non economics book. But this particular book has given me the opportunity to feel everything the author wrote as if I was there, I don’t know if I’m growing into a book reader but this book has an excellent writing very friendly and easy to read, it keeps your attention, long waiting hours on the doctor, bank or anywhere become short while you read it. Also it’s a great introduction for the movie 21: Blackjack. If you’re interested in card counting this isn’t a “how to” book, although there is a essay in the last chapter on card counting that makes a more in depth description on the subject, it’s more of a novel based on real facts. As one of the praises for the book says: “Perfect for a read on the plane down to Vegas”.