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Title: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions
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Manufacturer: Free Press
List Price: $15.00
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| Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press Phenomenal | | Ben Mezrich tells the story of a card counter of Blackjack, Kevin Lewis, and how Blackjack changed his life forever. In Bringing Down the House, he tells the inside story of six M.I.T. students who took Las Vegas for millions of dollars. Ben Mezrich, a Harvard graduate has written eight books, and this book has been made into a movie, titled "21". Ben Mezrich did a very good job in accomplishing his goal of letting the world know the exact story of how college student became rich. He interviewed many people, and all of them were from different backgrounds. During these interviews, Ben Mezrich was thorough and included everything that occurred in the interviews. During the time that Kevin counted cards, he had met people that one would not see every day and many very extremely peculiar. In one chapter, Mezrich meets with one of the pit bosses that Kevin was acquainted with, though this man knew him as David Lee, and Mezrich interviewed him, and wrote that he could not believe the stories this man was telling him, as many were more dangerous than one would think. In another chapter Mezrich met one of the women at a club that helped Kevin during his "working" days. She was a bright woman and she knew how to work Vegas, she assisted Kevin in working the casinos. During the story of Kevin and his Blackjack team, many of the accomplishments that were carried through were unbelievable. There is no one else that has lived the incredible, daring life that Kevin Lewis has, and I believe that Ben Mezrich captures the story perfectly. As I would read, I felt as if I was right there in Las Vegas with Kevin's team, playing the night away. | | Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press An Exciting Read | Bringing Down the House
By Ben Mezrich
By Hannah Chavez
Ben Mezrich gracefully combines his fiction like writing with the true story of the lives of six M.I.T. students, who legally won millions of dollars at blackjack, in his first non-fiction book, Bringing Down the House. In his book, Mezrich attempts to give the reader the inside scoop on a card counter's life and explain how those six specific students teamed up to carry out a nearly undetectable system.
Mezrich is the author of nine other books. He graduated from Harvard and worked several other jobs before publishing his first book, Threshold. Now, in Boston, Ben Mezrich is a columnist for the Boston Common and a contributor for a magazine in the UK called Flush. Two of Mezrich's books, including Bringing Down the House, have inspired movies. The film rights have also been sold for his most recent book, Rigged. Whether it is his journalistic habits kicking in or just part of the fun, Mezrich often gets involved in his research. For example, while writing Brining Down the House he smuggled two hundred and fifty thousand dollars past airport security and went up against the Japanese mafia while researching for his book, Ugly Americans.
Taking such risks seems to have paid off. He portrays Kevin Lewis's exciting story in an electrifying way that kept me on the edge of my seat at every moment. I learned the basics of blackjack and was taught the mathematical logic behind counting cards. The book also explained how to stay under the radar while counting at casinos.
Overall, the book was well written. The facts of card counting, and even a little Vegas history were subtly snuck into the story, so it was insightful, yet not boring. However, there were a few minor details that could confuse some readers. In the book, for instance, Mezrich changes the names of his characters without giving the reader much of a warning. Even so, the book was very enjoyable and I recommend it, especially to people who enjoy math as much as I do.
| | Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press Skip the Movie - Read the Book | | I haven't seen the movie inspired by this book, but I doubt the movie could be as gripping and fast-paced as this true story. It's difficult to see how so much detail could be recalled after the fact without a little embellishment, but that does not mean that the overall storyline of Bringing Down the House is fictitious. The story is crafted in such a way as to pull in the reader from the start and rush them down the road of high-stakes gambling and the best that Sin City has to offer. A quick and entertaining read, this book is full of a wide range of characters and may even inspire the reader to try his hand at card counting. Skip the movie, this book is much more engaging. | | Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press action packed - can't miss | | This story is amazing, the story has inspired me to try my hand at counting. Anyone interested in learning to count cards need to try out "Real Deal Blackjack: Learn to Count" software. http://www.realdealblackjack.com . If not interested in counting or blackjack this is still an awesome story. | | Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press A Thrilling Ride Through Sin City | | Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich, was the book that got me hooked on non-fiction. I used to be only interested in fiction books, like fantasies and adventures, but this book opened my eyes to the amazing stories that have actually happened in our world. This book chronicles the adventures and feats of Kevin Lewis and a group of MIT students who stole millions from Las Vegas by counting cards. After Kevin got bored of his routine lifestyle of school, swimming, and sleeping, he traded his life in to join his friends Jason Fischer and Andre Martinez for wild moneymaking nights in Vegas. Led by ex-card counter Mickey Rosa, the team of kids went from casino to casino with their complex method of code words and signals. When a team member's arms were crossed, it meant that the deck or table was hot, which means that a group of high numbered cards were coming up. At that point, the designated BP, or Big Player, would sit down at the table and start betting the big money. The Big Player was the team member who could put on a convincing act for casino security, count cards, and know when to bet his money. They did it all. This is the role that Kevin took on after proving himself to the team. In addition to the plot, another quality I liked about the book was that the whole story wasn't just one of success and bravado. As the teams luck begins to run out and more and more casinos bar them, feelings in the group get heated and the suspense builds. Overall, this book tells a great story of adventure, greed, and betrayal, all the while keeping the reader enthralled. Mezrich has crafted a masterpiece and his awards are well earned. The only thing I would change about this book would be to make some of the card play more exciting, as it gets a bit boring and repetitive as the book goes on. Aside from those minor and tolerable problems, this book makes for one heck of a ride. | | Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Free Press Product Description | | #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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