Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich

Bringing Down the House is not my normal type of reading material but I picked it up because I was intrigued by the story line and also the fact that it is based on real life events. It is set in the 1990s and follows a group of students from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology who use their mathematical intelligence in order to devise a system of beating the big casinos at Blackjack. Over the course of about four years they visit Las Vegas ...
...different casinos and literally making millions of dollars.

It is fascinating to read the book and discover how they bring about their scheme. It talks of being able to 'count' the cards in a six deck shoe, working a hi-lo system that works on the probability of certain cards falling at different times. It is not an infallible system but statistics show that you are definitely going to win more than you lose. I don't profess to know ... more

Bringing Down the House is not my normal type of reading material but I picked it up because I was intrigued by the story line and also the fact that it is based on real life events. It is set in the 1990s and follows a group of students from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology who use their mathematical intelligence in order to devise a system of beating the big casinos at Blackjack. Over the course of about four years they visit Las Vegas on a regular basis, systematically working their way through the different casinos and literally making millions of dollars.

It is fascinating to read the book and discover how they bring about their scheme. It talks of being able to 'count' the cards in a six deck shoe, working a hi-lo system that works on the probability of certain cards falling at different times. It is not an infallible system but statistics show that you are definitely going to win more than you lose. I don't profess to know much about card playing, gambling and the rest but I really enjoyed getting a feeling of how the system worked. Also, the description of how they worked in teams with different roles of spotters, gorillas and big players. Each of these had a different part to play using visual and verbal codes to call the big players into certain tables where the odds were good.

The story centres on Kevin Lewis (not his real name) who told his story to and worked with the author Ben Mezrich over the book. He is lured into the world of the big casinos but also has another life, going to work each day and never explaining to his parents where he is getting all his money. Although he loves the thrill of the game and also the rewards that it brings him (at age twenty one he is able to buy his own town house in Boston), he also worries about where it all might be leading. These feelings are exacerbated when there are splits within the team and also when, after a few good years, the casinos seem to be on to them, and more than once he and his team members experience some quite scary and threatening moments.

Ultimately all good things have to come to an end as the casinos tighten their rules and Kevin and his friends seem to be becoming a bit too unpopular. However, Kevin does not regret what they did and is definitely proud of a system he was part of that literally brought the house down!

The book is mainly written as a third person narrative, but occasionally the writer brings us into the present and describes some of the people that he meets in his researching for the book. This provides an interesting contrast and also is a little bit of 'where are they now?' Although the book is mainly factual in its account, it is written with a good degree of suspense that makes it a real page turner. Even all of the mathematical explanations do not really slow it down.

You meet a wide range of characters in the book from the students to the pit bosses with a few exotic dancers and other colourful characters to boot. This is Vegas that is being relived here and you definitely get a flavour of the place through reading this book. Personally, I loved reading all the various descriptions of the different casinos and all their over the top extravagances!

I have not seen the film '21' which is based on this book, but after reading this, I would love to see how it turns out as a film so I will definitely be looking out for it!

The book is quite a quick read at just under 300 pages which includes Kevin's explanation of how the system worked. I have to confess that even after reading it, due to my non- mathematical brain I am not much clearer and definitely don't have any aspirations to try and bring the house down myself!

The book is currently available on Amazon for £5.79.
 

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