Shop > Books

Books Shop - Online Shopping For Books

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

Author: Ben Mezrich Publisher: Free Press (1992)

The movie, '21' is the biggest picture to hit our screen in the first quarter of 2008 - but without Ben Mezrich's book, Bringing Down The House, the movie would never have existed. Here's the story and review of the 90's best seller.

When New York Times Best Selling Author, Ben Mezrich, first met the shy geeky MIT student Kevin Lewis, at a party - it was most certainly the classic case of 'never judge a book by its cover'. For 20 year old Kevin was living the ultimate double life - maths geek by day, high rolling blackjack card counter by night. Underneath that shy exterior lived an unimaginably exotic and downright dangerous talent that threatened to bring down the casinos of Las Vegas. Before too long, Mezrich realized that this wasn't the fanatical ramblings of repressed geek….this was the true story of the decade! Within months, Mezrich published 'Bringing Down the House' - as he follows Ben from classroom nerd to casino legend.

Bringing Down the House starts off at a meandering pace, with detailed and artistic accounts of the delights of visiting Las Vegas (the famous 'Sin City') for the first time. However, told through the eyes of the author and reminiscent of a classic game of blackjack, the reader's patience is rewarded by progressively faster, more explosive adventure and nail-biting moments of drama and intolerable danger.

Mezrich has received criticism from some quarters for his fluctuation between slow, detailed blackjack information and passages of melodrama. However, in truth he deserves critical acclaim for his ability to weave the glitz and adrenalin of Vegas with the mathematical realities of card counting and still produce a highly entertaining text.

We learn how the unassuming Kevin was lured in to the MIT Blackjack Team by a former mathematics professor, who triggered Lewis' latent desire for stimulation by revealing how 'blackjack is beatable'.

Mezrich's first foray into the non-fiction market really gets going around page 80, when Kevin Lewis first enters the glorious lounge of the Mirage Casino - and the book continues on a relentless roll al the way to the jackpot.

The author's nervous appreciation and adrenalin filled excitement is testament to his thrill of making the ultimate underworld discovery. Mezrich reveals how this wasn't some kids getting lucky - this was a precisely engineered gambling coup, backed by un-named Asian funders with unknown backgrounds. The majority of the crack Student team were of Asian ethnicity, secretly trained in covert gambling to become the casino assassins of Las Vegas.

Bringing the House Down brings a whole new meaning the concept of 'something for the weekend' - as boring seminars are swapped for weekend trips to Vegas - legally winning 4 million dollars within a few short years and living the high-life all the way.

However, the realities of using covert cover and ruthless card counting systems will soon have the reader on tenterhooks as the team are forced to smuggle wads of cash out of Vegas by strapping it to their legs. The nights of winning hundreds of thousands contrast with the nerve racking reality of being discovered by the ruthless world of the casino corporations, forcing the team to flee Las Vegas before things turn really nasty!

Overall, Bringing Down the House delivers the ultimate roller coaster ride through the realities of being a true Vegas high roller. You can feel the sweat, smell the adrenalin and Mezrich will leave you feeling part of the team.

Any aspiring blackjack gamer or casino lover will love this real-life epic, while the bonus essay detailing genuine card counting methods will leave the world's casino bosses wishing Mezrich had never gone to that party!

Buy now from Amazon