Bringing Down the House (or Time off for Bad Behavior)

My quest to read something worthwhile has finally taken a positive turn. I just finished breezing through “Bringing Down the House“, by Ben Mezrich (subtititled “The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions”).

While a New York Times Bestseller, this is not the type of nonfiction book that wins awards. Nothing groundbreaking, no new theories, no answers to life’s problems. Unless, of course, you think learning how team card-counting can make you rich is an answer to life’s problems.

While the story is told in the third person by our narrator, it follows one character, Kevin Lewis, an M.I.T. student/math whiz, who is brought into the circle of Micky Rosa, a former M.I.T. professor who abandoned academia long ago to focus on blackjack. What Micky does is recruit smart kids from M.I.T. to participate on “teams” to play blackjack with investors’ money. The team members are taught all sorts of tricks about card counting, some of which I still find hard to believe can actually be done. Generally speaking, card counting in a casino is not something that can work for you long term, because it’s too easy for the casino employees to spot someone who’s counting cards (based on the way they vary their bets, etc.). What Micky’s teams learn is how to beat the casinos by working as teams, each member of which plays a specific role. Some people are “spotters”, and simply grind away at tables, consistently making minimum bets while discreetly counting cards. When a positive count comes around, they signal the “Big Player”, who comes to the table and starts making big bets. Fairly simple in theory, but very difficult to pull off in real life. Takes a lot of acting skill, and nerves of steel.

As I said in the intro, there’s nothing groundbreaking about Mezrich’s writing style, but the content here — the story of how these teams came into being and operated — is fascinating. And supposedly true. Anyone with any interest in gambling will find this an enjoyable read.

Also, anyone out there who’s good at math, has a lot of free time, likes to travel, and has a lot of money, please feel free to give me a call. I have an idea.

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  By DJ Cayenne, April 30, 2005 @ 5:24 pm

  Imagine my disappointment when I found out that this book was about gambling and not, as I first assumed, a novelization of the Steve Martin/Queen Latifah movie of the same name. When will the big publishing houses address this need?

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