Bringing Down the House: How Six Students Took Vegas for Millions - Ben Mezrich

I bought this book about 3 years ago having heard an interview on the radio with Ben Mezrich, and after seeing '21' in the cinema lastnight (aparently it is based on this book), I felt I had to write a review to tell of how utterly enjoyable this book is, regardless of what people may think of the new movie! Kevin is a 20 year old MIT Boston student who is seriously inteligent. His life is fairly average until he realises his classmates seem to be making huge amounts of money from an unknown source. When he realises they are card-counting, legally cheating in Blackjack in Vegas and Atlantic city he is reluctant to join, however after his first trip to Atlantic ...  Read the complete review

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 ...  Read the complete review

This is the true story of one of the best and most successful scams ever. You could be excused for thinking it was a work of fiction. A group of MIT students took on the casinos of Las Vegas and successfully won millions, legally, by card counting (making a mental record of what cards have been dealt and therefore what is remaining and using mathematics to predict the next card). This is a very interesting page turner which has you begging for more when you have finished it in one sitting. A great story which would also make a great movie as it has the feel of a book of fiction. The characters involved were certainly actors in a perfect ...  Read the complete review

I like a book which is entertaining and light and yet teaches me about something or someone, that’s why when I saw this book I was instantly interested. They say... "Liars poker meets Oceans Eleven in Ben Mezrichs riveting story of a team of brilliant card counters who developed a system to take some of the worlds most sophisticated casinos for millions of dollars. Bringing down the house is an utterly gripping real life thriller and a fascinating insight into an excessive, corrupt and tightly closed world" I say.... Ben Mezrich's sixth book, Bringing down the house, is his first non fiction. In this book he tells the ...  Read the complete review

"Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich tells the real life story of how six students were able to develop a card counting system to take most of Vegas's and Atlantic City's casinos for millions of dollars. The story focuses on the main character, Kevin who notices that his two flatmates seem to be making loads of money some how even though they are basically college dropouts and not working. He discovers that they are part of a secret card counting team and he eventually gets persuaded to join the group. At first Kevin is a bit dubious about getting involved but once he experiences the thrills and high life of Vegas as well has the partying and the money ...  Read the complete review