For nearly five years, he was known as the 'Darling Of Las Vegas'; the biggest high roller to hit Sin City in decades, a hotshot, twenty one year-old kid with a seemingly unlimited bankroll and an even more unlimited lust for big money action. His name was Semyon Dukatch, and stories swirled in his wake. Some said he was a Russian arms dealer, others a pop star from Eastern Europe. But the truth was even more unlikely: he was a twenty-one year old graduate student who had a plan that would one day make him richer than anyone could possibly imagine. The Darling of Las Vegas quickly became a legend in the casino world. He is the only person banned from the island of Aruba. He was held, at gunpoint, in a cave in Monte Carlo and told that if he ever returned, he'd be murdered. And he made millions of dollars playing blackjack, using three simple techniques that gave him the edge, techniques that are revealed in this book for the first time. This is the ultimate true story of Las Vegas, the book Vegas doesn't want you to read...
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Ben Mezrich is a writer and broadcaster. Author of the international bestseller Bringing Down The House, he lives in Boston. Visit benmezrich.com for more info on Ben, Vegas, and the MIT gang.
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More About the Author
I'm the author of nine books, at the moment, including Bringing Down The House, The True Story of Six MIT kids Who Took Vegas- which sort of made me a vegas expert. I live in Boston with my fiance and pug, Bugsy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good IF you understand what you're hoping for in a read,
This review is from: Breaking Vegas (Paperback)
Let me be clear here. I'm a bit of a Mezrich fan. That is, I enjoy his subjects for what they are -quick, entertaining reads because of the sheer audacity exhibited by the people portrayed within his works.
Whether every aspect of his work is true or bears some embellishment hardly matters to me when buying one of his books. I'm just looking forward to reading about the type of life I'll never live but can certainly enjoy vicariously. Busting Vegas is a good companion to his earlier work Taking Down the House. Mezrich is almost apologetic when he explains why he chose to revisit old ground. The ideal situation would have been if BOTH of these tales were under one cover. The writing is fine. It could have been more tightly written certainly but the idea is to follow the events as well as put out a product with some length to it. This is the kind of book you can take to the beach, or on a plane trip as one reviewer noted, and help enhance the time you while away. I deliberated over whether to star this as a 3 or a 4 (Amazon and Netflix need to allow for half a star voting soon); and finally settled on 4 stars as I have qualified this review. I'm not sure if Mezrich patrols these reviews ever but just in case, I have a request. Could you dig a little deeper into MIT sometime soon? It seems to me this is the second book where a cabal of MIT mad scientists have come together using a cleverly hatched plan to bring ruin to the gambling underworld! Oh okay, maybe it's not as sinister as I wish it to be, but still... SOMETHING is going on at MIT.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A helluva good story!,
By
This review is from: Breaking Vegas (Paperback)
This book claims to be a true story of Semyon Dukach, who bested the world of casino blackjack. Could be true. Maybe it isn't. Doesn't matter. It's a helluva good story about some MIT students who followed a mentor with a new and not illegal system of beating the odds at blackjack. It tracks this team from Vegas to Atlantic City and finally to Europe and Monte Carlo. The Afterword by Mr. Dukach, himself, expains the winning system, so you too can be a big winner at the casinos. Just don't get greedy like he and his partners did. This is an easy, fun, roller-coaster ride of a book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hack writer,
By Frank Rizzo "Frank" (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Breaking Vegas (Paperback)
I read the prior book to this one as well - about the card counters. This one, as with the other is not non-fiction. It is made up. I didn't even get past a page or two before I started laughing. Ben tries to make exciting plot lines but ends up with nonsense - his silliness with a ".35 automatic" is a perfect example. .35 automatic? What is that? There is no such thing. Then there is the opening of the book where a supposed plane incident occurs. His ridiculous story is so unrealistic it is really really funny. He makes up details that are comical.
Do yourself a favor and skip this book (and the author's other books as well). This guy is just a hack writer trying to ride the wave and does a horrible job with fact checking and research.
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