Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions [Library Binding]

Ben Mezrich (Author)

Product Details

• Library Binding: 257 pages
• Publisher: San Val (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417665637
• ISBN-13: 978-1417665631
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing Down the House, Perspective of High School Student, February 16, 2010

By 

Harold Graven "EGrav" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Library Binding)

Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich is just one of those books, when you read the first few pages, you get hooked. It starts with Kevin, the main character, in a casino playing blackjack. He looks for his spotter and catches a signal. The spotter had put her hand through her hair, and this meant only one thing. Get out of the casino, and fast. The book soon slows down, and starts at the beginning. After he gives all the background knowledge, Ben gets into all kinds of different plots and subplots. The main plot is obviously, how long they can last in Vegas without being caught, but a very intriguing subplot is the constant brewing of anger among Kevin against Fisher and Martinez. Ben smoothly transfers his writing from an exciting win of $10,000, to a club at the Palms. It's this smooth writing style that makes the book seem so life-like. Mezrich portrays himself into the book and one of Kevin's friends and just wanting to get information to write this book. As he pops in every few chapters, all the people he interviewed thought his research was to write another card-counting book. It was, but not as they expected. I believe this part of the book is important, because it shows how Ben tried to create a different book. He not only made the book entertaining, but he showed the reality of it. He showed that you should never dig yourself to deep, and that even the best get taken down. There was a slight weakness to the book. The book is repetitive, and usually a little repetitiveness is good. This just had a little too much. Overall it was a brilliantly written, twisty plotted book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing Down The House, November 16, 2008

By 

D. Trout (Alaska, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Library Binding)

Bringing Down The House, written by Ben Mezrich, is a non-fiction action with the unexpected drops and sudden plot twists of a smoothly written fiction. From the perspective of a high school freshman, card counting seems more like an urban legend than a high-stakes, play-for-keeps gambling obsession; could anybody really keep track of the cards flickering past? In bringing down the house, card counting comes to life, complete with an intense plot line that makes the words seem to pop off the page. Ben Mezrich does am excellent job of relating the story of a team of M.I.T. whiz-kids who card count black-jack tables and run Vegas into the ground. Merzrich's cunning use of vocabulary portrays this story properly; without his ability to make the action come to life, the story would be cheated out of its well-earned bravado and glory. In this story, the main character, Kevin, gets invited to a rather shady club at M.I.T.-the black-jack club. Through Kevin's perspective, Mezrich reveals the mystery behind card counting and unravels the story of the team's exploits in Vegas. Mezrich does a great job of unfolding the drama of this thrilling adventure. Throughout the story the team runs into problems, whether it's a boxing match gone wrong or an insane group of private investigators who will stop at nothing to track down "cheaters" as long as the casinos pay them. Mezrich's great use of language made my heart race during some of the more intense parts of the book. If you're looking for a well written story with an intricate plot line and heart-racing adventure, then this book is for you. I highly recommend it to all readers of any skill level and all interests.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars House of Cards, May 2, 2009

By 

Kathleen Ainge - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (Library Binding)

The book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich tells the story of a group of blackjack counters attending M.I.T. To retell this incredible story of how young students beat Vegas, Ben Mezrich had to get to know the group of M.I.T. students who were actually counting the cards. He had to gain their trust, so that they would let him travel with the team. While writing Bringing Down the House, the team let him strap $250,000 to his body and travel through the airport with them to experience what it was like for Kevin to be the "donkey" for the first time. He was able to see first hand what the counters experienced in Vegas and the dangers of being throw out or, even worse, back roomed. He had to study the system of counting and learn to understand the code words and signals that each of the students had to memorize. Mezrich also inspected the security and surveillance systems that are designed specifically to catch card counters in the act.

Mezrich's main goal when writing and publishing Bringing Down the House was to inform people about this secretive M.I.T. team and entertain audiences with the plot line. He did not want to write a blackjack card counting guide about how to win at blackjack against the casino. Mezrich does a great job of retelling the story in an entertaining, insightful way. He makes sure that the reader is in the know about what is happening in the casino and how the characters are winning such an incredible amount of money. While the book does not help the reader learn how to count cards, it has a great plot line and the story moves quickly.

One of the best parts of this book was background information about Kevin Lewis. Ben Mezrich makes readers really feel like they know who this character is before he starts to get involved with Vegas. Readers feel like they want to stop Kevin from messing up his life and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Mezrich obviously retold the story very well to make the reader feel like protecting the character.

A weakness of this book was the chapters that skipped back and forth between Kevin's story and the present time when a young man wanted to tell the story of these M.I.T. geniuses. The reader was left to figure out who this man was, but many readers probably never knew by the time the book came to a close.

In conclusion, Ben Mezrich did a good job of retelling the true tale of a group of M.I.T. students who beat Vegas's system by learning to count cards.