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

Customer Reviews

Cardiac meds needed for Mezrich's thrilling ride

As a physician I have my fill of non-fiction with an abundance of journals so when I read for relaxation I want a story that keeps me excited, interested and sleepless until it is finished. Bringing Down the House is such a book and reads like a Clancy or Pollock with a little lower body count, but with no less excitement.

Ben Mezrich is superb writer and story teller with the amazing ability to weave the excitement of a Las Vegas casino, the mathmetics of card counting with enjoyable interpersonal dynamics so that this is a consuming story with people you care about. His description of the high roller lifestyle in Vegas takes you to the tables playing sums you watch others wager with the adrenaline rush like you were part of the team. I bought the book in Boston having just missed him at a book signing and had a hardtime finishing the conference. I found myself in the room reading a book I could not put down instead of going out in one of the towns in which the story was set. It was that engrossing.

My Christmas list now contains all of his previous writings as this is an author who knows how to tell a story.

Been done before, but not quite as good as this

Card counting has been a developed technique for winning at Blackjack since the 1960's, and the characters in this book are certainly not the first to succeed at consistently winning Blackjack and taking millions from the casinos. This book is not the first time that such a story has been told.

What makes this book different, and in my opinion better, is that the story told here is about the lives of the card counters as they live the Vegas high roller life, not about how to count cards and win. In other words, previous tales of a similar nature have usually been told as sidebars within Blackjack books which are primarily aimed at teaching players how to become card counters. This book actually doesn't teach the reader how to play Blackjack correctly (by counting cards, which is not cheating).

By retelling this story in non-anecdotal form, and expanding on the details of the life of a card counter, the author here creates a compelling image of brilliant people who live a double life as weekend gamblers. The most compelling thing here is that most of these players could obtain unimaginable wealth on their own merit as scholars and business leaders, and don't need to pursue this lifestyle in order to have material fulfillment. I don't know of too many poverty-stricken MIT graduates, so why devote so much time to this lifestyle and assume all of its risks?

The author comes very close to answering this question, because when the characters experience an adrenaline rush as the story unfolds, I found myself having that same rush right along with them while reading about it. And if I could find a way to experience that rush on a regular basis, I would probably be living this life also. That is what good storytelling does. It transforms readers and creates longing. And this is what will happen to you as you experience the Vegas Bigshot life through this book.

Easy to Read

This is a fun and interesting book. Nothing too heavy. Just a light, easy to read book - which is sometimes the very best thing. In the same easy to read level of entertainment as "Moneyball" (Michael Lewis), "Stranger Than Fiction" (Chuck Palahniuk), or "My Fractured Life" (Rikki Lee Travolta).