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

In the midst of the go-go eighties and nineties, a group of overachieving, anarchistic MIT students joined a decades-old underground blackjack club dedicated to counting cards and beating the system at major casinos around the world. While their classmates were working long hours in labs and libraries, the blackjack team traveled weekly to Las Vegas and other glamorous gambling locales, with hundreds of thousands of dollars duct-taped to their bodies. Underwritten by shady investors they would never meet, these kids bet fifty thousand dollars a hand, enjoyed VIP suites and other upscale treats, and partied with showgirls and celebrities.

Handpicked by an eccentric mastermind -- a former MIT professor and an obsessive player who had developed a unique system of verbal cues, body signals, and role-playing -- this one ring of card savants earned more than three million dollars from corporate Vegas, making them the object of the casinos' wrath and eventually targets of revenge. Here is their inside story, revealing their secrets for the first time.

Master storyteller Ben Mezrich takes you from the ivory towers of academia to the Technicolor world of Las Vegas, where anything can happen -- and often does. Bringing Down the House launches you into the seedy underworld of corporate Vegas -- deep into the realm of back rooms, ever-present video cameras, private investigators, and the threats and tactics of pit bosses and violent heavies. Equipped with twenty different aliases and disguises, the group of young card counters struggles around these roadblocks to live the high life -- until one fateful day when Vegas violently follows them home to Boston. Suddenly, there can be no more hiding behind false identities; the high life folds like a bad hand of cards.

Filled with tense action and incredibly close calls, Bringing Down the House is a real-life mix of Liar's Poker and Ocean's Eleven -- and it's a story Vegas doesn't want you to read.

The story is told through the eyes of the author, who met one of the students at a party and was so intrigued by his outrageous tale that he was compelled to put it into a book. This is a story of a group of math whizzes, most of Asian descent, who used the art of card counting, worked as teams, and legally won as much as 4 million dollars during the few years they spent their weekends in the Vegas casinos, living the high life.

They strapped thousands of dollars to their bodies with Velcro to get the cash onto planes, used false names, and were always on the lookout for Las Vegas personnel who would sometimes personally escort them out of the casinos. They also learned about the seediness of the gambling world, greed, the way the Vegas corporations work. Of course they all went through changes. And eventually, it had to come to an end. Some of it is kind of scary too. But mostly, it's about beating the odds and living with a constant adrenaline high.

Well, reading this book is an adrenaline high of it's own. It put me right into the action and kept me there for the whole 257 pages. I loved it. And highly recommend it.


Cardiac meds needed for Mezrich's thrilling ride   November 22, 2002
81 out of 93 found this review helpful

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.


Intense, Intriguing, and Fun for Everyone   April 23, 2010
James J. Murphy (Arlington Heights, IL)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful


After reading the book, Bringing Down the House, I was excited and intrigued with the world of card counting and the lives of the card counters. I plan to read more books about the subject. From the book, I got the feeling that Mezrich's goal throughout the book was to captivate and teach people about the world of casinos and card counting. He met one of the characters at a party and was fascinated enough to put the story into a book to enthrall everyone who reads it. I can guarantee to any readers of the book, that they will feel mesmerized by the casino life and more educated about the subject. This book will be a quick read that the reader will not be able to put down. It will interest a wide variety of people, from those who love to gamble and go to casinos all the time to those who have never stepped foot in one in their life. I know this from reading the reviews of the people before me. Many of them said that they gambled before, but a surprisingly large number of them said that they had never gambled in their lives.

In response to a few of the negative reviews, I read through many of them and have a few major disagreements to point out. First, J. Danielson, you talked about how you went to MIT and that Mezrich got a few of the details wrong about the school. To tell you the truth, when people read this book they won't remember the little details of graduating with honors or not, they'll remember the intense casino scenes. This brings me to the next topic of yours that I disagreed with. You talked about how you have been banned from a casino before and that they don't rough you up the way Mezrich made it seem like in his book. Well, there are more than a few casinos and what actions they take when kicking someone out will probably vary between them. Now, to Critical Reader, you say that you did research on Wikipedia after reading the book and found that some of the facts that Mezrich talked about were false. If you want to accuse someone of using false facts, you might want to try a reliable source next time. Finally, to the "crimsonwildcat," in your review, you accuse Mezrich of having what comes off as false conversations with the people in the book. If you haven't met any of these people, then I don't think you can really tell if it was false or not. However, I must agree with the negative reviews when you say that some parts of the book got repetitive. That was definitely a weakness, but Mezrich had many more high points, like expressing the tension between characters and showing the excitement of Las Vegas and a card counter's life.



An incredible story   October 30, 2003
Rick Van Hazel (Phoenix, AZ)
42 out of 47 found this review helpful

Bringing Down the House is probably the most entertaining book I have read in a long time. I actually found it difficult to put down. When I should have been sleeping I instead continued reading saying to myself "this is the last chapter then i'm going to bed".

I've always had a great interest in gambling and have read many books on card counting as well as heard a little about what this team did in Vegas. When I saw the title I knew I had to give this one a read. I have fairly decent understanding of the many mainstream concepts of blackjack strategy and what this team did was purely brilliant and outside of the common beliefs that Vegas and many pro gamblers (the ones who write books about it) want you to believe. An example, casinos would love to make you think that its impossible to count or beat a 6 deck shoe. In reality this is completely untrue. 1 deck might be easy to count, but you generally only get 1 or 2 rounds of play out of it so when the numbers run to your favor you only have one hand to take advantage of it. When the shoe runs positive, the cards can go several rounds before they flatten out. There are of course many other factors involved such as how deep into the stack the dealer puts the shuffle card, etc.

To any gambling enthusiast this is a must read. To anyone who is neutral on gambling, it is a story that is easy to follow and very intriguing. If you hate gambling and everything it stands for, you might not like it.


David versus Goliath mixed with cards and mathematics   March 10, 2003
sporkdude (San Jose, Ca United States)
24 out of 26 found this review helpful

This has got to be one of the most intriguing non-fiction books of all time. It's basically how a group of MIT students combine together and take millions from major Casinos. Using team play, sound probability, expert training, and skill, they do the impossible and create havoc for the Casinos, and later themselves.

This book describes it all, and yes, it's better than any made up story a fiction writer could produce. Mezrich describes how Kevin Lewis became involved in what later became a lifestyle of glamor, big money, and even woman. Kevin goes from a geeky swimmer at MIT to a big player winning big money.

Mezrich knows how to weave the story. First he discusses the introduction, then the frightening orientation. He delves into the mathematics, the strategy, and how the teammates fit into what character roles. He shows how intricate the team aspect of blackjack works, and how they capitilized on it. Both seedy and genious, it sheds a whole new life on blackjack and casino gambling.

After that, he then starts showing how Casinos work, especially how they treat you when you're a big player versus when you're a card counter. Without giving too much away, this story not only deals with the winning, but also with the repercussions. Mezrich brings into the lifestyle, not only with the glamor, but also the suspense and terror that accompanies it.

This books is one of those few books that you cannot put down. It's a great story and most importunely, a great eye-opener. To top it off, it's all true.

No one who reads this will be able to gamble the same way again. No exaggeration. Just pick up this book. I bet you can't put it down (terrible pun intended).