Over Time, People Will Always Lose to the House?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very entertaining and fast reading...

Cons: You won't learn anything new about blackjack...

The Bottom Line: 
Not necessarily people involved in blackjack, but to people who also read books like The Da Vinci Code with storylines that aren't greatly educational, but highly entertaining.

Author's Review
Bringing Down the House is a story about a group of M.I.T. students who turned the high risks of gambling into a favorable method of beating the house. They developed a game-plan that relied on teamwork and a more detailed version of card-counting. In essence, the system involved a sacrificial lamb so to speak, that would sit at a blackjack table and use the hi-lo system of counting cards, always betting the same amount each hand. At some point, when the hands became favorable (a high count of positive), a teammate would be signaled in, using subtle hand and arm positioning as well as a verbal code. From that point, the new player would lay down the maximum bet hand after hand, so long as the count remained high. It was basically the use of this system that eventually allowed a small group of math nuts from M.I.T. to beat Vegas and win hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ben Mezrich follows the story of one of those players, and as a result, constructs an entertaining book that is not only hard to put down, but will make you want to devise your own lucrative plan.

I've heard and read many comparisons that sits the movie Ocean's Eleven alongside the storyline of Bringing Down the House (the backcover even mentions them together). As a reminder though, not only was that movie a movie, the occurrences were illegal. Cardcounting, on the otherhand, is not. It is mentioned several times in the book that cardcounting is well within the rules of casino play. The cards being played are not altered in anyway, nor are there any external devices involved. The concept and system those M.I.T. students were using were extremely brilliant, as they each made thousands easily.

The storyline itself is just flat-out entertaining. Mezrich did a nice job of piecing the story together, with each chapter being as interesting as the one before it. Though a couple chapters jump from past to present (not within chapters though), the transitions weren't as abrupt as one would think. I don't believe them to hinder the overall quality of the story.

One of my few beefs is that this book can be found in the gambling section at Borders. Don't be misinformed, as all this story is, is a story. It will not teach you anything about the game of blackjack that you probably don't already know. It will not show you how to gamble and play cards, it is merely a story about gambling. The system applied in beating the casinos resulted in easy money, but from what it seems, there wasn't a discovery of new knowledge about the game that gave the M.I.T. crew an upperhand. It was more devising a method and game-plan that undercut the policy, rules and regulations of the casinos. It wasn't necessarily because of better knowledge of the game or better game play. Most of it was finding a way around the security.

Overall I would have to admit though, that Bringing Down The House is immensely entertaining. The author does a good job of keeping the reader interested, and the storyline will lead you quickly through its entirety. I recommend it to not necessarily people involved in blackjack, card games or casinos, but moreso to the people who also read books like The Da Vinci Code with storylines that aren't greatly educational, but highly entertaining.