Comments on: Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions http://www.readersdiary.com/100 Log of a Compulsive Reader Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:17:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Lucky Louie http://www.readersdiary.com/100#comment-381 Lucky Louie Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:27:57 +0000 http://www.readersdiary.com/?p=100#comment-381 Of course, Mezrich's book was highly fictionalized but he captured the spirit of the MIT Blackjack Team that took Vegas for millions. In fact over its nearly 20 year history from its original founding by Bill Kaplan in 1980 to the splinter teams of the mid-1990's after Kaplan and JP Massar retired from management, nearly 150 players were trained and played on the team. By his own admission, many of Mezrich's characters were composites of people he had never interviewed but only heard about, and many of his stories just never occurred. Nonetheless, "Bringing Down the House" brought the story of the MIT Blackjack Team to the masses, and while Mezrich's recounting of their ventures might not have always rung true, the true adventures and business of the Team were far more impressive than depicted in the book and the movie. Of course, Mezrich’s book was highly fictionalized but he captured the spirit of the MIT Blackjack Team that took Vegas for millions. In fact over its nearly 20 year history from its original founding by Bill Kaplan in 1980 to the splinter teams of the mid-1990’s after Kaplan and JP Massar retired from management, nearly 150 players were trained and played on the team.

By his own admission, many of Mezrich’s characters were composites of people he had never interviewed but only heard about, and many of his stories just never occurred. Nonetheless, “Bringing Down the House” brought the story of the MIT Blackjack Team to the masses, and while Mezrich’s recounting of their ventures might not have always rung true, the true adventures and business of the Team were far more impressive than depicted in the book and the movie.

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