Bringing Down the House (book)
Encyclopedia
Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a book by Ben Mezrich
about a group of MIT
card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team
. While represented as non-fiction
by Mezrich and Free Press
, the book contains significant fictional elements. Many of the key events propelling the drama did not occur in real life; others were exaggerated greatly.
The book was adapted into the movie 21
.
in 1993. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. This new team was the most profitable yet. Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.
, an MIT student who graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering
in 1994. Jeff has since gone on to found a fantasy sports company called Citizen Sports (a stock market simulation game
).
Mezrich acknowledges that Lewis is the sole major character based on a single, real-life individual; other characters are composites. Nonetheless, Lewis does things in the book that Ma himself says did not occur.
. After his professional card counting career, Mike went on to win the 2004 World Series of Blackjack, and started a company called the Blackjack Institute. Mike also has his own blog.
ran an article investigating long-lingering claims that the book was substantially fictional.
The Boston Globe
followed up with a more detailed story on April 6, 2008.
Though published as a factual account and originally categorized under "Current Events" in the hardcover Free Press edition, Bringing Down the House "is not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word," according to Globe reporter Drake Bennett. Mezrich not only exaggerated freely, according to sources for both articles, but invented whole parts of the story, including some pivotal events in the book that never happened to anyone.
This disclaimer allows broad leeway to take real events and real people and alter them in any way the author sees fit. But Mezrich went further, both articles say.
(ISBN 0060575123). Busting Vegas is about another splinter group from the MIT Blackjack Team. Despite heavy marketing, Busting Vegas did not do as well as Bringing Down the House. It did, however, briefly appear on The New York Times
Best Seller list
.
(so as not to cause confusion with the unrelated 2003 comedy film
that bears the same name as the book), was released in theaters on March 28, 2008. The film is from Columbia Pictures
and was directed by Robert Luketic
.
Kevin Spacey
produced the film, and also portrays the character of Mickey Rosa. Other cast members include Laurence Fishburne
, Kate Bosworth
, Jim Sturgess
, Jacob Pitts
, Liza Lapira
, Aaron Yoo
, and Sam Golzari
.
Jeff Ma, Bill Kaplan, and Henry Houh, another team player from the 1990s, have brief cameo roles in the movie. 21 was filmed outside the buildings of MIT, in Boston University classrooms and dorms, throughout Cambridge
and Boston
, and in Las Vegas
.
Says Mezrich, "...Kevin Spacey came to me about making a movie. He read the Wired
adaptation of the book and became interested... The funny thing is filming may take place in casinos such as The Mirage and Caesar's Palace, where the real thing happened."
Ben Mezrich
Ben Mezrich is an American author from Princeton, New Jersey. He graduated magna-cum-laude with a degree in Social Studies from Harvard University in 1991. Some of his books have been written under the pseudonym Holden Scott. Mezrich attended Princeton Day School, in Princeton, New Jersey...
about a group of MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team
MIT Blackjack Team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card-counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide...
. While represented as non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
by Mezrich and Free Press
Free Press (publisher)
Free Press is a book publishing imprint of Simon and Schuster. It was founded by Jeremiah Kaplan and Charles Liebman in 1947 and was devoted to sociology and religion titles. It was headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, where it was known as The Free Press of Glencoe...
, the book contains significant fictional elements. Many of the key events propelling the drama did not occur in real life; others were exaggerated greatly.
The book was adapted into the movie 21
21 (2008 film)
21 is a 2008 drama film directed by Australian director Robert Luketic and stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. The film is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the...
.
Synopsis
The book's main character is Kevin Lewis, an MIT graduate who was invited to join the MIT Blackjack TeamMIT Blackjack Team
The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card-counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide...
in 1993. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. This new team was the most profitable yet. Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.
Kevin Lewis
Although not revealed in the book, Kevin Lewis's real name is Jeff MaJeff Ma
Jeff Ma or was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team in the mid 1990s. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He attended MIT where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1994. He was the basis for the main character of the book Bringing Down the House and the film 21...
, an MIT student who graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
in 1994. Jeff has since gone on to found a fantasy sports company called Citizen Sports (a stock market simulation game
Fantasy Sports stock simulations
A fantasy sports stock simulation is a type of fantasy sport game. It differs from standard fantasy sports games, which involve drafting teams and competing against another teams in a league in certain statistical categories...
).
Mezrich acknowledges that Lewis is the sole major character based on a single, real-life individual; other characters are composites. Nonetheless, Lewis does things in the book that Ma himself says did not occur.
Jason Fisher
One of the leaders of the team, Jason Fisher, is modeled in part after Mike AponteMike Aponte
Mike Aponte also known as MIT Mike is a professional blackjack player and a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team. Aponte was one of the leaders of a team of MIT students that legally won millions at blackjack tables around the world by counting cards. He is one of the main characters, "Jason...
. After his professional card counting career, Mike went on to win the 2004 World Series of Blackjack, and started a company called the Blackjack Institute. Mike also has his own blog.
Micky Rosa
The team's principal leader, Micky Rosa is a composite character based primarily on Bill Kaplan, JP Massar, and John Chang. Bill Kaplan founded and led the MIT Blackjack Team in the 1980s and co-managed the team with Massar and Chang from 1992 to 1993, during which time Jeff Ma joined the then nearly 80 person team. Chang has questioned the book's veracity, telling The Boston Globe, "I don't even know if you want to call the things in there exaggerations, because they're so exaggerated they're basically untrue." Whether the MIT Blackjack Team was "founded ... in the 1980s" is in dispute. An article in The Tech, January 16, 1980, suggests that Roger Demaree and JP Massar were already running the team and teaching a hundred MIT students to play blackjack by the third week of the 1980s, implying that the team had been founded in the late 1970s, before Kaplan joined, although Demaree and Massar have mostly avoided publicity.Boston Magazine and Boston Globe articles
In its March 2008 edition, Boston magazineBoston magazine
Boston is a monthly magazine concerning life in the Greater Boston area and has been in publication for more than 40 years.-About the magazine:The magazine is self-described as:...
ran an article investigating long-lingering claims that the book was substantially fictional.
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
followed up with a more detailed story on April 6, 2008.
Though published as a factual account and originally categorized under "Current Events" in the hardcover Free Press edition, Bringing Down the House "is not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word," according to Globe reporter Drake Bennett. Mezrich not only exaggerated freely, according to sources for both articles, but invented whole parts of the story, including some pivotal events in the book that never happened to anyone.
Disclaimer and leeway
The book contains the following disclaimer:The names of many of the characters and locations in this book have been changed, as have certain physical characteristics and other descriptive details. Some of the events and characters are also composites of several individual events or persons.
This disclaimer allows broad leeway to take real events and real people and alter them in any way the author sees fit. But Mezrich went further, both articles say.
Historical inaccuracies
The following events described in Bringing Down the House did not occur:- Concealing funds within devices. In the book, Kevin is quoted as saying that there exist other methods of concealing funds: fake umbrellas, laptop computers, casts, and crutches to carry their cash. However, Ma had never heard of any of these techniques before reading the book, nor is it mentioned they tried those methods in the book.
- Underground Chinatown Casino. The underground casino used for Kevin's final test (pp. 55–59) is entirely imaginary, according to Mike AponteMike AponteMike Aponte also known as MIT Mike is a professional blackjack player and a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team. Aponte was one of the leaders of a team of MIT students that legally won millions at blackjack tables around the world by counting cards. He is one of the main characters, "Jason...
and Dave Irvine. - Use of Strippers to Cash Out Chips. Also according to Aponte and Irvine, strippers were never recruited to cash out the team's chips, as described on pp. 149–153.
- Shadowy Investors. The "shadowy investors" first referenced on p. 3 are a major source of intrigue for Mezrich's story, but did not exist, according to Aponte and Irvine. The investors in the team included the players, one of Kaplan's college roommates, a few of Kaplan's Harvard Business School section mates, and Kaplan's friends and family members.
- Physical Assault. The scene in which Fisher is beaten up (pp. 221–225) is imaginary. "No one was ever beaten up," according to Aponte and Irvine. Moreover, Jeff Ma claims they have never been roughed up by the casinos they played in. Still there were times when casino employees had tried to intimidate the members of the team. Now, as the mentality of the 1990s has changed, the casinos treat the card counters well, even when asking not to play.
- Player Forced to Swallow Chip. In a scene on pp. 215–218, Micky Rosa recounts a story in which Vincent Cole—a private investigator for Plymouth Investigations—forces a member of a count team to swallow a purple casino chip while detaining the player in a back room. Sources in the Globe described the story as "implausible," and none recalled having heard it.
- Theft of $75,000. One MIT player, Kyle Schaffer, did lose $20,000 when it was stolen from a desk drawer. Mezrich inflates the amount of the theft by 375% and turns the desk drawer into a safe pried dramatically from a wall. Moreover, the robbery scene (pp. 240–244) creates the impression that a team member or Vincent Cole was the likely culprit. Schaffer says the theft was likely unrelated to blackjack, noting that $100,000 or more in casino chips also inside the drawer was left untouched ("strongly suggesting that the thieves had no idea of their worth").
- Forcible Entry to Kevin Lewis's Apartment. Kevin hurries from the scene of the robbery to his own apartment (pp. 244–245) to make sure all is well. Nothing has been stolen, but Kevin finds "a single purple casino chip sitting on his kitchen table." The implication is that the chip is a calling card left by Vincent Cole as a warning to Kevin. This scene again asks readers to accept that the chip-swallowing story is factual (or at least was actually in circulation among MIT counters as a myth).
Sequel
Though not originally intended to have a sequel, Mezrich followed this book with Busting VegasBusting Vegas
Busting Vegas a non-fiction book by Ben Mezrich, author of New York Times Best Seller Bringing Down the House. It describes the gambling activities of a group of MIT students who in the early 1990s made millions by using their mathematics and card skills to change the odds of blackjack in their...
(ISBN 0060575123). Busting Vegas is about another splinter group from the MIT Blackjack Team. Despite heavy marketing, Busting Vegas did not do as well as Bringing Down the House. It did, however, briefly appear on The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Best Seller list
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
.
Film adaptation
A film adaptation of the book, titled 2121 (2008 film)
21 is a 2008 drama film directed by Australian director Robert Luketic and stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. The film is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the...
(so as not to cause confusion with the unrelated 2003 comedy film
Bringing Down the House (film)
Bringing Down the House is a 2003 American romantic comedy film, written by Jason Filardi and directed by Adam Shankman. The film stars Steve Martin and Queen Latifah.-Plot:...
that bears the same name as the book), was released in theaters on March 28, 2008. The film is from Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and was directed by Robert Luketic
Robert Luketic
Robert Luketic is an Australian film director. He directed the films Monster-in-Law, Legally Blonde and 21.-Early life:...
.
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
produced the film, and also portrays the character of Mickey Rosa. Other cast members include Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...
, Kate Bosworth
Kate Bosworth
Catherine Ann "Kate" Bosworth is an American actress. Bosworth starred in the television series Young Americans, in which she played Bella Banks. She became known with a leading role in 2002's Blue Crush. The following year, Bosworth played the teenage girlfriend of porn star John Holmes in...
, Jim Sturgess
Jim Sturgess
James Anthony "Jim" Sturgess is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His breakthrough role was appearing as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe .-Early life:...
, Jacob Pitts
Jacob Pitts
Jacob Pitts is an actor. His most notable performance was in the film EuroTrip as Cooper Harris. He appeared in the play Where Do We Live at the Vineyard Theatre in May 2004...
, Liza Lapira
Liza Lapira
Liza Lapira is an American actress best known for playing Kianna in the 2008 film 21 and Special Agent Michelle Lee in NCIS. She is also known for her role as Maggie Del Rosario on Huff.-Life and career:...
, Aaron Yoo
Aaron Yoo
-Personal life:Aaron Yoo was born in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey to Korean parents. He has an older sister. He played the cello for the East Brunswick High School orchestra and ran track...
, and Sam Golzari
Sam Golzari
Sam Golzari is a British actor of Iranian descent active in the United States. He is known for his debut role in American Dreamz.Golzari was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to parents of Persian origin...
.
Jeff Ma, Bill Kaplan, and Henry Houh, another team player from the 1990s, have brief cameo roles in the movie. 21 was filmed outside the buildings of MIT, in Boston University classrooms and dorms, throughout Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, and in Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
.
Says Mezrich, "...Kevin Spacey came to me about making a movie. He read the Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
adaptation of the book and became interested... The funny thing is filming may take place in casinos such as The Mirage and Caesar's Palace, where the real thing happened."
See also
- BlackjackBlackjackBlackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
- Card countingCard countingCard counting is a casino card game strategy used primarily in the blackjack family of casino games to determine whether the next hand is likely to give a probable advantage to the player or to the dealer. Card counters, also known as advantage players, attempt to decrease the inherent casino house...
- The Eudaemonic PieThe Eudaemonic PieThe Eudaemonic Pie is a 1985 book by American author Thomas A. Bass, about a group of University of California, Santa Cruz physics graduate students who in the late 1970s and early 1980s designed and employed miniaturized computers, hidden in specially modified shoes, to help predict the outcome...
- Breaking VegasBreaking VegasBreaking Vegas is a television series that premiered on The History Channel in the United States in the spring of 2004. The series covers the great lengths people have gone to make money, sometimes illegally, from casinos. It premiered in Pakistan on January 19, 2006 and was renamed Decoding...
- 2121 (2008 film)21 is a 2008 drama film directed by Australian director Robert Luketic and stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. The film is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the...
External links
- Chet Curtis Report on NECN - "Bringing Down the House with Bill Kaplan"
- Adaptation of the book in WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
issue 10.09 - Mike Aponte's website