Watched the documetary last night on cable about the book "Bringing Down the House". This farce should be in the FICTION (or mostly BS)section of your local bookstore.
The gruesome lady from Griffin on the show actually thinks APs are evil. What an attitude. Hey blondie, over here, I'm still playing after all these years! I'm wearing a disguise to look like Andy Anderson or Chuckie Adams.
didn't get that idea at all, knowing the facts from both reading the book and living and working in Vegas at the time, pretty much rang true.
Griffin's job is to protect the casino's interests, so anyone hurting them is the enemy to them.
You say "living and working", NOT playing. As a dealer or cabbie somewhere you would not know the details of playing this game at high stakes.
The amounts he said he played according to the bankroll he said he used is ridiculous and impossible. If he is the mathematician he claims to be he would know his risk of ruin using the bankroll used would be dangerously high.
Knowing the risk at airports carrying large amounts of money yet taping $150,000 to his body knowing it could be confiscated is similarly ridiculous. Risk all your playing bankroll to total confiscation before you play even one hand? Howw stupid does he believe the reader is? Ever heard of opening bank accounts in Las Vegas? Hmmm?
Walking around with duffle bags full of cash? Nonsense. did Uston or any of the others do that? Never.
Hiding in the bathtub? It just gets worse.
The amounts he played as a first timer out in Las Vegas are also ridiculous.
The author of the book has no clue about the game either.
No other people on the inside or among players veryfy the extent or amount of their claimed win. while the basibcs of their story may have happen to a much smaller extent, the amounts and details of what they claim are wildly exaggerated.
Knowing the facts "from reading the book." The book is semi fiction what "facts" did you learn?
My complaint is that this (as is your response) is a distortion to the thousands of beginners who want to consider moving to Las Vegas and making a fortune. Today's game is much more difficult to contend with. Although I still play, my time was long ago when things were much easier.
I could add volumes more but I have better things to do. Players who read this website need to know accurate information not fantasy.
Griffin are portrayed pretty accurately in the book. If anything Mezrich could have made it more fantastic by waxing lyrical about the hi-tech surveillance gadgets Griffin have at their disposal.
The problem, as Chappy says in his somewhat intemperate post below amid some other more questionable points, is the competence of the protagonists. Kevin Lewis (NOT Mezrich) does outline a betting strategy at the end of the book that is not compatible with successful blackjack, or indeed any form of wagering.
The MIT teams did and do exist. At least some of the story is true.
I missed it, so I want to see when it will be repeated. Thanks.
I totally agree. The book and to a lesser extent last night's TV special was highly embellished. While I know there was an MIT team and I believe they were highly successful, I don't think any of the two they profiled on TV were a key part of that group. They got so many simple things wrong that it's impossible to connect all the dots.
Andrew Tay stated how the DEA outlawed anyone carrying more than 10K in cash on them. Anyone who has dealt with large stacks of cash would know the law better than that. There is nothing wrong or illegal of owning or carrying cash. There is a law regulating transport of over 10K out of the country, but the MIT team was talking about going from Boston to LV. I absolutely agree with Chappy. It's insane to not keep the cash and chips in LV in a SD box and very stupid to tape it to yourself. Because if you are caught that way, it is almost certainly going to be confiscated because of the suspicious nature.
As John May stated, the essay at the end of their book by Kevin Lewis removed all credibility for his playing accumen. Combined with the fact that Kevin refused to quit playing craps, because he enjoyed the atmosphere, paints a picture more of a gambler than a pro.
Also, in the TV program they show two major mistakes right at the start. They depict his first trip to LV, which had to be early 90's according to the context of the rest of the show. Yet is says they were to play the Bellagio, Venetian and Luxor. I don't recall exactly what year they cut the ribbon at the Venetian but I know it wasn't before 1995.
And (as Chappy stated) Kevin Lewis said he played six hands of $4000 on his first trip. This seems like quite a way to break into the big leagues. My novel THE COUNTER was a work of fiction, but I feel BDTH is closer to fiction than non-fiction.
When the MIT count team was formed the Venetian was not opened yet. To compare me to a dealer or cabbie is laughable. Indeed their pictures are listed in the Griffin book and I have seen them and could tell you the various disguises and looks of the players, there may be some embellishment of the story, but the basic facts are true.
Court TV, The System, Brining Down the House?
just what scum most in the "gaming" industry truly are. Just how little spirit of fair play (not cheating, just barring winners) they have and even worse attitudes.
The old days were much more fun. BJ rescued this guy with little education and not much of a future from a menial job to a very comfortable life. Today it is virtually impossible to start small and climb that huge mountain of winning to get that 100K+ bankroll then maintaining regular full time play at top levels without problems for years. With all the surveillance and other communications and problems, I would bet against almost anyone succeeding today for an extended period of time. I still play when in Vegas a few times a year. I could "write a book" they say. Truth is I could write 10 books, but won't!
Agreed that it is very difficult to play at a top level today, one of the reasons I switched to poker for my gambling income. The stupidity and greed of casino managers has hurt this environment, but they have hurt themselves in the process. Most casino managers are very ignorant and have little education, so thus the advantage player needs to continually evolve to find new ways to create winings.
By the way, I went back and read the essay in the back of BDTH, it seemed a little dumbed down, but what was so bad and ignorant about it?
between playing high stakes 21 and what is available in poker. Very few make money at even middle level poker (30-60 etc.) and even at that the money is miniscule compared to 21, the best only get about $50 an hour. Also the games are not also going and if they are, they may not be worth even playing in. You cannot make a decent living playing poker as you used to be able to with 21. Poker is OK for 20-30K a year but for 150K a year, forget about poker.
It has been a while since I read the book and posted my review, but here are a couple of things I remember about the essay. The most glaring problem was his recommendation to bet 4X Kelly. That is almost a sure path to ruin and anyone familiar with blackjack with never put such advice in print. Another item was if they saw the burn card, they would cut exactly 52 cards (which I think is practically impossible to do exactly every time as he states) to bring the ace to their hand, but if it was a ten, they would use it to bust the dealer. A face card is not as powerful a starting card as the ace, but it ludicrous to not want to start your hand with it.
Some items seemed credible in the TV show and in the book. But overall it had too many holes for me. I tried very hard to write my novel in an authentic way even though it was fiction. Yet this book supposedly was non-fictin and it took tremendous liberties with that genre.
My friends and I were discussing this book recently on our way home from A.C. And we came to the conclusion that maybe they just taught people enough to get them into trouble. They want to make it sound fun and exciting, yet deceptively simple. Besides, even if they did recommend the 400 max bets, I think a lot less ploppies would actually go out and try it. ($2000 or $4000 depending on if you use $5 or $10 units) Ask around and see how much money your non-counting friends would be willing to bring on an annual trip to the casino. I think most people might be "okay" with losing a couple of hundred, but if they read that you need at least a couple of thousand dollars to succeed, the idea might not appeal to them as much.
Besides, most ploppies and even some counters are completely baffled by the concept of money management. I had to prescribe the betting spread to my teammates and explain to them why we couldn't bet any more than our current max bet because of the risk of ruin associated with it. I get the feeling that they trust me but don't completely understand why yet. But it's okay, they are very efficient backspotters and have much better work ethics than Joel West, so I've got that one over Raven Townsend ;)
P.S. Kevin, I thoroughly enjoyed your book and saw a lot of myself in Raven. I have had a passion for long-distance running for years, (finished 2nd in the mile at the state meet my senior year, just like the character in your book) and therefore had a deep appreciation for Raven's character. While other blacjacks I have read are educational and helpful, yours has been one of the most inspirational. Thank you for writing it.
first, from what I understand, there is some fiction in the book to make the book more readable and exciting (and to protect the innocent. Regarding sums of money...I have friends who played for the Greeks (an offshoot of the MIT team) and for MIT itself. From my experiences with them having >$100K stuffed into moneybelts strapped/taped to their bodies is not uncommon.
Regarding the $150K being insufficient for their betting levels...let me say that you are confusing one players trip bankroll with MIT's immense financial resources which at that time was in the low seven figure range. If they had a bad run they always had more investors ready to get their money into action.
Glad you enjoyed my novel and appreciate you taking the time to let me know. Hopefully hordes of people who read the MIT book will conclude the game is easy to beat and change the current negative cycle BJ is going through.
I'd say it is easier to make money playing blackjack than poker, at least large sums. I'd also say there are a lot less headaches involved in poker. The bankroll swings are not as large, there is no heat, and the only annoyance is the other players (whcih is comparable in blackjack but far worse in poker). To make 30k a year playing full-time poker is not something i would suggest for anyone,however, I would not suggest it at blackjack either. To a mathematically inclined person, it is a lot easier to play winning poker without the heat, than sweat out the barrings, backrooming and general unpleasantness of playing blackjack professionally. That is just one man's opinion.
that I saw in Vegas fleecing the tourists? They were making a bundle that day.
How were they doing this?
The casinos are the ones "fleecing the tourists."
