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The one I read didn't have that cover, I promise.
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Busting Vega$: The Mit Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees
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Book by Mezrich, Ben
463 pages, Hardcover
First published September 27,2005
This edition
- Format
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463 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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January 1, 2006 by Thorndike Pr
- ISBN
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9780786283798
- ASIN
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0786283793
- Language
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English
About the author
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Ben Mezrich has created his own highly addictive genre of nonfiction, chronicling the amazing stories of young geniuses making tons of money on the edge of impossibility, ethics, and morality.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
With his newest non-fiction book, Once Upon a Time in Russia, Mezrich tells his most incredible story yet: A true drama of obscene wealth, crime, rivalry, and betrayal from deep inside the world of billionaire Russian Oligarchs.
Mezrich has authored sixteen books, with a combined printing of over four million copies, including the wildly successful Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and sold over 2 million copies in fifteen languages. His book, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal – debuted at #4 on the New York Times list and spent 18 weeks in hardcover and paperback, as well as hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. The book was adapted into the movie The Social Network –written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher – and was #1 at the box office for two weeks, won Golden Globes for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best score, and was nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3 including best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin shared a prestigious Scripter Award for best adapted screenplay as well.
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Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Mezrich did a great job detailing the strategies the MIT Blackjack team used to stick it to the casinos, while at the same time recounting the thrilling stories and heat encountered by the team. Makes you wonder how much more damage the team could have done if the casinos didn't limit their playing or threaten them for winning.
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A friend recommended this as a really good book. I liked the story and the fact it was true, but not being a gambler, the details of beating the odds weren’t that important to me.
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Very entertaining book. Not at all your typical "card counting"tale. An interesting exposé on the casino industry and what some MIT whiz kids were able to do to beat the "house advantage". Likable characters and a well paced story.
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SHEESH! Another Mezrich masterpiece. Like Ugly Americans, this one less known. But I was on the edge of my seat for 280 pages as Semyon and his team of MIT geniuses evaded the men who police casinos. Mezrich does a wonderful job of weaving the present with the past, providing just enough color to leave you always wanting more. And when it’s over? You’ll sure be surprised how it got there
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This book was very interesting
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Breaking Vegas is a kind of sort of follow up to Mezrich's other Vegas book Bringing Down The House (later made in the movie "21"). Breaking Vegas follows another MIT Blackjack team, one who've developed a new system for beating the casinos as opposed to the straight up card counting team from Bringing Down The House (card counting isn't illegal in Vegas, but it will get you banned from the casinos if you're caught). Breaking Vegas a fast paced, interesting read. As with Bringing Down The House, I suspect some facts will have been embellished or glossed over, whether for artistic license or, most likely, to protect some of the people involved. It's a good look at the lengths people will go to to beat the house. However, it probably won't make a lot of sense unless you've read the previous book or seen some of the multitude of TV shows produced about the MIT teams. It definitely feels like a warning for not trying it yourselves!
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They took a real life story and give hire a gun to write it down. The writing is functional, to say something, but the whole story and characters never come alive. Besides, I doubt the veracity of it all. The MIT stereotypes are briefly there with a poor effort to write any human character. Some personality traits are thrown here and there for no purpose at all. In short, the storytelling sucks.
Besides, on the veracity side, it is too perfectly arranged with escalating difficulty and absurdity for having happened like that.
It is not entirely discardable though. This is the sort of book you want to read on a long flight. There is little oxygen up there and little room for thinking. Still, in the category of "airplane reading" is far from my favorites. A moment to remember is the brief appearance of Trump himself and the mocking tone the book has for him (this was written a decade before 2016).
Besides, on the veracity side, it is too perfectly arranged with escalating difficulty and absurdity for having happened like that.
It is not entirely discardable though. This is the sort of book you want to read on a long flight. There is little oxygen up there and little room for thinking. Still, in the category of "airplane reading" is far from my favorites. A moment to remember is the brief appearance of Trump himself and the mocking tone the book has for him (this was written a decade before 2016).
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