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Bringing Down the House
Ben Mezrich. Simon & Schuster: 2003 (paperback). ISBN: 0743249992. 259 pages.
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Turn on your TV for a moment or two these days, and it's hard to miss the fact that America has a new capital city, and we call it Las Vegas. As the World Poker Tour events, celebrity poker show-downs, "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" commercials, and Sin City Reality shows and favorite fictional crime-and-gambling dramas continue to expand their empire on the small screens of our sets and the lurid fantasies of our subconscious, it's a perfect time to explore a fresh perspective on the lovely pleasures of money-for-nothing. Ben Mezrich's hero is a real-life card counter, an M.I.T. undergraduate who discovers that a great head for numbers can take him out of the dorm room and into the luxurious suites of the high-roller. Working with a hand-picked team from the most prestigious of Ivy League universities, our ambitious nerd learns how to beat the odds in Blackjack, the one casino game in which a picture-perfect memory for the cards that have already appeared can give the player a serious advantage in the odds. For many glorious months, it's all too damn good and green to be true. But eventually casino officials target the M.I.T. teams, and our hero and his fellow conspirators find themselves in more serious jeopardy than they could ever have wagered in their most paranoid nightmares. This is great stuff for both the avid reader or the weekend game gambler, and gets freakier and scarier with each passing page.
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