Is the MIT Blackjack book real?

[manku]

I read this mostly entertaining book earlier this year. While it seemed "authentic" at first, after a while it seemed more fictional than real.

There were just too many discrepancies (sp?) too mention, however the RAMS (or was it Raiders?) cheerleader sorta set me off.

I had forgotten about the book till the other day, when I was in Barnes and Noble, some guy behind me was talking about the book. I turned around and told him I thought it was a load of sh**. He then replied, in a really geeky way, that Discover Channel did a piece on the players in the book. I don't recall anything like that.

I haven't been able to find anything, nor, I must admit, have I tried too hard.

Could anyone shed any light on this book and its truthfulness?

Just curious.

Thanks.

Manku

[daryn]

true.

[chesspain]

Just because you might never have a chance in hell of screwing a professional sports team's cheerleader...

[Michael Davis]

If you read the book, then you know it's real.

Actually, there are some philosophies where this isn't true.

Nevermind.

-Michael

[mosta]

I read an excerpted part of the book in a magazine before it came out. I believe it's probably based on actual people and events, but grossly embellished. I forget the details now, but there were several implausible ones. The excerpt ends with one of the main counters walking into a high roller area and splitting tens. Right... . I ran a few other details by a friend who know more about card counting and he laughed. You might get more insight on the Other Gambling forum, where several experienced counters post.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
true.

[/ QUOTE ]

And who wouldn't believe the guy in that avitar? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I recall also seeing some sort of Discovery channel show on that book.

[soah]

It's based upon real people and their experiences, but many details (names, physical traits, which sport a cheerleader cheers for with, etc) were changed to protect the identities of the individuals. Many of the scenes in the book are simply the author's interpretation of how things may have taken place. Exactly how much the events were exaggerated is a point of some dispute.

[cardcounter0]

Yes, there really was a wild west. No, there wasn't a guy named John Wayne running around killing 20 indians everytime he pulled the trigger on his 23 shot 6 shooter.

Yes, there is a MIT team. Yes, the people and some of the events in the book exist and happened.

It is hard to seperate where fact ends and fiction begins in the book, but you are definately reading the Hollywood version.
[img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Toro]

I got the book a couple of years ago as a Christmas present and enjoyed it for it's entertainment value but came away thinking that they had to have left out some key elements of their strategy. It just seemed too simple.

I think it was the History channel that did a special on it and it ran right behind the special on the history of poker. As I recall the "history of poker" was entertaining but the piece on the MIT team was disappointing.

[MrDannimal]

The History Channel re-ran "Breaking Vegas" last week. I thought it was fun, but the re-enactments they did were over the top cheesy. Although the chick they got to play Katie was hot, I'll admit.

They kind of gloss over the fact that not a whole lot of maney was made in the long run. I think at one point they said that from a peakof around $4 million, they'd dropped to around $2 million. After paying 12+ "staff" their salaries, as well as the expenses for travel (and for all of the training/early runs, the hotel, food, booze...) and whatever else was involved. Then Mr. M lost that bag of cash (let's assume that amount was correct, since the Feds got brought in, it should have been easily verifiable.

Mr. M obviously had investors, so you have to take that $2 million, subtract all the expenses, then split that profit among the investors. If there were 10, then itprobably ends up around $175,000 per, over the course of a couple of years. While I wouldn't turn that down if offered, I certainly wouldn't think I'd kicked Vegas' ass.

It's possible that the $4 million and $2 million figures were post-expenses, but it didn't look that way from the "pages" they kept showing of profit/loss tallies.

The other thing that really chapped me was the commercials. IT seemed like they broke every 5 minutes. Ugh.