21

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

In the midst of the Go-Go '90s, the culture of greed infused the MIT campus. A small blackjack club sprang up, dedicated to counting cards and beating the house at major casinos around the country. The Club grew slowly at first, but by the late 1990s, the right people had come up with the right system to take some of the world's most sophisticated casinos for all they were worth. In less than two years, this ring of card savants earned more than $3 million from corporate Vegas. This is the true story of how they did it.

Bringing Down the House is everyman's dream, certainly every gambler's dream, and gambling is a growth industry on the East and West Coasts.

A cross between Liar's Poker, Ocean's Eleven, and The Cuckoo's Egg, this fast-paced caper features the most unlikely of heroes, a bunch of super-smart MIT geeks. Before the dot.coms kidnapped the mathematical geniuses of MIT, here's what higher education produced from the dark underbelly of the Ivy League, where kids with brains, money, and bright futures were just as likely to be found gambling in a Paradise Island casino as putting in time in the library.

©2002 Ben Mezrich (P)2008 Simon and Schuster, Inc.

Great Listen

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, wish I was one of the group.

What other book might you compare 21 to and why?

none

Which character – as performed by Johnny Heller – was your favorite?

Kevin

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Just thought it was good. Very interesting on both sides of the play. I could have gone on and on.

Entertaining book

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

this is a good story that is done well.

Have you listened to any of Johnny Heller’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Good

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

i believe it was and i did see it. The book is much better then the movie.

hit me again dealer👍

awesome book, about a life many dream of having. not like the movie so much, but better and more realistic. no k spacey, so more work place safe 😜

Great book! Narrator is Fine!!

If you love black this is a great book. Don't let the bad narrator reviews stop you he is fine.

Entertained

I appreciated the insight into this world. I knew one of
The MIT players and would say the story told is a pretty good depiction.

Yes and No.

I will say of all the books that I have purchased from Audible, this is certainly the worst when it comes to sound. While I think the narrator does a good job, the other noises (being swallowing, etc), can be a little distracting. That being said I also think it depends on how you listen. If you are listening to your book with headphones you will notice it a lot more. I however listen in my car on the way to work and it was not that bad.

In the end, the book is worth the irritation of the sound. The narrator does have a good voice for the book, it's just to bad the sound engineer did not do his job. Still I highly recommend the book.

What's the Problem?

Before I decided on the book, I was so scared of the narration from all the bad reviews, that I almost didn't get it. But after seeing the movie "21," and being an avid gambling fiend myself, I decided to take my chances. It was an intriguing story with hints of the movie, and I didn't hear any of the complaints about the narrator. In fact, I just heard an engaging story, which is what a halfway decent narrator is supposed to do. If you liked the movie, you'll love this book.

Mixed

Good story. But not a fan of Johnny Heller. He sounds like a cartoon detective. It is disgusting listening to him swallow all the time.

Fabulous!

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. The story was interesting and I thought that the narrator did a great job (and he had a nice voice).

amazing story line

I love hearing gambling stories and cheating scandals. this is great because it's not a cheating story but a success story of pretty easy card counting with much more strategy then you might think.