Busting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds
by Ben Mezrich
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ben MezrichEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-22
ISBN: 0060575123
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Busting Vegas: A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds
Book Review: A Fun Read but Full of Technical Mistakes
Summary: 3 Stars
I won't bother guessing how much of this book is fact versus fiction -- even as pure fiction, it's enjoyable to read, similar in style to Mezrich's earlier 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. The three winning techniques described in the book sound plausible, at least in theory, and I wouldn't be surprised if most casinos really were oblivious to shuffle tracking and precise shoe cutting when the events supposedly took place.
However, as much as I like Mezrich's breezy style of writing, he makes lots of mistakes when describing the blackjack action itself. If you're not an experienced blackjack player, you probably won't notice or care, but over and over I was brought out of the story with a "WTF?" moment. One such example comes in the epilogue: "The dealer flipped over her down card, a ten, for a fourteen. She asked if I wanted to hit either of my hands." Um, was Mezrich playing double exposure? Mistakes like this make me wonder if Mezrich has ever really played a single hand of blackjack. Other errors are more subtle, like confusing first base with third, or describing a push as a win.
The worst technical mistake is Mezrich's description of the supposed mathematical advantage of the first technique. Somehow he comes up with a whopping 45% advantage for six hands. Even taking at face value his claim that an ace gives one hand a 51% advantage, playing five other hands at a -2% disadvantage gives an expected value of (0.51-0.10)/6 per hand, or about 6.8%. After reading Mezrich go on and on about Semyon's math skills, it's ridiculous to see the author make such a glaring error the first time he tries to explain the math.
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