Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees

Additional Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees Information

He played in casinos around the world with a plan to make himself richer than anyone could possibly imagine -- but it would nearly cost him his life.

Semyon Dukach was known as the Darling of Las Vegas. A legend at age twenty-one, this cocky hotshot was the biggest high roller to appear in Sin City in decades, a mathematical genius with a system the casinos had never seen before and couldn't stop -- a system that has never been revealed until now; that has nothing to do with card counting, wasn't illegal, and was more powerful than anything that had been tried before.

Las Vegas. Atlantic City. Aruba. Barcelona. London. And the jewel of the gambling crown -- Monte Carlo.

Dukach and his fellow MIT students hit them all and made millions. They came in hard, with stacks of cash; big, seemingly insane bets; women hanging on their arms; and fake identities. Although they were taking classes and studying for exams during the week, over the weekends they stormed the blackjack tables only to be harassed, banned from casinos, threatened at gunpoint, and beaten in Vegas's notorious back rooms.

The stakes were high, the dangers very real, but the players were up to the challenges, consequences be damned. There was Semyon Dukach himself, bored with school and broke; Victor Cassius, the slick, brilliant MIT grad student who galvanized the team; Owen Keller, with stunning ability but a dark past that would catch up to him; and Allie Simpson, bright, clever, and a feast for the eyes.

In the classroom, they were geeks. On the casino floor, they were unstoppable.

Busting Vega$ is Dukach's unbelievably true story; a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

What Customers Say About Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees:

I love Mezrich's ability to re-hash real life events in a way that still feels like he is telling a story instead of just documenting events in time. The trips to the Carribean made me wish I was closer to the equator while reading this in December. The globe hopping adventures continue in this black jack fueled sequel. He has a real knack for these Ivy league genius fairy tales of making money, so much so I picked up Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai (P.S). I think Americans are all pretty familiar with Vegas, but reading about the city state of Monte Carlo was very exciting and educating. I really, really enjoyed this book, definitely a page turner that will have you switching off your TV to read more.

I am surprised how few have heard of this more recent book. The only thing I didn't like was how disjointed the flow of the book became, as the author inserted himself into the plot to unfold how he met the characters in the book to gain their story. While many people have become familiar with the author's previous title 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. They have such a rich history and the fact the recent James Bond Movie was set there added to my curiosity. hoping to work my way through the rest of the author's collection of money making tales in 2010. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions due to the release of the film recanting how a team of gamblers can make massive sums of money working together, this time the premise centers around 3 new techniques that a single player can use to break the dealer and well "Bust Vegas".

The trip to Monte Carlo was my favorite part even from an American's point of view.

Glad I only paid a buck for it at a thrift store. If their techniques were really valid , the casinos would of caught on to them in a few hours.A high schooler could of wrote this book. I liked it but caught on to the phoniness almost right away. I have spent thousands of hours in casinos all over Nevada and can confidently tell you all that this is a work of FICTION. It would make a good movie in the hand of the right people. Any card counter worth his or her salt would never jump their bets from $500 to $10000. How the author can get away with saying this is a "true story" is beyond me.It's an entertaining read but insults us professional gamblers. The casinos are not that stupid.

It is a thriller. The book reveals the three different strategies that the team employed to beat the casinos and their burly adventures and run-ins with the casinos themselves. Vegas is an alternate reality. Reading this book it is sometimes hard to believe that the events described by Ben Mezrich occurred in real life - captivating read and a fascinating story of a MIT blackjack team on the run to outdo the casinos.

I think that sums it up. How about a book about some MIT kids accomplishing something worthwhile. The book is entertaining but at the same time it really seems like a copy of his earlier book Bringing Down The House. The sad thing is these kids are so talented and their contribution to society is taking money from casinos. Mezrich seems to have created his own genre writing about rich punks who make a lot of cash. So the author is just covering the same territory. We get it a bunch of smart MIT kids took Vegas for a lot of cash had a fun time doing it, but now they don't do it anymore because everyone caught on.

if you've read bringing down the house or ugly americans, then you should definitely get your hands on this one got it decent shape and it shipped within a week.