21: Bringing Down the House: How Six Students Took Vegas for Millions (Paperback)

The story is discussed elsewhere. The author who took up Kevin Lewis' words and put them onto the page previously only worked on works of fiction, and you can feel his desire for high drama. To be honest, I've read a lot of gambling books and this was only the second I've ever read where I literally didn't want to put it down. That sounds cliched, but I literally stayed up until 5am reading this book and missed a morning of work.

This is not really a gambling book though. The point is, as the book comes to a close, it becomes evident that the pit bosses now are able to spot team play. It's a dangerous game to play, and in the UK it can be dealt with in all sorts of horrible ways. The tells and signals of team plays are now obvious to the dealers and bosses and preventative measures have been taken to try and wrap this up. Do not buy this book if you think you and your friends are going to be able to try it out and make some money. If you want to make money, use this book as a guide to what has already been done and would now fail.

If you want a cracking read, and trust me this is less patronising and more realistic than most novels you could find, this is a great little book. It shows that Vegas is addictive, nasty and driven on greed. It shows how a clever young man can see his life suddenly shift away from him, out of control. It allows you for just a few minutes, to dream about being a player. Just don't think, even though this is a true story, any of it's real - that's what Vegas is all about.

5 stars, for me a must read, the New York Bestsellers list can't be wrong. Go for it.

What's fascinating is not the exact mechanics of counting the cards (this is too difficult for a dummy like me to understand though it is explained) but it's more about the way in which they deceived the wary casino operators and the twin lives they had to live. For instance, to transport the amount of cash the team had to use some members literally strapped hundreds of thousands of dollars to their bodies whilst trying to edge past airport security.

The story is effectively told from the viewpoint of one of the main team members, namely Kevin. Kevin doesn't deny that his alter profession is profitable but for him it was the thrill of deception that really turned him on as well as the NFL Cheerleader he saw on his every visit, one of the many advantages of being a high roller. Other advantages included free rooms and tables appearing from nowhere in a full booked restaurant. As long as the risks were in his favor it was fine to keep on doing what he did so well. But within the ranks were colleagues that treated card counting as a career, which spelt trouble.

To some extent the last third of the story reads more like a mystery thriller which is great but unfortunately Monsieur Poirot was not on hand to solve the crimes. Shame. But you can draw you're own conclusions quite easily. The next time I step into a casino I will be looking for those hand and verbal signals that maketh a card counter and I shall grin with great joy. If only it were that easy.