“Bringing Down the House”: A Summary In his book “Bringing Down The House”, Ben Mezrich tells the true story of six M.I.T. students who secretly learned how to count cards in the popular Vegas game Blackjack. He exposes how the previously oblivious nature of casinos gradually shifted to that of paranoia because of card counters like these students. Mezrich’s story focuses on Kevin Lewis, an Asian-American student at M.I.T., who gets dragged into living a double life involving millions of dollars. Kevin experiences the all time highs and lows of gambling while managing to keep it a secret from his close friends and family. Throughout his thrilling experience Kevin comes to recognize the dangers of what he has gotten himself into, and wonders …show more content…
if the risk is truly worth it. Kevin Lewis was sure he’d follow in the footsteps of his two older sisters and graduate from an Ivy League school to become a lawyer or successful businessman.
He was halfway at achieving this goal until through mutual friends Kevin met Fisher and Martinez: two trained card counters. He had heard rumors about the dropouts and quickly discovered their secret hobby. After recruiting Kevin to their blackjack team, Fisher and Martinez taught him the codes, signals, and tactics required to work as a profitable unit. In the complex strategy developed by their coach, Micky Rosa, there are three positions played by the team members during a game: Spotter, Gorilla, and Big Player (BP). This method of card counting cannot be effective without the cooperation of all positions. A Spotter bets low, keeping a running count of the deck. At the same table, a Gorilla bets high, usually the max amount, so that when the Big Player comes in, he doesn’t stand out and draw the attention of the casino’s manager. The Spotter keeps count of the cards in the deck by assigning face cards a positive one value and number cards a negative one value; therefore, the higher the count is, the more chances the Big Player will win his hand. The spotter notifies the BP what the count is by saying a phrase with hidden numeric value. While all this interaction is going on, the team members pretend to not know each other. They play under multiple false identities, which adds excitement to their alternate Vegas …show more content…
lifestyle. Kevin started out as a spotter because he was the newest recruit, and needed real-life casino experience.
However, the team recognized his natural skill and he quickly moved up to BP. The team used money from sponsors who were eventually paid back in full and even with a healthy profit left over for the individual members. Kevin was able to afford his own apartment and multiple luxuries he thought could only come with a degree and stable job. However, Kevin often questioned the legality of the team’s methods and despite Fisher’s assurance that they were not breaking the law, Kevin remained cautious. Their gambling outings grew from once a month to every weekend and they thought nothing could stop them. The team would soon find out that although card counting was not against the law, the casinos found their own way to punish the
counters. During a trip at the Pyramid casino in Vegas, the team met their first of many encounters with the pit boss and his ruthless security. Martinez was the first to be approached and even though he managed to avoid confrontation, the men trashed his hotel room; making it obvious his presence was not welcome anymore. The next week, Kevin witnessed a security guard printing off the faces of him and his team members, which was conformation that they had been discovered. These constant scares caused Kevin to rethink his decision of card counting and they also caused disagreement within the team. Eventually, Kevin decided to quit all together while Fisher and Martinez broke off and formed a new team, hitting remote casinos that would not suspect counting. Although the Vegas life was a thrill, Kevin knew he did not want to do it his whole life even if his close friends did. Kevin realized that not only was card counting a risky and unpredictable business, it had weakened his relationships with friends and family. He had lied to his girlfriend and parents and decided that it just wasn’t him. He lost contact with Fisher and Martinez but hoped they were successful despite their rough past. While card counting gave Kevin a needed adventure in his strict, Ivy League lifestyle, following his sisters’ actions turned out to not be so bad. Regretting nothing of his card counting past, Kevin now appreciates the multiple life lessons it taught him.
Eric Walters wrote the historical fiction novel Safe as Houses, to state the strange occurrence that happened in Weston, Toronto 1954. Back in 1954, U.S had a hurricane named Hurricane Hazel, it was so strong that it caused a flood in Weston, Toronto and it had never happened before. Many Canadian authors had to write a non-fiction or fiction stories about it, such as an author named Eric Walters. Many people were wondering why would Eric Walters write about some flood, there were many reasons why.
The need among Americans to be diverted in ever more imaginative ways -- through high-thrill parks, virtual reality arcades, and theme restaurants, plays right into the hands of Dave Corriveau and Buster Corley, co-founders and CEO’s of Dave and Busters. The duo’s 50,000 square foot complexes include pool hall, an eye popping, cutting edge midway arcade, a formal restaurant, a casual diner, a sports bar and a nightclub rolled into one sprawling complex. In business since 1990, this is a high energy, highly efficient operation that’s comparable to a Vegas extravaganza. As a matter of fact there are even “for fun” cashless blackjack tables, with fake $10,000 chips. Pricey, but not outrageous, and you get value for your money.
The short story “To Set Our House in Order” by Margaret Laurence displays the elements of fiction in a compelling way. The story is set in a town made up by Laurence called Manawaka and is located in Manitoba. This represents the town that she grew up in called Neepawa. The story is based during the Great Depression, which has many effects on how their family functions. This, in turn, makes the whole MacLeod family need to live with Grandmother MacLeod in her large brick house.
The forty-nine year old Black lesbian feminist socialist, Audre Lorde claims a significant statement in her speech which is “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. The master according to Lorde, is primarily a group called the hegemony which consists of people with power and knowledge production. The master tends to be white, a male, rich and the dominant majority. The master’s tools are to divide and conquer and no one can really use these tools because the tools is the master. The tools of the masters contain groups that are exclusive for certain members and even though they are fighting for the same cause, the master dismisses certain people. For example, when it comes to women rights movement, women sometimes dismissed females who are black or lesbian. The house of the master is the parameter that only change can occur within the master’s space or boundary. Although the master and the
Was Eleanor mentally healthy or unhealthy? In the book The Haunting of Hill House, written by Shirley Jackson, the main character was Eleanor Vance. She was a 32-year-old woman that showed signs that she was mentally unhealthy. After receiving an invitation to stay at Hill House from Dr. Montague, a stranger to Eleanor and the rest of the invited guests, she made the carefree decision to accept the invitation to the comfortable country home (2). She felt as though Hill House was her calling, even though she had never laid eyes on the property and had no knowledge of what to expect. There was no way to know if the doctor could have been a psychopath that wanted Eleanor for some crazed morbid “experiment,” yet she had
Barnhisel, Greg. "An overview of 'King of the Bingo Game'." Short Stories for Students. Detroit:
Angie Bachmann is a stay home mom and has 3 daughters. To rid her boredom, she decided to treat herself every Friday afternoon by going to the casino once a week as a reward. Then her gambling worsened due to her parents’ sickness because
When you love someone, you 've gotta trust them. There 's no other way. You 've got to give them the key to everything that 's yours. Otherwise, what 's the point? And for a while, I believed, that 's the kind of love I had” (Casino). Casino centers on Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a gambler of legendary skill who is sent by the mob in the early 1970s to Las Vegas to manage its newly acquired Tangiers Hotel and Casino. Ace is an outsider among outsiders: a dispassionate, calculating, almost pitifully tender civilian among thugs. He’s a Jewish bookie sent by the mob to manage a Vegas casino and embezzle cash for the crime bosses back home. Even when he dons a flamboyant suit and runs patrol around the felt tables of his amoral arena, he looks unsatisfied.
Compared with other faux pas such as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, gambling is a relatively new and legal outlet for people to abuse leading to self-harm, maladaptive family structures and an eventual strain on society. While gaming has been around since the beginning of time, the last thirty years has brought about new and more aggressive marketing and with it has come new set of problems. The new world of gambling is orientated around continuous and rapid mass consumption (slot machines) focused primarily upon individuals betting in increasingly socially dislocated environments (Adams). Communities with gaming centers, race-tracks, and casino’s are often located in the poorest parts of cities and suburbs. In the United States, racial and ethnic minorities are among the groups most at risk for gambling problems (Wiggins). A random-digit-dial telephone survey revealed that 8% of Hispanics were pathological gamblers, which is four times higher than the 1.8% rate for Whites (Wiggins). From a social exchange point of view we have to ask ourselves if the risk of increased social disruption outweighs the rewards of local economy stimulation. Is it acceptable to harm the social fabric by increasing crime, bankruptcies, and social pathologies? (Chhabra)
The strategies provided in this report are proven to be valid, and in fact there are cases in which group of people work together playing blackjack using these strategies and gained them millions of dollars. Nevertheless, there are still several improvements that can be made, such as explaining different types of basic strategies, adding more examples, clearer explanation, and also explain about how to beat blackjack dealers by working in teams. In short, players should be able to gain profit from playing blackjack if they follow the strategies (basic strategy, card counting, and betting according to true count) provided in this report, as it will increases the chances of winning blackjack.
Gambling addiction has become very real, very quick, to me and my friends and family. My best friend’s mother, Beverly Roan, is currently incarcerated at Sandy Mush Correctional Facility in Merced, California after allegedly embezzling over $350,000.00 from her employer to fund her gambling addiction. Beverly is a 58 year old mother of three, and grandmother of eight; no one ever suspected this level of addiction or criminal activity based on our daily interactions with her. We were shocked and appalled when she was arrested at her work back in February. We were completely unaware that her penchant for going to Chukchansi to play the slot machines had evolved into a full-fledged gambling addiction. Pathological gambling has become a devastating mental illness plaguing millions of Americans.
The adrenaline-rushing feeling of gambling offers people the idea that opportunity lies within their hands. Unfortunately, there are far too many consequences to gambling to even begin to count. To win you must play, and to win big you must play big. As more gamblers can recall their losses rather than their winnings, gamblers are often dealt with poor hands and must play the risky game to stay alive. Even though gambling has so many faults, some still fall under its corruptions because of gambling’s deceiving fallacies.
people to keep playing with. Nothing less that psychological warfare is going on at casinos across the country. " The days of shaved dice, missing face cards and rigged roulette wheels are long gone. But the pursuit of profitability in the The corporate era of gambling has turned the average casino into a financial.
Gambling involves taking a risk. It’s something that gets our adrenaline pumping. Believe it or not, money is one of the major things that makes the world go round and some of those believe that money does indeed buy happiness in our lives. We all have heard the stories of those who have won thousands to even millions of dollars just by gambling and we instantly think that could be us. If some random person can be that one in a million, surely I can be too, right? Even though gambling is a fun thing to do, it is important to be aware of the kinds of gamblers that exist in today’s society and realize that gambling should be played in moderation. For instance, some variations of players include: The Social Gambler, The Professional Gambler, and
Gambling is described as the betting of money or property on the result of an event or game that is mainly random with the desire to win more money or gain additional property. The industry or sector created by the activity of legal gambling is referred to as gaming. Since inception, gambling and gaming has continued to develop to an extent that it worth more than $335 billion across the globe. Most of the revenues obtained in this industry are generated by casinos and lotteries. In the past few years, gambling and gaming have attracted significant concern and controversy, especially with regards to the morality of the practice and whether its financial benefits outweigh the damage. While proponents of gambling