Busting Vegas

The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Ben Mezrich

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 21, 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' 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 Vegas 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.

©2005 Ben Mezrich (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers

one of Ben Mezrich best

Ben Mezrich has a voice for narration the book was very exciting a must download another great book is 21

An Inside Look

A fansinating, inside look at a portion of the gambling industry. This is a well told and well read account of what a little ingenuity can accomplish, or perhaps I should say can destroy.

Typical Mezrich

Busting Vegas reads just like many of Mezrich's other books, where much of the plot seems to be a "cookie cutter" -young stud wants a young hottie and is involved with a scheme to make bookoo bucks- like "21" or "Sex on the Moon" or "Ugly Americans"... But since it's a Mezrich, it is done well and is entertaining and will probably be made into a movie. This time I recommend reading the original rather than waiting for the movie.

A Flat Read

For a story about "busting" Vegas, these characters never really get their act together. It's more a story about how well the casinos are at spotting and dealing with potential trouble makers. What could have been an interesting magazine article is expanded with a tepid love story, and a load of hard boiled exposition that hopes to make the story sound a lot more interesting then it is. Unfortunately, any attempt to enliven the story is squashed by the author's flat delivery. Not that I would recommend the book, but to anyone who's thinking of reading it I suggest buying the printed version. Maybe the writing fares better when not read by someone who sounds like he's standing in front of his High School english class reading a book report.

Beware, it's abridged

It was a great story, just missing lots of bits that I wish were in there.

Great listen!!

This was a great book, although I should say highly "Hollywood-ized."

I really loved this book, and I recomend it to everyone!! The details on how this team "Busted Vegas" is outstanding! I would only warn people to remember that this book is "Based on a true story" not infact a true story. You'll see what I mean when you listen to the book.

Great book I couldn't stop talking about it with my friends after I read it!

Great Book

Very entertaining. Ben Mezrich has great style, and the reader was excellent. See also Ugly Americans. I recommend this book.

Busting Vegas Rocks

A great tale of some MIT students making some money in vegas.

Would have benefited from an expanded explanation of card counting

I've read a number of books about blackjack and even did business with the original author of beat the dealer. The author assumes that the reader is from Milyer with more Monday and card counting approaches and I believe it's something he handled in an earlier book. Nevertheless a brief chapter on the topic and the storied history of this approach what I have enhanced the book.

A New Theory

Frankly, I was expecting another tome on card counting. This takes card counting to a whole new level. It was nice to hear some fresh ideas on the subject.

This reinforces my negative view of American Casino?s and their operators. I prefer the London method of barring play.

I would have liked to hear more detail on the interactions of Victor, Semyon, Allie, Owen, and Jake. I would have to bet that there was a fair amount of analysis that went in to their personal game development, they were MIT kids for pete sake, but not much was mentioned. I would have liked to know what happened to these kids after blackjack.

All in all it was a great story.