Chapter 7-12

Chapters 7-9: Kevin approached a derelict alley and found an underground casino in Chinatown. This was his test. If he could do well here gambling/counting cards, he would be able to become part of the team. Kevin was thrilled and also solicitous. When Kevin entered the casino, he burned up the tables. He was on fire and earned an abundance of money. The casino knew though, that the team counted cards and only let them come when new members needed to take the test. The casino would not let them keep the money. Kevin was congratulated because he passed the test! Martinez, Kevin, and Fisher were going to the MGM Grand to watch George Foreman and Michael Moorer wrestle. Kevin didn't tell Felicia about anything, though. He lied to Felicia to go on the plane! The relationship was not looking good because Kevin missed almost every dinner with Felicia. He never really even saw her anymore. Martinez told Kevin that everytime he's in a casino, he must know that there are "the Eyes in the Sky" watching him. There are fish-eye cameras that hang from the ceiling in the casino pit. There are also many of them in elevators, restaurants, and even in hotel hallways. Martinez then explained to Kevin about the book that's put together by a detective agency called Plymouth Associates hired by the casinos to catch the card counters and cheaters. Certain notorious card counters are in the Plymouth Facebook. Martinez's and Fisher's faces are not in the book but Micky's is on the first page. If casinos see the team hanging out with Micky, then they will ask them to leave. So, the team must obey. The casinos also might back room them, meaning they tell the people to come with them. They take you to probably the basement of the casino, take your picture, and tell you to sign something that says you won't come back to the casino. If you do, then you're legally trespassing and they can arrest you. So, you should just say "no" when they tell you to follow them. Then, the last tip Martinez told Kevin was, "Don't let some guy named Vinnie take you on any long drives out into the desert."

Chapters 10-12: The team booked rooms at hotels near each other with imposter names. Micky told the team the rules. He said, "Whenever we're in public, we don't know each other. We don't use our real names, and we never mention MIT. If you need to go back to one of the rooms to rest, make sure you go alone. Once we're in the rooms, we're okay--as far as I know, they don't put cameras in the rooms. But the hallways and elevators are definitely wired, so we have to make sure we stagger our breaks." Micky Rosa told the team to play in two shifts with five people on the floor at a time. Kevin thought that Kianna Lam and Brian were professionals and wanted to be just as good as him. He was extremely impressed. Kevin played a spotter and gestured Martinez to his positive fifteen count table. Martinez acted like a rich man from Southern California. Martinez received a huge amount of money. They brought back $20,000 that night and split it between the eight people in their team. Each person received $250 from just a night's work! Then it was fight night and celebrities from the Knick's basketball team came to play blackjack. Kevin crushed them and the Knick's basketball players even invited him to an after-fight party in a celebrity suite. Then something very outlandish happened--Kevin saw Sanjay Das, the Indian kid. Kevin had taken physics with him at MIT two years ago. Another time, Kevin was playing blackjack, and he met a woman named Teri Pollack. She was a 22 year old rookie cheerleader with the Saint Louis Rams. She even gave Kevin her phone number! Kevin was so amazed by his good luck that he didn't see the man in the suit walk over to him. The man told Kevin that Kevin was not allowed to play blackjack here anymore. Kevin just said, "I never liked this casino anyway. Smells too much like smoke," and walked away like Micky told him to do.

$$Connections$$

• Just like Kevin, I also noticed that there are cameras everywhere in a hotel. I would think that even more in a fancy hotel!
• I agree with Micky. I think that if you let the men in suits take you down to back rooms, you might be tortured. So, you shouldn't let the men take you to back rooms.
  

Spotter's Signal List & Oral Count Signals

Spotter's Signal List

• The deck's warm = folding arms in front of chest
• The deck's turned hot = folding arms behind back
• Even hotter! = putting hands in pockets
• I need to talk = touch your eye
• Get over here = lower head to folded arms
• What's the count = scratch your ear
• I'm too tired to play anymore = rub your neck
• I'm getting heat from the pit boss = move hands to forehead
• Something's wrong, get out now! = run your hands through your hair

Oral Count Signals

These were used when you were calling in a big player to tell him/her what the count was. These were simple words that could be used in a sentence, right under the nose of a pit boss or dealer.

• Tree: +1
  
• Switch: +2
• Car: +4
• Glove: +5
• Gun: +6
• Craps: +7
• Pool: +8
• Cat: +9
• Bowling: +10
• Football: +11
• Eggs: +12
• Witch: +13
• Ring: +14
• Paycheck: +15
• Sweet: +16
• Magazine: +17
• Voting Booth: +18
  

Chapters 4-6

Chapter 4: Kevin was in Atlantic City with Martinez and Fisher. Dino Taratolli was a host at the Tropicana casino and picked Kevin and Fisher up in a limousine to a hotel. Hosts do whatever it took. They made peoples' stay as pleasant as possible and brought the big players (people that bet five-twenty thousand dollars a stay) to their casino. Big players got the full treatment with rides in limos, food, beverages, a free room, and anything you could imagine! Fisher and Kevin had different identities in Atlantic City though. That weekend, Fisher was Robert Kim, but Kevin was still Kevin. They were both supposed to be Eurotrash millionaires. Kevin was getting very curious. Their room was a humongous suite! Kevin found out the Fisher and Martinez played blackjack. At a blackjack table, Martinez and Kevin bet ten thousand dollars. Martinez helped Kevin learn how to count cards, a strategy that would probably make you a millionaire. Then Fisher played but made sure that he made no eye contact with Martinez or Kevin because the "eyes in the sky" were watching him.

Chapter 5: Each stroke made Kevin's lungs burn. He was swimming very hard. Kevin had begun dating a girl he met at the library. Her name was Felicia and she had a swimmer's body, too, like Kevin. After Kevin swam, he saw Fisher and Martinez standing right near the pool. They told Kevin to follow them and brought Kevin to a classroom full of "The Club/Blackjack 101" members. He saw seven people including Kianna Lam (a pretty, young Asian), Michael Sloan (a blond tennis jock), and Brian Hale (a brilliant senior), the few that he recognized. Then the one standing at a blackboard was Micky Rosa, the leader of Blackjack 101. His teeth were gnarled and his clothes were two sizes too small. This was the M.I.T. Blackjack Team. Micky told Kevin how he had discovered the system of subjugating casinos at blackjack. It was a combination of card counting and communication. He wanted Kevin to join the team and go to Las Vegas. Kevin found out that each player had made about $100,000 spending their time in Vegas playing blackjack. Kevin decided to join the team but learned that he needed to pass the Test.

Chapter 6: Actually, Kevin had to pass three tests. If you were caught by the casinos when you card counted, you would have to leave and you were never welcome there again. If you were burned out of all the casinos in town, you would become extinct like a dinosaur. You were finished. The M.I.T blackjack team used team play which was split into three parts: Spotters, Gorillas, and Big Players. Everyone in the team started as a Spotter. The job of a Spotter was to find a good table with a good deck and then call a Gorilla or Big Player to the table. Spotters would sit at the table playing the minimum bet and counting the cards. When the count gets good, they would signal in either a Big Player or a Gorilla. After you are a Spotter, you get promoted to a Gorilla. Basically, when Gorilla's get signaled to a hot deck, they just stumble over as if they were a drunk, rich kid. They would throw down huge bets of money and watch for Spotter's signals to tell them when the run of the good cards is over. Then they would just stumble out of the table to receive a signal from another Spotter. Now being the Big Player was the hardest and most vital job. After a Spotter called you in to a hot deck, you would take over. You had to act, count, and bet! Big Players carry the big money and are the ones known by the casino personnel. You have to look the part of a Big Player. The first part of the test was learning how to be a Spotter. The second part was learning how to be a Gorilla. The third and last part of the test was to learn how to be a big player. Kevin learned that the higher the count, the better the deck, and the lower the count, the worse the deck. Kevin learned the Spotter's signal list and the oral count signals. Micky told Kevin that Kevin was ready and would be able to take the test Saturday night. Kevin was fatigued but felt a rush of adrenaline.

$$Connections$$

• Just like Kevin in chapter 4, I would feel extremely tired after swimming. I would be huffing and puffing to catch my breath.

• Like Kevin in chapter 6, I would feel very happy/excited even if I was tired because I qualified for something/won something!

Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1: Kevin Lewis (which wasn't really his real name) acted drunk. He was playing blackjack and had already won $30,000. Kevin found his spotter, waiting for a signal. The spotter was a woman wearing too much makeup and a low-cut blouse. A bent right arm would tell him to double his bet. Both arms folded would tell him to push most of his chips into the betting circle. Arms flat at her sides meant that he should drop down to the lowest possible bet. But she didn't do any of those things! Instead, the spotter ran her hand through her hair. That meant Kevin had to get out of her fast! There were three, burly men (the suits) headed toward him. If the suits caught up to him . . . well everyone heard the stories. They were put in back rooms and intimidated. In Kevin's duffel bag, were stashes of money. Kevin didn't invent the System, he was just one of the few people smart enough to pull it off.

Chapter 2: $25,000 in hundreds were strapped to Kevin's thighs and back by velcro. He was in an airport at the security place. There were metal detectors and he forgot to take his cellphone out! If the security woman asked him to take off the jacket, he was doomed because she would see the huge bulges in his jacket. After she checked him, she said "You're okay. Have a nice flight." A wave of relief washed over Kevin. Kevin's resume was perfect--he was the typical M.I.T. student stereotype. He was a math and science whiz. He was top of his class at Exeter, a boarding school. He earned straight A's there and also at M.I.T. Kevin lead a double life. In one, he was a "geek" at M.I.T. In his other more exhilarating life, he was a card counter in Las Vegas earning millions.

Chapter 3: It was 1993 and Kevin was tired from taking so many chemistry classes and swimming so long. Kevin was 20 years old. Jason Fisher's towering body and Andy Martinez's slim and short stature approached Kevin. Fisher and Martinez somehow were always able to travel to Las Vegas almost every weekend. They never ran out of money even though they didn't have any job. They took out a stack of $100 bills. Fisher and Martinez told Kevin to come with them on the weekend to Las Vegas. They were going to show him and teach him how they earned so much money.

$$Connections$$

I remember going on a plane before. The security checks were really annoying. Just like in chapter 1 of Bringing Down the House. Kevin had to go through a frustrating security check.

Welcome!

Welcome to my guide on Bringing Down the House. This compelling, nonfiction book is by Ben Mezrich. This guide will help you analyze and understand this book better. Bringing Down the House is a story about six M.I.T. students who counted cards, and decided to bring their talents to Vegas. Supersmart mathletes were recruited to join a secret blackjack organization called "The Club." This club was dedicated to counting cards and beating the casinos at their own game all around the nation. These elite mathletes infiltrated Las Vegas and took home millions. Bringing Down the House is a riveting book, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed reading the book. Welcome to my blog and please feel free to post any comments you like!