Ben Mezrich: Bringing Down The House

Reviewed by MICHAEL LARSEN

"All the girls are so friendly and smiling and happy to see you. Inside they hate your guts." So a hostess at an upmarket Las Vegas club tells the author, in this "it's so unbelievable it must be true" story of how six maths geeks took casinos for millions in the late nineties.

Knowing how hated they were was mostly what fuelled the ever-expanding team as they took on the MGM, the Luxor and other mammoth houses of fun that line Vegas' famous Strip. All very David and Goliath.

Their strategy is known as card counting, a system detailed in a fascinating epilogue. It takes into account that blackjack is the only casino game where events of the past can in some way predict the future: i.e. you get dealt a five, there is a slightly better chance that your next card is an ace and not a five. Work out those odds, learn how to count the cards in a six-deck shoe, assign extraordinarily clever mathematical and statistical systems to the decks ... then strap $600,000 in notes to your body, throw a few hundred thousand in chips in a bag, team up with some "spotters" and "gorillas", who will signal you when a deck starts to get hot, and you're on your way to a 30 per cent return on your money in five years.

It's all fascinating, largely because those involved, despite enjoying the fruits of their labours, mostly relish it because they are underdogs, who get to play at tables with Jack Nicholson, go ringside with de Niro. Breezily written and highly entertaining, this is a great ride.

Random House, $26.95

* Michael Larsen is an Auckland freelance writer