In Munchkin’s and my September 1, 2011 Gambling with an Edge radio shows, guest Andy Bloch (poker player and former MIT Blackjack Team member) mentioned that he was involved in the Monte Carlo arrest described in Ben Mezrich’s book, Busting Vega$. Bloch claimed some of the details in the book were different than what actually happened.
At that time, I hadn’t even heard of the book. I had read Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House and watched the movie 21 which was based on that book. I enjoyed both of them so I figured I’d check out the later Mezrich book. I knew, though, not to believe the facts of the book too literally. The leader of the MIT Blackjack Team told me about the first book, “The book changed facts and was only about 50% true. The movie totally did away with that 50%.” Andy Bloch’s review of movie noted that it was entertaining but based only very loosely on what actually happened.
So I picked up Busting Vega$ and was prepared to be entertained again! And I was. The story centers around a player with an unlikely name. Semyon Dukach. Except that’s his real name. And most of the things in the book actually happened to him.
The characters in Busting Vega$ play the game of blackjack, but they aren’t card counters. They were some of the cream of the crop of the MIT Blackjack Team and they used such techniques as shuffle tracking, ace tracking, and forcing a 10-card into the dealer’s hand. I had heard of these techniques but I didn’t know how to do them. The book gives a pretty good explanation of what the techniques are all about.
A couple of the techniques involve seeing the bottom card of the deck just before the deck is cut. The player holding the cut card puts it in exactly 52 cards from the front. Then players count down the cards when dealt, steering that particular card to either one of the players (to help the players) or to the dealer (to bust him). When it can be done successfully, it’s worth about 50% to the players — who just “happen” to have huge bets out ($10,000 a hand, for example) when that 52nd card is being played. The rest of the shoe is played at relatively small bets (perhaps $500 a hand) where the house has less than a 2% edge against basic strategy players. When the players were doing this (mid 1990s) the casinos had no idea of how the players were gaining such an edge. If the dealers weren’t showing the bottom card, the book explains a trick or two to help that card become visible.
Cutting exactly 52 or any other number cards isn’t a skill I currently possess. I never practiced it because I didn’t see any value in doing so. But practicing for an hour twice a day, I could probably get pretty good at that in a few weeks.
Since reading about legal ways to beat casinos is always interesting to me, these new techniques were fascinating. Never mind that my eyesight isn’t good enough to regularly spot bottom cards anymore. Never mind that blackjack isn’t my game of choice, and since I’m well known as an advantage player at video poker, I likely would be easily spotted playing blackjack and backed off. I still like to learn about how it is done. Sort of like listening to a magician explaining how a trick is accomplished.
I’ve asked a few players who were on the MIT blackjack team if the stories in Busting Vega$ were true. They said yes, they all happened to some members of some blackjack teams, but not all of the things to the same people. But the story about buying an airplane to save money and then crashing it was true. As was forgetting about $150,000 in an MIT classroom and having a janitor discover it. As was using many phony IDs and cover stories. As was being backroomed and beaten up. As was being threatened at gunpoint in locales outside of the United States. As was having “super sleuth” agents working for the casinos trying to figure out exactly what the team was doing. As was having team members with various problems ripping off the team. And, because it’s a Mezrich novel, there’s a pretty girl on the team to add some sexual tension to the story.
As for being backroomed and beaten up in Vegas casinos, I want to ask our September 29 guest, Bob Nersesian, about how much that actually happens in Las Vegas today. Nersesian is the top “players’ lawyer” operating in Las Vegas and because of the lawsuits he’s brought, casinos don’t act today like they used to.
I’m very glad I read this book. It was educational and it was fun.