Bringing Down the House

What Hacker News says

1. minimaxJul 2015
   Was The Ugly Americans good? I really enjoyed Bringing Down the House.
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2. jgalt212Jul 2015
   If you enjoyed Bringing Down the House, I'd say you'd pretty close to equally enjoy The Ugly Americans.
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3. filmschoolAug 2010
   Ever since I read 'Bringing down the house' by Ben Mezrich, i've been curious and amazed by guys who game gambling. This forum is populated by people who fit the intellectual profile. Has anyone here ever done anything like that? Just curious.
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4. vikas5678Mar 2008
   I've read the book "Bringing down the house", really fascinating read. Definitely going to go to this movie!
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5. pchristensenMar 2008
   The Cliff-notes version is that in black jack you have a slight statistical advantage since you know what cards have already been played. If there are lots of face cards left in the deck, then the dealer has a higher chance of busting. It's too small for a single player to make much money consistently (just a couple % advantage), but the MIT guys would have several people ("spotters") playing small hands, watching for a deck with lots of high cards left. They would signal to the "Big Players" who would come in like they owned the place, play $10K per hand and make a killing on the hot deck. Then when the cards ran out and were reshuffled, the Big Player would split and look for another hot deck at another table. This way they could multiply the gain when they found a hot deck.

   "Bringing Down the House" (the book the movie was based on) was one of the best of the 100 or so books I've read in the last year.

   PS How cool is it that Kevin Spacey reads Wired?

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6. throwaway2037Feb 2024
   The book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich explains in layman's terms how card counting works for blackjack.
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