Bringing Down the House is a great story of math geeks who scammed the casinos out of millions of dollars. The math works out, but I still think only 80% of this stuff actually happened. The rest was an embellishment, probably to add drama, and make the book actually sell. This book should be reclassified as "based on a true story," or just plain "fiction."

There are two things severely wrong with this book. After I noticed them, I was completely unable to enjoy it.

Firstly, there's the gray man who was stalking them... who's actions were described in surprising detail. Come on! The only way the author could supply such detail was if the MIT team KNEW they were being stalked by him, and kept an eye out... however a lot of his appearances were from BEFORE the MIT team knew to look for him.

Second, there's the fight scene in the Virgin Islands. Two tough guys who may or may not have worked at the casino beat up one of the MIT team members in the bathroom. Again, I don't believe it. After that fight, those team leaders decided to split up the team, and stop communication with the other half. Now, since it was the jilted half that Mezrich interviewed for this book, how did he get that information? None of the people he interviewed could possibly have known that. At best it was a rumor, included in the book for effect.

Am I the only one to notice these things?

I'm curious to know what really happened.