FAQ for
21 (2008)

Yes. The movie is loosely based on the book Bringing Down the House written by Ben Mezrich. Many of the character names in the movie are the same as book but occurring in a different era. In real life the events took place in the mid 1990's, in the movie they take place cicra 2007.

The movie takes place in a different era, and cultural innuendos and relevant happenings are based around a time later than the book.

Yes, two that I know of. A 2004 movie called "The Last Casino" which was a low-medium budget movie which basically took the idea from the book "Bringing Down the House" (note "21" was based on this book and the only authorized movie based on this book). The movie was made for TV in Canada and had no "known" actors. In most if not all the casino scenes they played with cash (not chips) and the acting was so-so throughout. See next FAQ for more info.

The second movie is called "Hit Me" made in 2005 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468491/ it is a very, very low budget movie but unlike "The Last Casino" it did not rip off the idea from "Bringing Down the House", in "Hit Me" the characters are adults and the main character hates his job so he answers an ad in the newspaper looking for math whizzes.

No, not at all. The Last Casino did come out in 2004 and the plot is very similar but 21 is inspired by a true story that is told in the book Bringing Down the House which was published in 2002. The book was optioned for a movie a year later by Kevin Spacey but was held up for 4 years before filming because of studio red tape and other issues. The producers of The Last Casino got their idea from the book Bringing Down the House and because their movie was low budget with unknown actors they did not encounter same studio red tape that 21 faced. If not for the book "Bringing Down the House" there would have been no The Last Casino.

In real time, the events happened in the mid 1990's. In the movie trailer, there are a few previews showing them using cell-phones, which never happened in real life because in the mid 1990's cell phones were pretty much non-existent.

For more detailed info on who is who in real life go to this webpage: http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/21mitblackjack.php

The ones who have come forward are:

(1) The protagonist Kevin Lewis/Ben Campbell in real life is Jeffrey Ma, an Asian American male who played water polo and was in a fraternity while at MIT. Jeff co-founded a sports player stock-like trading website called Protrade (www.protrade.com) in 2004. Here is a picture of him:

http://www.thelavinagency.com/images/bios/ma.jpg

Jeff Ma has a small role in 21 as a Planet Hollywood blackjack dealer. In the re-release of Bringing Down the House, AKA 21, there is some added stuff, and one of them is an interview with Jeff Ma from June 2007, where he says that he does still play once in a while at casinos that are newer. However, he says he no longer plays for profit but for fun and bets low. He said he was recently told by a casino personal that he could come in, but had to stay 25 feet away from the blackjack tables; he did not say which casino. UPDATE: In an recent interview, BDTH writer Ben Mezrich said Jeff Ma and one of the movie producers were playing Blackjack at a Las Vegas casino "The Playboy Club," and after a few rounds of hands three big security guards told Jeff he couldn't play there. Ma was using his real name and casino security said when they typed his name into their computer "bells and whistlers practically started flashing in the security room."

(2) Steve Fisher in real life is Mike Aponte, also an Asian American male. Aponte now runs the Blackjack Institute (www.BlackjackInstitute.com), which teaches card counting with fellow MIT Card Counting Team Member David Irvine. (At this time it's unknown who David was portrayed as in the book or if he was portrayed at all.) In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun regarding the book and movie Aponte said, "The book changed everything. I retired from blackjack in 2000. I thought that the blackjack part of my life was over for good. Then I started to get asked about it all the time. After a while, I realized (the book) was a blessing." While at MIT Aponte studied economics and played football. Aponte is pictured here:

http://www.allinmag.com/images/articles/840.jpg

In 2007 Mike became the first blackjack player to be depicted on a trading card in Topps' Allen & Ginter champions set and he was recently written about in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/fashion/30blackjack.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=32eccb81362f0797&ex=1199595600&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Yes. In the book he talks about taking the early evening flight America West #66 out of Logan non-stop to Vegas. They would leave MIT as nerds and arrive in Vegas as high rollers. They would return on Sunday night in time for class Monday morning. They didn't go every weekend, but went very often.

Micky Rosa is a fictionalized character. There was no MIT professor who started and ran the team. The MIT Blackjack Team was started in 1980 by a Harvard Business School graduate, Bill Kaplan, who had run a successful Vegas-based team for the prior three years. Kaplan met a few MIT undergrads (including JP Massar), who had been trying to win at the game with little success for months. A few months later, Kaplan launched a new team with a few of these players based on the structure, strategies, training methods, and management processes he had honed in starting and running his Vegas-based team.

Kaplan ran the MIT Blackjack Team through the mid-1980's until just about all of the players became too well-known to play. Little team play occurred in the late 80's until 1992 when Kaplan jumpstarted the Team again by raising $1 million through a limited partnership. Ben Mezrich never interviewed Kaplan nor either of his 90's co-managers. He made up the Micky Rosa character to add another story line to the book. Neither the original players on the MIT Team nor any of the later co-managers bear any resemblance to the unethical Micky Rosa persona.

Having a fake ID is not illegal. It's what you do with it that makes it illegal. Checking into a hotel with a fake is perfectly legal so long as the way you are paying for the room is legit. Getting a casino point card with a fake ID most of the time is okay as well. If you're checking onto a flight or trying to open a line of credit with it then you are crossing that legal line. The MIT team was careful to stay on the legal side most of the time.

Yes, Jeff Ma, who was Kevin Lewis in the book, has a small role in 21 as the main dealer in the Las Vegas casino. Henry Houh, another team player, plays the dealer in the underground Chinese gambling parlor and says the line, "Winner, winner. Chicken dinner." Bill Kaplan, the founder of the Team, also appears in the same underground Chinese parlor as a poker player in the corner of the room.

Yes. Griffin Investigations the leading casino surveillance company in the world went after them. In interviews Griffin talked about how hard it was to break the MIT team. It took years for them to figure out they were involved in team play. Once they did, every casino was notified and the team was virtually shut down. Griffin Investigations has recently filed for bankruptcy after being sued by a card counter who didn't think he belonged in the Griffin Book of cheats. He won the case and the after affect was Griffin in chapter 11.

This seems to be a question a lot of people ask. People seem to think the casinos are not thrilled with the movie and book. The opposite couldn't be more true: the casinos love it! So much so they allowed the 21 producers to film scenes for the movie in several Vegas casinos. It takes a big bank roll, a lot of patience and most importantly great skill to count cards and even then you may not make a profit. The everyday person reading the book or seeing this movie who tries counting cards in a casino will lose over 95% of the time. The casinos welcome players like that and worst case for them, if you start to win too much money they can kick you out.

He dated a cheerleader, but she wasn't from the LA Rams. Most of the facts in the book are true but some of the details were changed to protect the innocent and also for legal reasons.

Ben Mezrich wrote two books about MIT Card counting teams. The first was Bringing Down the House. The second was Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees. This movie will be based on his first book (BDTH). While both books are about MIT Teams that played around the same time period, they differ in the techniques used to "count." And unlike the main character in the first book the main character in the second book did not want his real identity withheld. His name is Semyon Dukach. On the inside cover of Busting Vegas, there are pictures of many of the fake ID's he used in the casino's, he has a blackjack related website (www.blackjackscience.com).

Andy Bloch, the pro poker player mentioned above is also said to be one of the characters in this book. Last year on a blackjack message board a user claiming to be Bloch made several posts which indicated he was not very happy with the way Busting Vegas portrayed the story.

Busting Vegas was also optioned for a movie, but no other info is known about it right now.

No. Ben (Kevin Lewis in the book) and, in real life, Jeff Ma came from a family that had financial means to support him with his tuition. In real life, a few of Jeff's acquaintances that he hung out with often had loads of money, but he never asked how they got it. After a while, these two friends recruit Kevin and introduce him to Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who brings him onto the blackjack team.

Yes, his name is Andy Bloch. He has been a poker pro since the 1990's. He joined the MIT Blackjack team about the same time as Kevin Lewis in the book (Jeff Ma in real life). A few months later, the team split up into two teams: the "Amphibian" and "Reptiles." Bloch went with the Amphibian team, not the Reptile team, which was the one focused on in the book Bringing Down the House. Ben Mezrich wrote a second book about that MIT blackjack team called Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees. That book is mostly fictitious but relates to stories about the Amphibian team with which Bloch was involved.

Bloch can often be seen on TV playing in some of the biggest poker tournaments in the country. He is a Harvard University Law School graduate and a member of the bar association.

The MIT Blackjack Team started in 1980 and ran winning "banks" until the mid-1980's, when most of the players got too well-known to play. Little play occurred from that point on until 1992 when the Bill Kaplan, JP Massar, and John Chang, a player trained by Kaplan and Massar, decided to start it up again. Kaplan formed a limited partnership, Strategic Investments, which raised $1 million and the Team was off and running again.

After growing to nearly 80 players and generating substantial profits and heat from casinos throughout the world, the managers decided to end the venture on 12/31/1993. A few of the players who were trained during the Strategic Investments regime continued to play on in small groups on and off through the mid-1990's. One group called itself the Reptiles and other group called itself the Amphibians. Both groups carried on the strategies they had learned, with each claiming to be more successful than the other to this day.

Although never 100% confirmed, this is probably true. Both teams went down a weekend apart. First the Amphibians went, led by Semyon Dukach, that team reportedly taking $250,000 back with them. The following weekend Kevin Lewis lead the Reptiles to Mohegan Sun and his Reptiles team hit the Mohegan Sun for up to 330,000 over that weekend. After that, the casino completely changed how blackjack was dealt.

A few years back a vice president of Mohegan Sun was being interviewed and was asked about the MIT team and that fateful opening weekend. After a short pause, he said he couldn't talk about it. But when asked again, he said that weekend was to date the least profitable weekend for blackjack in Mohegan Sun's history.

It is actually explained in great depth at this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem