Bill Kaplan founded and led the MIT Blackjack Team in the 1980s and co-managed the team with Massar and Chang from 1992 to 1993, during which time Jeff Ma joined the then nearly 80 person team. The team's principal leader, Micky Rosa is a composite character based primarily on Bill Kaplan, JP Massar, and John Chang. After his professional card counting career, Aponte went on to win the 2004 World Series of Blackjack, and started a company called the Blackjack Institute. One of the leaders of the team, Jason Fisher, is modeled in part after Mike Aponte. Nonetheless, Lewis does things in the book that Ma himself says did not occur. Mezrich acknowledges that Lewis is the sole major character based on a single, real-life individual other characters are composites. Ma has since gone on to found a fantasy sports company called Citizen Sports (a stock market simulation game). Personality conflicts and card counting deterrent efforts at the casinos eventually ended this incarnation of the MIT Blackjack Team.Īs revealed in the 2008 paperback edition of the book, Kevin Lewis's real name is Jeff Ma, an MIT student who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1994. This new team was the most profitable yet.

The team was financed by a colorful character named Micky Rosa, who had organized at least one other team to play the Vegas strip. Lewis was recruited by two of the team's top players, Jason Fisher and Andre Martinez. The book's main character is Kevin Lewis, an MIT graduate who was invited to join the MIT Blackjack Team in 1993. The book was adapted into the movies 21 and The Last Casino. Though the book is classified as non-fiction, the Boston Globe alleges that the book contains significant fictional elements, that many of the key events propelling the drama did not occur in real life, and that others were exaggerated greatly. Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a 2003 book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team.

Bring down the duke