FAQ for
21 (2008) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. . Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDbs Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for 21 can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478087/parentalguide.

Yes. 21, aka 21: The Movie. was based on Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (2002) by American author Ben Mezrich.

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

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.

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.

No. The Last Casino did come out four years before 21 and the plots are very similar but this is simply because both movies were inspired by 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 due to production issues. The producers of The Last Casino, with the increased flexibility of a smaller studio, did not encounter these issues, and released their movie in 2004. However, if not for the book "Bringing Down the House", most likely neither of these movies would have been made.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is actually explained in great depth at this link:

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

It is useful to remember that the premise is based on the situation not being random; the game show host knows what is behind each door, and is perhaps trying to enhance the player's chances of winning (or, perhaps, manipulating the situation for dramatic effect).

The only logical reason to hide money in the ceiling rather than using a financial institution is to hide ones earnings from the IRS. So presumably Ben was intending to commit tax fraud. The real Ben "Jeff Ma" hid his winning under his dirty clothes in a laundry basket thinking no one would ever look there. And he was correct, in real life Jeff was never robbed. It also should be noted that Jeff Ma was audited by the IRS twice and passed both audits without and problems.

Card counting is not cheating. Cheating involves breaking the rules in order to give oneself an unfair advantage. Card counting involves skillfull playing of the game. It is also not illegal. However, as private companies casinos can refuse service to card counters and exclude them from the premises.

None of the real MIT card counters were beaten up by casino security, although some were detained temporarily. The scenes of the security director Cole assaulting card counters were done for dramatic purposes. While Las Vegas once did have a "leg breaking" phase, most famously immortalized in the Scorcese film "Casino", that was a long time in the past. Nowadays most casinos are billion dollar businesses which have much more to lose from a lawsuit by a card counter who had beaten up than they have to gain by threatening them with bodily harm. Modern casinos simply document the card counters identity and ban him from further play. Indeed, Griffen Security, the company which eventually broke the MIT Card Counting Team, maintained a book of card counters which they shared among casinos, effectively banning known counters from wide segments of the gaming world.

Yes, card counting is a very popular subject. Here are just a few movies:

A 2004 movie called "The Last Casino" which was a lower budget Canadian-made film. This film bears strong resemblances to 21, as TLC was most likely also influenced by the book "Bringing Down the House" ("21" was based on this book). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419909/

"Hit Me", made in 2005, is also a low budget movie. Unlike "The Last Casino" and "21", the characters are adults, not students - the main character answers an ad in the newspaper looking for math whizzes. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468491/

"Rain Man" (1988) had a scene where the characters were counting cards in Vegas, but it wasn't the central element of the plot.