Post by Forever Xena on Jan 18, 2006 9:22:59 GMT -6
'Numb3rs' in the Cards for 'Bringing Down the House' Author
By Rick Porter
Thursday, January 12, 2006
01:16 PM PT
Friday's episode of the CBS crime drama "Numb3rs" centers on the murder of a college student outside a card club. As FBI Agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his team investigate the crime, they discover the victim was part of a card-counting ring and had just won big in blackjack.
It's territory author Ben Mezrich knows well. Take out the murder part, and it could be a description of his book "Bringing Down the House," an account of how several MIT students took Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars with a team-play system that involved counting cards.
Mezrich and a few of the students portrayed in the book -- Jeff Ma, Matthew Lau and Tonya Chen -- make cameos in the episode.
"Everyone was really excited" about appearing on the show, Mezrich says. "The main character from 'Bringing Down the House' [Ma] is a huge fan of 'Numb3rs' and has basically seen every episode. I was a big fan too -- I just like the idea of a show that uses math in ways you don't see on TV."
The card counters in the episode are students at the fictional Cal-Sci, where Don's genius brother Charlie (David Krumholtz), who uses his math skills to help the FBI, teaches. Mezrich and the MIT crew got to chat with Krumholtz and fellow cast members Peter MacNicol and Navi Rawat while filming their scene at a casino in Los Angeles.
Krumholtz, Mezrich says, "definitely was familiar" with "Bringing Down the House." "He knew a fair amount about the story. It was cool hanging out with him."
And though Mezrich has had some dealings with Hollywood -- his book is currently in development as a feature film with Kevin Spacey -- he's not afraid to be a fan either. Of Krumholtz he says, "I loved him in 'Harold & Kumar.'"
While what Ma and his MIT cohorts did in Vegas isn't against the law -- "Anything you do with your brain is completely legal," Mezrich says -- they're no longer welcome in the casinos where they won seven-figure sums playing blackjack. So Mezrich is looking forward to seeing himself and the card-counters onscreen Friday.
"I think it will be funny to see," he says. "The real MIT kids are sitting at the table, and these guys are literally the best blackjack players in the world, guys who made $6 million card-counting. If these guys sat down in a real Vegas casino, they'd get kicked out in about five seconds. So it will be cool to see them interacting with the people who are essentially playing them
By Rick Porter
Thursday, January 12, 2006
01:16 PM PT
Friday's episode of the CBS crime drama "Numb3rs" centers on the murder of a college student outside a card club. As FBI Agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his team investigate the crime, they discover the victim was part of a card-counting ring and had just won big in blackjack.
It's territory author Ben Mezrich knows well. Take out the murder part, and it could be a description of his book "Bringing Down the House," an account of how several MIT students took Las Vegas casinos for millions of dollars with a team-play system that involved counting cards.
Mezrich and a few of the students portrayed in the book -- Jeff Ma, Matthew Lau and Tonya Chen -- make cameos in the episode.
"Everyone was really excited" about appearing on the show, Mezrich says. "The main character from 'Bringing Down the House' [Ma] is a huge fan of 'Numb3rs' and has basically seen every episode. I was a big fan too -- I just like the idea of a show that uses math in ways you don't see on TV."
The card counters in the episode are students at the fictional Cal-Sci, where Don's genius brother Charlie (David Krumholtz), who uses his math skills to help the FBI, teaches. Mezrich and the MIT crew got to chat with Krumholtz and fellow cast members Peter MacNicol and Navi Rawat while filming their scene at a casino in Los Angeles.
Krumholtz, Mezrich says, "definitely was familiar" with "Bringing Down the House." "He knew a fair amount about the story. It was cool hanging out with him."
And though Mezrich has had some dealings with Hollywood -- his book is currently in development as a feature film with Kevin Spacey -- he's not afraid to be a fan either. Of Krumholtz he says, "I loved him in 'Harold & Kumar.'"
While what Ma and his MIT cohorts did in Vegas isn't against the law -- "Anything you do with your brain is completely legal," Mezrich says -- they're no longer welcome in the casinos where they won seven-figure sums playing blackjack. So Mezrich is looking forward to seeing himself and the card-counters onscreen Friday.
"I think it will be funny to see," he says. "The real MIT kids are sitting at the table, and these guys are literally the best blackjack players in the world, guys who made $6 million card-counting. If these guys sat down in a real Vegas casino, they'd get kicked out in about five seconds. So it will be cool to see them interacting with the people who are essentially playing them
source zap2it