New book about the AP frat boys

[Deal]

Hopefully Druff can get this guy on for a Radio Show.

http://www.benmezrich.com/

[SrslySirius]

Have you ever read any of his books? They're pretty awful, and it's said that he loves to stretch the truth or even make shit up.

[Dan Druff]

Crap, I heard about this awhile back.

It was supposedly going to be a pro-AP tale that painted the owners as creative entrepreneurs who were victimized by the Draconian government on Black Friday.

From the cover of the book, it looks like that's exactly what this guy is writing about.

Terrible.

[SrslySirius]

Crap, I heard about this awhile back.

It was supposedly going to be a pro-AP tale that painted the owners as creative entrepreneurs who were victimized by the Draconian government on Black Friday.

From the cover of the book, it looks like that's exactly what this guy is writing about.

Terrible.

Correct. Here's a clip of him talking about it on CNBC.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2012/0...oker-13240.htm

Same old Ben Mezrich hack formula. An underdog story of gifted and tenacious college kids finding overnight success and riches against all odds.

*Record scratch*

Until ooooonnne daaaaaaaaay, the big bad government stepped in! And they're about to find out that betting against mean Uncle Sam isn't so easy!

Rob Schneider is a stapler.

Also, years ago I read Bringing Down the House, and it's one of the most poorly written books I can remember reading.

[Hurdleking]

Completely agree.....mezrich is a hack, poor writer to start and focused on making a score and selling movie rights....his latest was a bizarre take on moon rocks.....btw, congrats ss on your new job....well deserved..

[Dan Druff]

I will admit that I never read "Bringing Down the House", despite being a blackjack card counter myself.

I did see the movie "21", which it was based upon.

I thought "21" was very good in the first half, but terrible in the second half. In fact, I've never seen a movie where the two halves differed so greatly.

Was the book like that, too?

The second half of "21" was botched in every way, from character development, romantic relationship development, to story development, to execution. The whole latter part of the film was just awful, which was such a letdown because I was really into it after the first half.

[Hockey Guy]

Have you ever read any of his books? They're pretty awful, and it's said that he loves to stretch the truth or even make shit up.

I read about 10 pages of Bring Down the House & had to stop. He's a terrible writer & continuing may have killed too many brain cells.

[haleylh]

I'll probably have to obtain the damned book somehow, just to debunk it. There's a decent chance the entire cheating episode will simply be omitted from Mezrich's version of the AP story.

[bukowski72]

I liked bringing down the house "Bringing Down the House." The movie was bad. They changed the main character -- can't have an Asian person as the lead character in a movie -- and his motivation.

I agree that Mezerich is a terrible writer. I used to be involved in trading so I was psyched to buy "Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid who Changed the World of Oil, From Wall Street To Dubai." A little bit of hyperbole in that title.

Rigged was so full of bad writing and junk that I stopped reading it half way through. Rigged now has an end row spot on one of my bookshelves -- where I put books that I don't care if they get destroyed by the decorative pieces on my bookshelves.

[JimmyG_415]

Have you ever read any of his books? They're pretty awful, and it's said that he loves to stretch the truth or even make shit up.

I read about 10 pages of Bring Down the House & had to stop. He's a terrible writer & continuing may have killed too many brain cells.

I read it in like a day, I enjoyed it, but it is total BS.
I've heard 2 guys say the book was based on them, Jeff Ma, and Mike Apointe.
I had always thought it was on Jeff Ma. Regardless, they both said the same thing, the book kind of got some things right, but it was more made up than real.
They both said the movie was fiction. It resembled them in no way.

[Walter Sobchak]

The bulk of his blackjack books are crap, but they are amusing fantasies. They do for college kids and wannabe gamblers what paperback romance novels do for fat undersexed housewives.

They did however teach me methods of team blackjack play, which I never knew about before.

It's not Mezrich's fault the movies suck.

[Deal]

http://pokerfuse.com/news/media-and-...t-month-14-04/

Chuck is giving it a thumbs down.

[SrslySirius]

Chuck is giving it a thumbs down.

[Deal]

you blind sighted me with that gif.

[Dan Druff]

A twoplustwo post from "styleXX" in 2007 "predicted" this book:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54...ana-sae-38968/

However, according to this article below, "styleXX" actually is friends with AP co-founder Brent Beckley, and definitely had inside knowledge:

http://pokerfuse.com/features/commen...-house-really/

So it looks like Mezrich has a longstanding relationship/friendship with Scott Tom and friends, and was always planning to write something positive about them.

[Dan Druff]

Here is Mezrich in a CNBC interview:

[cnbc]http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000109317/code/cnbcplayershare[/cnbc]

[Rollo Tomasi]

Here is Mezrich in a CNBC interview:

[cnbc]http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000109317/code/cnbcplayershare[/cnbc]

[hotshott74]

Does the ending get updated now?