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The Real MIT Blackjack Mastermind

Posted by samzenpus on from the king-of-counting dept.

Wade Roush writes "21, the top movie at the box office last weekend, has everyone talking about the real identities of the MIT blackjack team members fictionalized in the movie and in the 2002 book, Bringing Down the House, on which the film is based. Last week a number of stories pointed to former MIT student and Las Vegas resident John Chang as the model for the Micky Rosa character, the club mastermind played in the movie by Kevin Spacey. But Boston-area Internet entrepreneur and real estate developer Bill Kaplan is saying that if anyone is the basis for Micky Rosa, it's him. Turns out Kaplan now battles the "e-mail churn" problem as CEO of Newton, MA, startup FreshAddress, which helps companies correct the outdated e-mail addresses in their customer databases."

3 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. What kind of job is that? by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Turns out Kaplan now battles the "e-mail churn" problem as CEO of Newton, MA, startup FreshAddress, which helps companies correct the outdated e-mail addresses in their customer databases."

    Translation: Kaplan now helps marketers/spammers share your address so that when you associate your new address with your same other information, they can continue to market to/spam you.

    Yeah, right, that's a job that's gonna get you a lot of respect here on /.

    1. Re:What kind of job is that? by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you meant scam.

      And counting cards is in no way scamming.

      It's just playing the game the way a scientist should, not the typical "mystical" way that most people do.

      Maybe in a hundred years "luck" will be an outmoded concept and gambling will been seen properly as "entertainment" but until then, most every idiot who goes to a casino is a mystical moron who thinks he's going to get lucky and win.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:What kind of job is that? by bskin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Card counting isn't a scam, but some of the tricks they used to keep the house from twigging to what they were doing comes pretty close -- disguises, aliases, having lookouts stationed at different tables waiting for a hot deck, at which point they'd signal a team-mate to come over and law down the big bucks.

      No, it's really no more of a scam or criminal act than, say, encrypting your email. There's nothing wrong with obscuring what you're doing.

      --
      hot foreign sheep.