The Rosa character is fictionalized. Kaplan started the team and then brought Massar on to run it with him in the early 1980's. Chang was trained by Kaplan and Massar a few years after the start of the Team.
In 1992, Kaplan raised $1 million to get the MIT Blackjack Team rolling again. Massar helped oversee much of the player training and Chang acted frequently as one of the trip managers since he continued to travel to casinos and play at the tables. Rosa was supposed to be the founder and leader of the Team, who ran the Team as a business and retired a long time ago "when he was at the top." Nothing else about his character or story line bears any resemblance to the real players on the Team.
I also played and invested in the Team, beginning in the early 1980's. Kaplan started the Team and laid out all of the strategies and ground rules, bringing on JP Massar to co-manage the Team once it grew to about 15-20 players. The Team took a respite in the latter part of the 80's and early 90's until Kaplan jumpstarted it again in 1992 by raising $1 million through a limited partnership.
I understand Mezrich never interviewed Kaplan or Massar in writing "Bringing Down the House" but he did make up a character, Mickey Rosa, mostly fictionalized to add adventure to the story line and partially based on stories Mezrich had heard of Kaplan, Massar and others.
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The Rosa character is fictionalized. Kaplan started the team and then brought Massar on to run it with him in the early 1980's. Chang was trained by Kaplan and Massar a few years after the start of the Team. In 1992, Kaplan raised $1 million to get the MIT Blackjack Team rolling again. Massar helped oversee much of the player training and Chang acted frequently as one of the trip managers since he continued to travel to casinos and play at the tables. Rosa was supposed to be the founder and leader of the Team, who ran the Team as a business and retired a long time ago "when he was at the top." Nothing else about his character or story line bears any resemblance to the real players on the Team.
I also played and invested in the Team, beginning in the early 1980's. Kaplan started the Team and laid out all of the strategies and ground rules, bringing on JP Massar to co-manage the Team once it grew to about 15-20 players. The Team took a respite in the latter part of the 80's and early 90's until Kaplan jumpstarted it again in 1992 by raising $1 million through a limited partnership. I understand Mezrich never interviewed Kaplan or Massar in writing "Bringing Down the House" but he did make up a character, Mickey Rosa, mostly fictionalized to add adventure to the story line and partially based on stories Mezrich had heard of Kaplan, Massar and others.