The subtitle of the original, hardcover edition was The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees,[1] but the subtitle of the subsequent paperback editions was A True Story of Monumental Excess, Sex, Love, Violence, and Beating the Odds.

The team deals with the crises of success, and one of the players develops a substance abuse problem that will ultimately prove their downfall.

An aggressive investigation by casinos into the teams' various false identities forces them to travel outside of America to continue play, culminating in a high tension climax in Monte Carlo after being caught steering cards.

Many of the events involving Victor appear to be drawn from the experiences of Johnny Chang including the plane crash detailed at the start of the book.

[3] Another composite character at least partly based on an MIT team member known only as 'Katie' who appeared in the History Channel documentary 'Breaking Vegas'.