COUNTING ON HER

But no one suspected how Willis was using those skills. Even as a partner at a high-powered Boston law firm, she has kept her curious back story to herself.

She might still be mum if not for 21, the new movie about MIT8217;s celebrated blackjack team. Willis was a member of the card-counting cadre that beat the casinos and inspired the best-selling book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. In the film, Kate Bosworth8217;s character is based on Willis.

Willis8217; blackjack days are now behind her. It8217;s been a decade since she was a practicing card shark. 8220;We didn8217;t do anything dishonest or fraudulent. We were good kids,8221; she says. 8220;It8217;s totally legal to use your brain.8221;

Willis, 38, had never played blackjack when she joined the team in the early 1990s. At Harvard Law School, Willis and her boyfriend were both 8220;math geeks.8221; They were also friends with Jeff Ma, an MIT student and one of the ringleaders of the school8217;s clandestine blackjack club.

8220;He told us about Vegas,8221; Willis says. 8220;I think it dawned on him that we could play blackjack and also give the team, which was mostly Asian and male, a little diversity.8221;

Willis says beating the casino is a blast. 8220;Walking into a Las Vegas casino and knowing you8217;re going to play a pit for 12 hours and have an edge8212;that8217;s a very exciting feeling.8221;

Willis and her boyfriend, who later married and then divorced, began practicing with the team after-hours in a classroom at MIT. They quickly became proficient at counting cards, the act of tracking the ratio of high cards8212;10s, face cards, and aces8212;to low cards in the deck.

Willis had the advantage of being a woman. Security at Caesars Palace, the MGM Grand, and other Las Vegas casinos rarely suspected female patrons of card-counting. 8220;I could almost count out loud and not get caught,8221; she says.

Willis was the 8220;spotter,8221; on the team, which meant she counted cards until the deck was 8220;hot,8221; or loaded with high cards. She would then signal to Ma8212;the 8220;guerrilla big player8221;8212;who8217;d sit down and start wagering.

8220;Jane was as smart, if not smarter, than anyone on the team,8221; says Ma, who estimates he won more than 1 million playing blackjack. Willis won8217;t say how much she made.

Aside from a few close friends, Willis told almost no one about her involvement with the team. It wasn8217;t until 2004, six years after she played her last hand, that Willis8217;s parents found out. Hollywood has further spiced up Willis8217; life in the film with a frantic chase, phony IDs and a brief love scene between Ma and Willis, who were never a couple.

In 2005, Willis remarried. She still loves Las Vegas and visits at least once a year. A few weeks ago, Willis and her husband, Rich Davey, attended the Las Vegas premiere of 21. Afterward they strolled through the casinos, pausing to play a little blackjack. 8220;She was more interested in craps, but unfortunately there8217;s no way to count dice,8221; says Davey. NYT

Blackjack basics
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one, is a casino card game, where one plays against a dealer by raising bets. Each player8217;s goal is to beat the dealer by having the higher, unbusted hand, that is the hand with the highest total wins as long as it doesn8217;t exceed 21; a hand with a higher total than 21 is said to bust. A two-card hand of 21 an ace plus a ten-value card is called a 8220;blackjack8221; and is an automatic winner.

Card counting
The principle behind card counting in blackjack is that a deck of cards with a high proportion of high cards tens and aces to low cards is good for the player, while the reverse a deck with a high proportion of low cards to high cards is good for the dealer. A deck rich in tens and aces improves the player8217;s odds because blackjacks which offer a higher payout than other winning hands become more common, the dealer is more likely to bust a stiff hand. Card counters raise their bets when the ratio of high cards to low cards in the deck is skewed in their favour. Some card counters only enter when the count becomes favourable.