Play It Right

FOR READERS OF MICHAEL LEWIS''S THE BIG SHORT AND ANITA RAGHAVAN''S THE BILLIONAIRE APPRENTICE COMES A TRUE STORY LIKE NO OTHER How to launch the largest hedge fund in history on Wall Street by training in blackjack All around the world the words ''Wall Street'' conjure up a powerful image-for some the centre of America''s capitalist system and for others the home of rapacious bankers whose greed led to a global financial crisis. For a scrappy Indian-born computer scientist however Wall Street represented something else entirely-a chance to play in the largest casino in the world. Bored with the tech world Kamal Gupta devoted two years of his life to the single-minded pursuit of becoming a professional blackjack player and had grown his bankroll to thirty-two times its original size getting barred from several casinos in the process. In an unexpected turn of events his gambling exploits brought him to Wall Street where his unique skills led to him raising eight billion dollars for the largest hedge fund launch in history. Play It Right is a darkly comic account of Gupta''s improbable journey from New Delhi to Las Vegas to New York. It isn''t so much a story about money as it is about human ambition and beating the odds whether at a casino on Wall Street or in life.