Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read for a Vegas Junkie
Review: As an inveterate Vegas junkie, I could hardly put this book down. Mr. Martinez captured the heart and soul of modern Las Vegas and blended it with just the right amount of history, all the time keeping the reader enthralled with the mystery of just how well he was eventually going to make out. The best book about Vegas I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Vegas Elopee Says Great Read!
Review: I eloped to Las Vegas and got married in a Strip chapel there two years ago. It was my second visit to the city after a decade (first and only wedding!) and Martinez' book, which I picked upon upon return, captured perfectly what life is like in the "new" Las Vegas. You'll also find some history and interesting anecdotes woven in. It's an interesting and easy read, and very funny. If you can't visit L.V., this book does a great job of capturing the surreal round-the-clock experience that is a visit to the place.
Rating:
Summary: Best Vegas Book Ever
Review: Mr. Martinez wrote the most exciting book on vegas ever inked on paper. As soon as I got it my wife read it before I'd had a chance to read the intro. She read it straight through and then I got my chance. I couldn't put the engaging story down and wish he'd get another $50,000 and write a sequel. The book goes fast but your money will last longer invvested in this book than on the tables in vegas.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining first-person narrative
Review: Andres Martinez employs his own brand of the "house edge" over other current Las Vegas books - he actually stayed and gambled at the hotel/casinos covered in the book. Granted, his publisher provided him with a $50,000 advance to be used as his nest egg, but it does engender a bit more sympathy and interest from the reader as we play along with his blackjack and baccarat hands.The book is well-paced, providing the right blend of hard facts, history, rumor and innuendo (which count for a lot in LV), and humor involving his own experiences and those of some unique personalities he meets along the way. Falls short of a 5-star rating due to occasional "New York City is better" diatribes. It might be homesickness on the author's part, but anybody expecting high culture in LV is bound to be disappointed. Superior to Pete Earley's "Super Casino," but both are definitely worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Great premise, missing just a touch of evil
Review: I really enjoyed this book and the author is very insightful and entertaining. I particularly enjoyed his diligence in moving away from the strip-life at times to show the reader a more diverse view of Vegas. However, one cannot deny that the best parts of the book is when Andres is belly up to the blackjack or Baccarat table. I kept thinking while reading this book, how much more entertaining it would be if you could combine someone of Andres obvious intellect and journalistic skill with someone who could really give him some material. What I mean by that is it would have been great to have not only the insights about Vegas and its' history but also to have accounts of what Vegas can really be like for someone who will take advantage of it in all its' hedonistic zeitgeist. I kept praying that Andres was going to cave and call his host at the luxor and tell him to send up the hottest big busted blonde he could find or something of the sort. Andres hits the mark on so many different aspects of Vegas but he is missing that one piece that can only be found by diving headfirst into the "naughtier" side of Vegas. As a frequent visitor to the "naughty" side of Vegas, I can tell you that the details of just one night during this past Super Bowl or Final Four would give Andres writing material for weeks. But all in all, a very entertaining and witty book.
Rating:
Summary: What a Great Book!
Review: In no way is this a serious account of a gambler in Vegas, but it is a truly funny, and light-hearted guide to Vegas Gambling. I would recommend this book to anyone planning a trip or just a pleasure read. By the end, I was really rooting for Andres. And if they are any other publishers out there looking to give me money to gamble with, I would write them one hell of a book.
Rating:
Summary: An Instant Classic
Review: Having read virtually every gambling book and every book on Las Vegas I would have to rate Martinez book at or near the top. Here's a guy with a $50,000 bankroll reading "The Idiots Guide to Gambling" on the plane to Vegas. Gotta love that. More than just a gambling book, this book delves into all aspects of Las Vegas from the exploding population to the rest room attendant at a strip club. Martinez has a great sense of humor and this book is very well written. It made me laugh out loud several times. Whether you're a gambler or not this book is entertaining. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Hats off to Martinez
Review: For four reasons: 1. He received a $50,000 "advance on royalties" for a book not yet written. 2. He gambled at "Almost high roller" status for 30 days, using his advance as his "bankroll" -- the subject of the book. 3. He wrote an excellent book about his experiences -- the casinos, the players, the dealers and pit bosses, the local personalities, the town, his emotional highs and lows. 4. He accurately described the glitter, the glory, the trials and tribulations of casino gaming. Although his choice of games wasn't always the best, and his understanding of the odds is a bit flawed, he managed to... can't tell you! Buy the book. As the author of several books on the subject, I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours I spent reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: What's Not to Like?
Review: You get 50,000 big ones to go to Las Vegas and play. It has to be a fun experience as long as the writer is up to it skillwise. Some writers of gambling books, notably Frank Scoblete and Barney Vinson, are very much up to it and can take the reader into the world of casinos and make them come alive. Other writers are not up to it. Martinez is definitely up to the task and this is a very enjoyable book, certainly, or almost, the equal of Scoblete's Guerrilla Gambling and Best Blackjack and Barney Vinson's Las Vegas Behind the Tables and Chip-Wrecked in Las Vegas. I recommend the book highly, you'll have great time reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's Hunter S. Thompson when you need him?
Review: The main thing I gathered from this book is that the author is a really nice guy with a nice mother, a loving wife, and a very tolerant publisher. He writes pretty good, too, and I'd love to have him for a neighbor. He needed a subject for his first book, so he wrote about Las Vegas. And if you want to make Las Vegas pretty boring, sending a really nice, properly brought up young man to cover it looks like the way to go. Suspecting that merely detailing his amateurish attempts to beat the house would make a pretty dull book, the author managed to interview a few potentially colorful characters. Alas, he seemed to find them to be pretty much like himself, i.e., not all that interesting after all. Anyway, about the time his mother and his wife arrived for Easter, or some other holiday (this was soon after he helped the Boy Scouts, or somebody, clean up the desert, or some such), I fell to organizing my socks drawer just to get the old adrenaline flowing again. Well, it seemed at least as exciting as Las Vegas.
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