Rating: 
Summary: Exciting, Fun Read!
Review: Wonderful book. Will keep you hooked until the very last page. Great entertainment if you like to gamble and even if you don't. The only problem is that you will finish it in a few days because it is so good!
Rating:
Summary: Once I Started Reading, I Couldn't Put it Down
Review: After I'd read two chapters, I was hooked. I normally take several days to read something like this (during train rides to/from work), but I just couldn't put this one down! I finished it off within 48 hours.This is a non-fiction work, but it reads like a mystery/crime novel. It's a very easy read and Mezrich mixes present-day flashbacks with a solid chronology of the exploits of the MIT Blackjack Team. It was just amazing to see what these kids accomplished, and at the same time was horifying to see the tactics that the casino owners would use to intimidate a small gang of self-proclainmed geeks. The way the book flows, you almost feel like you're there on the casino floor with the Team. You revel in their successes and you feel their pain when the pit bosses and casino managers "back room" them. A thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC
Review: What a great read, i read it cover to cover in 3 nights. Fast paced and informative, to put it simply it made me want to play some black jack... buy it... no wait; buy 2, get one for your friend.
Rating:
Summary: Know when to walk away - and know when to RUN!!
Review: If you love Vegas and are interested in the darker side that no one talks about then this book will interest you. Aside from the gambling 'strategy' that is obviously the subject of the book, it is good reading on how Vegas works - no, how it REALLY works. A quick read, I read all but the last 4 chapters on my flight from Boston to Dallas and it made me wish I was better at numbers so I could hop on a flight to Vegas and try out what I'd read. A great book about Vegas - I hope someone turns it into a movie because it would really be exciting!
Rating: 
Summary: MIT Teaches About More Then Just Zeros and Ones
Review: Apparently one can also learn about kings, queens and aces at MIT. More specifically, probability theory is put to work with a very profitable return. I suspect Fermat would have been impressed. logicalreviewer hit upon the few logical issues I had with this book as well. In addition, it reads like a screenplay with each chapter ending with a "fade to commercial" type dramitic effect. Kind of silly effect for a non-ficional account of an interesting story. The last paragraph of the story felt contrived. That said, it is a fun and quick read. I did enjoy the story through the noisey writing style. Under the tutelage of a rebel professor, a small group of MIT students use a forty year old counting theory updated to reflect modern gambling technology. It is called card counting throughout the book, but in reality it is a developed skill that allows one to determine probablility at any given point in the game of blackjack with a six deck shoe. Unlike the character in "Rain Man," these students didn't have to remember the order of every card delt. They refined a system that allowed for rapid calculations. Quite a simple method if you want to win against your buddies in a home game. However, in reality the students are quite intelligent and applied this simple methodology to a very complex application. Under the careful watch of the dealers, bosses, supervisors, casino cameras, lights, dancers, servers, crowds, other players, and many distractions found in a casino, keeping track of a deck position and then taking advantage of it is quite another challenge. It is quite clear that the average person can not do what they did. Overall this is an interesting story of a few bright people who used their ability to rapidly calculate probabilities and swing the blackjack odds, normally in favor of the house, in their favor. While legal, this practice is not accepted by the casinos because the odds are with them and they want to keep it that way. You get caught and they will make you leave. The trick is not getting caught and that is 90% of the challenge in the story. The suckers throwing their money away twenty four hours a day will keep coming. The casinos are happy to have them just as long as they are not from MIT!
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: This book is great. It took me about 2 days to read. A page turner. If you like to gamble this is a great book. It sticks to the story and doesnt go off in tangents like "Postivly Fith Street". A perfect read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: For anyone who has ever played blackjack in Vegas, this is a must-read! I couldn't put it down. The places and people that you see through Kevin's eyes are exactly as you remember them from being there.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining, quick read.
Review: Here's why you shouldn't read this book: this is Mezrich's first attempt at non-fiction, and it shows. What could have been a highly interesting book for the scientifically-inclined reader is, at times, turned into something that borders on trashy entertainment. When I'm reading a book about blackjack-playing "geniuses", I'm not particularly interested in their sexual exploits or cheap analogies between strippers and casinos. Also, as someone who is a stickler for details, I found some of the science in the book to be conflicting. Some of the practices he describes in the book go completely against the theory that the MIT team came up with. Any reader who pays attention will notice this, and an explanation by the author about these conflicts would have been nice. If you're looking for truly hard science w/ explanations, you won't get it here. Here's why you should read the book: If you like blackjack, gambling in general, or the concept of a few smart kids *legally* fleecing large corporations, this book is extremely entertaining.
The scientific concepts are explained so anyone can understand them, and there's a nice afterward by one of the MIT team members. It's a quick read, and it makes for a guaranteed interesting conversation with people who've read it -- and those that haven't, too. 3 stars overall, for keeping me entertained on the plane.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting and Fun
Review: At first glance you may think that "Bringing down the House" is a 200+ page tip sheet on how you can count cards like the MIT kids of the late nineties. If you are looking to learn their techniques, look elsewhere. Ben Mezrich instead leads us thru the rise and "fall" of the MIT whiz kids destruction of Vegas and other national casinos. The book offers an easy to follow story, with chapters of interviews with those that knew the card counters themselves.
The book was a quick read, and was a great primer for my weekend in Vegas. I actually gambled a lot less while I was there because I knew after reading this how true the phrase is, "The house never loses" If you are looking for something fun, quick and exciting, and are not looking to learn card counting, then this book is for you!!
Rating:
Summary: Great suspense the whole way through
Review: Some of the best-written books are nonfiction written by novelists. It allows the reader to absorb a real story that has added weight with the benefit of a narrative to make it dramatic. These elements are the key to the success of Bringing Down the House. The entire opening is a mini drama in itself, maybe the blackjack equivalent of Indiana Jones trying to get the idol at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Without knowing any of the story we are put into the setting of a young man named Kevin carrying a million dollars trying to escape a casino before the managers take him downstairs followed by the drama of whether the protagonist can get the cash money through airport security. When we catch our breath we start to get the linear story of how our hero came to be where he was that night. The book speaks to two powerful desires within us. The first is the rebellious longing to outsmart authority and the second is the desire to use our wits to get rich. The plan was genius in construction but easy in operation. Counting cards has never been difficult and it's perfectly legal, but it's so easily spotted by pit bosses that players get barred for trying it. That's the trade-off. How long can someone count cards and make money before they are found out and asked to never return? I won't ruin their scheme, because it's part of the genius of the book. What's great about the book is not just the plan itself but the many experiences our hero lives as he achieves his goals. He meets celebrities, stays in the best suites for free and gets great seats to the biggest boxing matches of the year. He lives the life of a gilded age Diamond Jim in a Las Vegas suite on the weekend, only to return to his rundown dorm during the week. Like all biographies are really longings within us to improve our own lives, Bringing Down the House demonstrates that raw ability can yield results with the proper discipline and effort, even when the methods and tactics aren't universally supported. Imagine what this brainwork could be doing in the realm of cold fission.
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