Rating: 
Summary: Good read, but of limited value to blackjack players
Review: This is an entertaining story of Six MIT students who fleece Las Vegas for millions.
This book makes very entertaining reading if you have no serious interest in blackjack beyond the superficial glamour of the casino world. I read it in a couple of sittings. The personalities are vivid, the pace of the story sweeps you along, and the finale is somewhat unexpected and disturbing. Read as a thriller with a blackjack theme, the book is well worth the cover price.
From the perspective of the blackjack enthusiast the value of the book is limited. The question of how to make a spectacular profits given the low % advantage associated with card counting or even the other more advanced techniques of shuffle analysis the blackjack team use, is addressed, but never really answered.The team never appear to have a losing streak of any sizeable length. As card counters know, this is pure fantasy. The negative fluctuations (losing periods) associated with counting or count-based strategies are extreme and may last months or even years. Some selective editing has obviously been applied here, or this team of players experienced a winning streak of such abnormal length they must have fallen off the bell curve. This is a far greater problem than the exposure question which the book focuses on as the major difficulty facing advantage gamblers. On the human level, Mezrich connects well with the emotional schizophrenia of his subjects. The alienation of the casino lifestyle has rarely been better expressed. However, the dialogue is at times forced and artificial. There are none of the pauses, misunderstandings or irrelavancies of normal discussion. While that is essential to move the story forward in a work of fiction, this supposedly all happened, so it gives the book a credibility problem-if they didn't talk like that, what else has been changed? An essay by "Kevin Lewis" at the conclusion of the book exacerbates the problem: Lewis appears familiar with the basics of blackjack advantage play, yet makes a very surprising error. His recommended betting schedule is too aggressive by (at least) a factor of four. It would result in virtually certain ruin for the gambler if actually used in play. It seems incredible that such an apparently talented player would make such an elementary error. The book would be better off without this section, since as a whole its value to advantage players is negligible or harmful. I must thank Mezrich for stimulating interest in blackjack generally, but I'd caution anybody against taking up the blackjack lifestyle on the basis of this book. Its extremely tough to make it at the highest level and very few actually achieve it without extreme dedication to developing their skills, and huge capital investment. In contrast to the glamourous picture portrayed here, many card counters lead isolated quasi-nomadic lifestyles without purpose or direction. If you want to waste an afternoon then buy this book, you won't be disappointed. If you want to improve your blackjack skills, then pick up something here by Ed Thorp, Stanford Wong or Arnold Snyder. John May (Author of "Get The Edge At Blackjack")
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful story
Review: I loved this book. The story was surprisingly entertaining and exciting. The MIT students really learned the in's and out's of Vegas during their tenure as high-rollers - and took you down that road with them! I loved learning the intracacies of playing blackjack and the card counting scheming involved in fooling the casino's. The book delivers on being able to get the reader involved in the characters/players while providing enough stats and facts to make it all real. Fast easy read - 4+stars
Rating:
Summary: Illusionists, Robin Hoods
Review: Games are Vegas' vehicle gassed by greed. Exorbitant illusions of opulence and luxury seduce greedy players, which in turn funds casino shareholders' greed. The house always wins, eventually. Kevin Lewis, a genius graduate of MIT, provides the map and vehicle. Ben Mezrich accelerates like a psychotic taxi driver, leaving readers to hold-on for dear life as the text zooms through Kevin Lewis' double life. Sharp dialogue, continuous action, and character development seem akin to an Elmore Leonard or Chuck Palanuick novel, not a piece of historical non-fiction. Yes, unfortunately, this text is historical, a subcultural curiosity study. My wife and I will head to Vegas later this month and we won't be able to capitalize off the techniques espoused by the MIT blackjack teams in this book because 1) I'm not mathematically gifted and 2) Vegas has developed (as detailed in portions of the text) increasingly sophisticated methods to thwart card counting (and elevate my paranoia of big brother). The MIT blackjack team (we follow the character development of team member Kevin Lewis) utilizes mathematical prowess, illusion (aliases, acting, costumes), and team work to propel themselves into renegade Robin Hoods that legally outsmart and outhustle Vegas -- earning millions of dollars. Mezrich effectively shifts the reader from various time frames (1994 -2002) and multifarious locations (Boston, Vegas, Chicago, Bahamas, Shreveport, etc.) to keep curiosity high. The text ends with an informative short essay on card counting by Kevin Lewis. The dustjacket states: "It's a story Vegas doesn't want you to read." I disagree, this book is what Vegas wants me to read because my appetite is whet to hit the blackjack tables to play (hoping I have a slight statistical edge to win) and to search the crowd for possible blackjack team members. All the time, the house will win, but at least this book provides a means for me to have a touch of fun while loosing.
Rating:
Summary: Great read for casino fans
Review: Forget what the critics assail about Mezrich's writing style: if you are a fan of casinos, especially of blackjack, then this book is a great read. Those who are not casino aficionados are not likely to be as impressed, but serious and even casual players should find the rob-the-casinos storyline to be very entertaining. It is a great look into the life of the serious card counter and also a wonderful portrayal of how unabated greed and callousness can ultimately destroy a blackjack player.
Rating: 
Summary: A must if you like blackjack
Review: Hey, I don't even like blackjack very much but this book is so exciting that anyone should love it. I'm bad about starting books and loosing interest, but not with Bringing Down the House. I never stopped, and wished it wouldn't end. In fact, in the last few chapters when the book is winding down, I felt like I was on the way home from a great vacation. Now I have to plan another trip! Man I've got to get to Vegas for real and hit the action, no card counting though.
Rating:
Summary: A Geekier, Less Ambitious Ocean's Eleven
Review: Bringing Down the House describes a few years in the lives of a handful of cocky, largely socially-clueless MIT nerds who bring their math skills to Las Vegas for enormous profit. Card counting is their game, combined with an elaborate network of aliases, codes, teamwork, and later, disguises. The intracacies of their plan, while not hard to understand, were nevertheless brilliant, and clearly gave them an advantage over the casinos. Their techniques were clearly described in BDTH, complete with analogies and tricks to make blackjack and way to beat its odds even more comprehensible to the non-player. The players got fantastically greedy around the same time the casinos got more sophisticated in their methods of tracking cheats and card counters. You get the impression that main character Kevin Lewis and his gang were very, very lucky not to have gotten in more trouble than described in the book (which amounted to a slap on the wrist, really); and you also appreciate the amazing, disgusting greed that kept the group going back for more despite obscene winnings and warnings that would have scared (socially, not book-wise) smarter people away. Las Vegas, and the nation's casino network, really, became too small a place for their card-counting organization to operate, especially when you learn that MIT operated several teams (and that the tech school wasn't the only game in town, either). Mezrich does a great job of devising dialogue and scene details that clearly could not have been remembered to the same degree. He also adds an element of credibility to the tale by going through some of its subjects' steps himself, such as transporting cash strapped to his person through airport security, and counting a few rounds in a major casino. What he doesn't do, however, is make the reader like any of the main characters- they all come across as phony jerks who slip too easily into slimy alter egos. There are a few times when Mezrich tries to keep "the real" Kevin Lewis separate from his gaming personas, and describe him as winsome in the process, but to no avail. Lewis, Martinez, Fisher, et al. were too convincing in playing slimeballs, and acting like they thought the world was their oyster, to calmly come back to Earth and resume their humble Boston identities. There was also some "David-vs-Goliath" nonsense spouted by the card players, who viewed themselves as valiantly undermining evil corporate casinos as they counted at the blackjack tables. The nobility of their efforts quickly became dubious, though, with each mention of big money spent at strip clubs, steak dinners, and tipping bar doormen. These were all kids of privilege, too, by the sounds of it, and most likely ended up working for the very evil corporate world that they foolishly imagined themselves railing against. Although this story was tightly knit and felt complete, there are some missing pieces that I'm still curious about: who were some of the people responsible for funding the MIT teams (i.e., the providers of the seed money for the gambling excursions)? Who ratted out Kevin Lewis' team, and who was responsible for the shakedowns and threats that scared them away? Why would the players confide in author Ben Mezrich, without fear of retaliation or dragging down anyone else still in the game?
Rating:
Summary: COMPELLING READ, SOON TO BE A MOTION PICTURE
Review: TO QUICKLY BACK UP what other reviewers have written here:
That this is going to be a movie eventually is a foregone conclusion. In fact, in my opinion, the author probably wrote this with an eye towards that goal. This would explain the "exaggerations," referred to by other reviewers that I would also say exist within this book. After reading this book, you'd think these "teams" were printing money, with no losing whatsoever. Anyone who knows anything about card counting knows it is not a gravy train where you earn the next 5 years rent money EVERY weekend! When you find out these teams earned a total of $4 million (divided among home many members?), you're quite shocked, because you would have figured after reading the authors' prose that they all retired multi-millionares. Then again, being a bunch of MIT geeks who don't have the self-confidence to get laid in a brothel, they probably just got fleeced of most of their winnings at the strip clubs they frequented. I could just hear them say, "Hey, I think that blond with the fake breasts really likes me. Maybe if I tip her again she'll come up to the hotel room we got at the Westward Ho."
Seriously, though, this goal of a movie would also explain some of the cliche-ridden dialogue and seemingly over-dramatized portions. What the heck? If I was writing the book, I would do the same thing and cash in on the movie options. As an aside, I would back up the theory that winning at blackjack will soon become obsolete. With face-recongnition technology, and other items mentioned by other reviewers, blackjack rates of return will go so low as to not be worth it anymore. IF YOU WANT TO WIN IN VEGAS, you have 2 better choices (with the obvious caveat that you better have some skills at either of these): 1. sports wagering, 2. poker. Why? In both, your profits come from other gamblers, not the house. The house gets their cut in poker, or the vig in sports wagering, So they could care less how much of SOMEONE ELSE's money you are taking.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining book
Review: This s a very enjoyable, very entertaining story about six MIT students and their teacher/mentor who devised a system of counting cards in an effort to break the bank in Las Vegas. The writing is crisp and the story moves along at a fast pace.I must admit I still really don't grasp the mathematical theories about card counting but I enjoyed this book tremendously anyway. Anyone who hasever played a hand of blackjack will appreciate this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good story with a few flaws
Review: I found this story to be very entertaining; I managed to polish this book off in two days which is very rare for me unless I am on an airplane. This book describes the story of a bunch of very smart MIT students that took Vegas for millions through some very innovative strategies. Reading it makes me regret that I never had the opportunity to do the same thing. The book did have some problems though; I found the way that the author liked to intersperse the book with chapters from the present to be somewhat annoying. For example, there is a chapter where the author (and not the protagonists) interview a security official at a casino, to have him describe their "card counter countermeasures". The author was trying to foreshadow and build up the suspense, but I found it to be filler. That particular chapter should have been in the appendix, in my opinion. Sure there was some backgrounder information in such chapters, but that could have been a foreword.
Rating:
Summary: interesting book, but big credibility issue
Review: I don't know much about casinos, but I do know that the parts about Teri Pollack the supposed LA Rams cheerleader are not credible. According to this book, she "made her living off her looks: she was a rookie cheerleader with the Rams." (page 104) Now, this is silly. NFL cheerleaders basically work for free. They get a nominal sum and a couple tickets for each game. But much worse, on page 139 we get this: "The cards did continue to fall in their favor, and they had stellar weekends beginning with New Year's and running all the way to Memorial Day. Kevin saw less of Teri during this period--football was in full swing, and she was traveling with the Rams most weekends--but..." Football is in full swing between New Year's and Memorial Day? Hellooooo? In what universe? A ludicrous assertion that completely undermines the credibility of this book.
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