Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and Accurate.
Review: I can personally vouch for the accuracy of Ben's depiction of Las Vegas (except for Paradise and CH2--ahem, I cannot speak to those) and the thrill of Blackjack. More important, however, was the question of whether one should pursue a vocation which only earns good dough (like gambling, day-trading or late-90's internet ventures) or one which improves the world.
Rating: 
Summary: How could anyone believe this is non-fiction?
Review: This book was a fun read, but one would have to be remarkably credulous to believe that it is non-fiction. Other reviewers have pointed out some of the obvious fictions. Here are a few more: People have been talking about team play for at least 20 years. There was nothing about the system used by the students that was particularly unique or clever. In fact, they used a very, very basic counting strategy. What's interesting to me is that the book seems plausible to people because its about MIT students. However, trained monkeys could pretty much run the system described in the book. The only advantage that being MIT students may have given these people is the arrogance to try to pull it off (and more important, probably the parents' money to get started).The spot cutting stuff was completely absurd. I have been "banned" from playing blackjack at four casinos in Vegas (its not hard to do--sit down at a high stakes table, start varying your bets significantly, and its likely to happen if you win). What casinos do not do is break into your room and rough you up when you are banned from playing. In fact, they have always been overly solicitous to me. I have been able to stay in the casinos (including as a guest when it has been places I am lodging) and play any games other than blackjack. I have even continued to receive comps after being banned from blackjack tables. And, fortunately, they haven't found out when I have been out of the country and chased me down to beat me up(laughable). This book was a huge besteller. If this team really did what the book claims, do you think that the members would now be popping up all over the media? Undoubtedly. However, given that its primarily fiction, I expect that we won't hear much from the MIT blackjack team(s).
Rating: 
Summary: Very entertaining and well worth the cover price.
Review: This book was a pleasure to read. Dont be fooled by negative reviews. I couldnt put this book down for more than a few hours. It was a quick and easy read that kept me occupied for just over 2 days. A bit more depth in regards to the characters would have been nice but it's absence isnt a deal breaker.
Rating: 
Summary: for real?
Review: Others have written about the holes in the descriptions of the blackjack strategy and games, and how there are very few accounts of their failures -- surprising since their strategy would only give them a 1-2 percent edge on the house, so they should lose, big, close to half the time. Descriptions of those losses, and the anxiety and doubt they would produce, would have added a lot of dramatic tension. Instead, the book feels kind of adolescent: look at how the kids walked in and picked the pockets of the casinos right under their noses. It doesn't feel so much David vs. Goliath as kid vs. grown-ups. Since this is the first purportedly non-fiction book by Mezrich -- who has written several novels -- you would hope accuracy would be high on his mind, but it doesn't seem to be. A nit: he describes Boston's tiny Chinatown as covering five square miles; as a Harvard grad he should know it actually is well under one square mile. Others have described the writing style with glowing terms; I found it to be pretty flat and prosaic. I had just read Michael Lewis's "Moneyball," and Mezrich's prose suffered in comparison -- none of the wit, little of the energy.
Rating:
Summary: Not even entertaining
Review: I know nothing about cards and have never gambled or visited Las Vegas. I fail to see the pleasure in the experience. This, no doubt, has colored my view of this book. I found it tedious. There are too many inconsistencies for it to be even close to being true. The style is flat and has little interest beyond the straight story. By the end of the book one knows little more about the characters involved than at the beginning (beyond their callowness). The experience of gambling is described so poorly that it is difficult to gain a sense of its excitement and what it means to the people involved. One is left with the feeling that their only motivation was money. Also, if this book is meant to be factual, I would have expected to find something from the casinos (beyond a couple of rather trivial cameo appearances from "interesting" characters). It would have been interesting to hear from the other side of the fence. Even if it this books is true its only excitement is that someone made lots of money whilst associating with celebrities and strippers. I believe that there are other professions which have similar characteristics and would at least make more interesting reading. If you have an interest in gambling I suggest that you save your money and experience the reality. If you have no interest in gambling then just save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining story sloppily written
Review: This is a compelling, suspenseful story that makes for a great page-turner, to be sure. But the author writes with such a show-offy, hamhanded style he manages to get in the way of the action more than a few times. He seems to think he's writing some kind of hard-boiled fiction rather than a straightforward account of the events at hand. My favorite example, from page 68: "Somewhere over Chicago, the sky went black on the other side of the glass egg at Kevin's shoulder." And his technique of jumping back and forth from the story to the present day just takes the reader out of the action. Still, quite worth a read. I wonder that no one has yet made it into a motion picture.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Despite Lots of Holes
Review: I read this on a plane to Las Vegas which provided a fun back drop to a weekend of gambling. The strength of the story was the subtle way in which the gambling lifestyle took over each participant's life. A very bright group of people but all sucked into negative behavior and dangerous events they obviously didn't forsee when they joined the team. Their experiences on the journey make for a very fun and entertaining read. The technical story telling of the actual gambling leaves a little to be desired. If you gamble, you'll find yourself asking a lot of questions that don't seem to get answered in the story. Their system is supposedly so far advanced that mere card counters could never hope to acheive their success, yet the amount of money they actually make from all this work doesn't seem like much. Nonetheless, the story is entertaining and provides some interesting insight into how casino management views the threat of card counters to their bottom line. I had to finish the book after the plane ride just to see how it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertainment only
Review: I felt compelled as a former professional blackjack player to write a review of this popular book having just finished reading it this afternoon because it is fraught with exaggerations, half-truths, and fictions. I second the reviews that portray this book negatively from a technical perspective - John May's in particular. If I were a casino owner, I'd be handing this book out to every player who walks through the door because it continues to foster the myths of blackjack as a beatable game. Most wannabe card counters don't have the bankroll, discipline, or skill to even begin to approach beating this game. Long, long losing streaks are part of the scene, but the cards always seem to fall right for our band of heroes and the losing is nothing more than a minor annoyance. By the way, I sat right behind John Thompson, Patrick Ewing, and John Starks at the Foreman-Moorer fight at the MGM Grand. There were no young Asian men anywhere close to them as the book asserts. The tickets were comped by the Desert Inn, not the MGM. MIT players did not invent card counting, the simple HiLo count, shuffle tracking, or team play. Team play descriptions can be found in Ken Huston's book "Million Dollar Blackjack" that is now over twenty years old. I also find the "investor" story less than compelling - particularly during the timeframe the author indicates. Would I rather invest my money in a bunch of twenty something card counters or put my money in the high flying Internet stocks of that era with returns like 100-300%? The real story is that Mezrich is going to make a small fortune from the sale of the movie rights, to which I say "Pretty good scam, kid!" Now that's bringing down the house PT Barnum style!
Rating:
Summary: Bringing Down the House
Review: Very exciting book. I could not put it down. Read it in 2 days.
Tell me what you thought? Batren@excite.com
Rating:
Summary: Students take on Casinos
Review: I loved the story because Casinos have the systems so hedged in their favor that it's nice to see a group of people grab their money. Although some people may find the statistical explanations throughout parts of the book a bit confusing and boring, most of the chapters are fast paced and full of action. You will be cheering for these modern Robin Hoods and if you didn't dislike the Casinos before you will sure do after reading this book. Highly recommended!
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