This is easy read, but a fascinating read. Two guys with lots of moxy and some dreams end up huge successes. Even if you are not interested in gambling the first part about they created a web based hotel booking company and sold it to Expedia will snag you right up. It interesting because it also concerns a subject matter that I wasn't that familiar with. This book may inspire you. ( )

It has been 4 years since the show The Casino aired. Since then Tom Breitling and his best friend Cal Fussman have made another million after selling the Golden Nugget. Double or Nothing is the story of two best friends who went from rags to riches to accomplish unbelievable success.

Breitling shows that there is a lot more behind the scenes than The Casino let on. Breitling takes us on a whirlwind tour through the ups and downs of chasing a dream then selling it then doing it all again. This book is a fun read that let the author’s personality shine through.

I did not know a lot about gambling when I started reading this book. It did not matter because whatever was needed to get the gist of the background was described beautifully.

The description that appeared in this book are such that the energy and the enthusiasm and sometimes the grief of the author shines through.

This book is an enjoyable book. Well worth the read.
http://purplemoonmyst.wordpress.com/2... ( )

I was not really looking forward to reading this when I got it for the Early Reviewer program. Never been to a casino, and had never heard of the author. When I finally got around to reading, I was sucked in. It ended up being a fast paced, easy read.

While it was by no means great, it was worth the couple hours that it took up. ( )

The glitz of Vegas convergences with the adrenalin rush of entrepreneurism in a book that spins a remarkable story. Those of us who have stayed at Golden Nugget over the years will no doubt have a special fascination with Breitling's tale. But any reader with even a mild interest in casino 'biz or who enjoys hearing about young entreprenurs risking it all on a dream will find Double or Nothing both entertaining and enlightening. Toss in some insights about the dot.com boom (and bust), along with a handful of celebrity names, and you have a fast-paced book that is well worth the read. ( )

A quick and interesting read about the wild ride of two guys who had the rare luck to emerge winners from the dot-com boom.

This isn't for everyone--if reading about multimillion-dollar negotiations or the hectic life of business owners isn't your cup of tea, you'll probably find this dragging on at parts. The central part of the book, though, is the relationship between Breitling, the narrator/co-author, and Poster, his mad genius-esque best friend and business partner. Watching how the two become friends and stay friends while running one of the most historic casinos in Las Vegas is definitely worth the price of admission.

A great choice, particularly, for anyone interested in memoirs, business or gambling. ( )

Imagine building an Internet business during the dotcom boom/bust and selling it to Microsoft for millions. Now imagine buying the famous Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas and selling it in less than a year and half for hundreds of millions. Now imagine you are barely in your 30s and you are doing all this with your very best friend. This is the story of one of Las Vegas' most dynamic duos, two young guys from different backgrounds coming together to own the world.

The Book tells the story in autobiographical form of Tom, a simple hard working boy from Minnesota, and his friendship with Tim, a local Vegas boy who has gambling in his blood. The two formed a bond that has lasted throughout the last 20 years and will be around till one of them passes on to the big casino in the sky. The pages of the book offer the reader an insight to a world that most of us will never be in: a world of fast cars, movie stars, corporate jets and millions of dollars wrapped in cellophane being bet on one roll of the dice.

I enjoyed this book and I would have loved to have been a part of the world written in this book. The authors tell this story at about an 8th grade reading level which allows the book to be finished in a few hours. The book is not just about Vegas, it is about a time in financial history that was exciting and may never be duplicated, I hope you enjoy this book. ( )

Double or Nothing was a quick read, an interesting story, more like a conversation than a book. Maybe it was the writing style, or maybe I'm just jealous of the author's successes, but I did not enjoy the conversational, self-congratulatory tone of the writing, the occasional incomplete sentence or the choppy descriptions or dialog sequences. This book would have made a great magazine interview or an interesting 60 Minutes segment, but as a book, it leaves this reader wanting much more. ( )

Fans of non-fiction should definitely take a chance on this well-composed and fast-paced memoir about friendship and fortunes. Set in Las Vegas, the story focuses on the business partnership of Tim Poster and Tom Breitling (the author) as they make $100 million not once, but twice. While the first third of the novel, focusing on their first venture as a hotel reservation service riding the dot-com boom of the late 90s, is necessary to establishing their relationship and characters, the memoir really comes alive with their purchase of The Golden Nugget Casino. From meeting Tony Bennett to starring in a reality TV show, the meat of the memoir is a very well-organized collection of anecdotes about the running of a casino. Though a bit skimpy on exact details and a bit excessive with the "gas pedal vs. brake pedal" metaphor used to describe Tim and Tom's business relationship, this book is a quick and fun read that will make you long for a Vegas vacation. Overall score: 4/5. ( )

The books starts off well but quickly becomes boring. The same stories (anecdotes, really) get retold several times over while the author seems to only be able to make one point: they took a lot of risk. Well, it's Vegas. Duh. In the end, it feels like watching Ocean's Eleven, without Brad Pitt & George Clooney. ( )

The cover blurb for Double or Nothing uses the word “brash” twice, and the professional writer involved, Cal Fussman, goes to some lengths to present the story as if it were a breezy conversation with brash Tom Breitling, one of the principles. I’d give it a “brash, breezy, and boring.”

It’s a very detailed accounting of how two buddies created a business of some value on the internet, through a combination of a good idea and some lucky timing, and fell into a pot of money by selling out at the peak of the dot-com bubble. Then they turned around, bought a casino, and doubled their money again by selling out. That’s the whole plot, and it would make perhaps a two-paragrapher in “Forbes,” so the book comes down to more than two hundred pages of getting to know Tom and his buddy, Tim. I didn’t find them all that engrossing. They come across as self-absorbed and self-important, but with a ways to go yet before getting as interesting as, say, The Donald.

Perhaps to inject some drama in the book, every glitch along the way to a “deal” is presented in breathless, cliff-hanging style. The problem is there is never enough sympathy for the guys to care whether their deal goes through or not.

Although it looks like a normal offering from publisher Collins, I’d characterize it as a vanity press job, probably motivated by the same instincts that caused Tom and Tim to allow Fox TV to follow them around for a “reality” show. ( )

The title implies that this book is about a huge risk that ended up paying off, as two friends put everything on the line to buy a casino. Not quite. The biggest risk they faced turned out to be a renegade gambler who, if he kept on winning for a few more visits... might force them to sell at a slight loss the $215 million casino they bought after selling their e-business company and becoming multi-millionaires.

It's kinda hard to care about two guys who, apart from minor money worries, date Ms. Israel and Jaime Pressley, hang out with Andre Agassi or Shaquille O'Neal, Donald Trump, Tony Bennett, etc. I mean, nothing against them, but it's not so much a story of risking it all and winning as a couple of incredibly rich guys recounting how everything was awesome except for a few minor worries. They work long days! There's some interpersonal friction!

Yeah, but they're worth millions even if they fail, and the only overriding motivation is "I always sorta wanted a casino," so sorta meh. It's not horrible, certainly readable enough, but in terms of wanting to read it? Not so much. If you're interested in the story of two entrepreneurial business ventures that went right thanks to serendipity featuring two off-putting businessmen, maybe. A little bit too much business-babble and emotive thinking. ( )

Double or Nothing is Tom Breitling’s side of an incredible story of how he and longtime friend, Tim Poster, created an internet travel business from scratch and sold it in just a few years for a $100 million profit. Even more incredibly, they used much of that money to help finance their purchase of the Golden Nugget casino and made another $100 million only one year later when they, in turn, sold that business to a Texas restaurant king who badly wanted into the gambling business.

Breitling’s account is one in which he describes himself as the conservative one in his friendship and business partnership with Tim Poster, an old school friend of his who carried an image as an extreme risk taker even in high school. Ever the gambler, it was Poster who invited Breitling to join him in the fledgling travel business that ultimately financed the pair’s entry into the Las Vegas casino scene as young owners of the legendary Golden Nugget casino. Breitling’s role in both businesses was usually to be the one to “put on the brakes” in order to slow down some of Poster’s more rash and overambitious ideas. The partners were well-matched, and the combination of their individual personalities and deep respect for each other created a highly successful business team.

Breitling tells his story in a conversational style that makes for easy reading but he focuses so much on his relationship with Tim Poster, and how much they have meant to each other over the years, that the more interesting aspects of the story are disregarded. Readers expecting to find behind-the-scenes details on the operations of a major Las Vegas gambling casino will be disappointed to find little of that in the book. There is considerable detail on the sale of the casino, including bits of gossip about the new owner and his family, but not much is revealed about the nature of the gambling industry itself.

One of the book’s most interesting characters is the unnamed “Mr. Royalty,” a big time gambler who went on a roll lasting almost a year and who caused Breitling and Poser great anxiety as they watched him take their new casino for some $8 million, finally forcing them to lower their betting limits in self-protection. Readers like me who realize that the gambling industry is based on one gigantic scam perpetrated on a gullible public will likely find themselves rooting for Mr. Royalty in what becomes his very personal competition with the Golden Nugget owners. The book begins and ends with a description of that epic battle.

Double or Nothing is an interesting book, especially if read as a business book, but the story is not as impressive as I imagined it would be. Breitling and Poser are brash risk takers but the book exposes enough of their childishness to leave the impression that they are also two of the luckiest businessmen on the planet.

Rated at: 2.5 ( )

This book is high on style but a bit short on substance. The writing style can be a bit awkward at times, but there aren't any slowdowns as the author takes you through the stories of his two business adventures. As others have said, an entertaining read, but not a book that I would go out of my way to recommend to others. ( )

This should perhaps be called "Two Time Winners: How Two Unlikely Partners Made $100M from Bookings to Blackjack". It's really an entrepreneur's memoir of his two businesses. The Las Vegas anecdotes and details of the casino business comprised less than 50% of the book. So the big dice on the front page and gambling references make it a big of a bait and switch job. If you're expecting to read about inner workings of a casino, anecdotes, personalities, gamblers and cheaters, yes, they are all in here. However, you'll have to wade through 200+ pages to get them. More of the book is about the partner's first business, a travel booking .com business they sold to Microsoft. And it's about how to manage a partnership. And work amazingly hard, and be lucky. And use the people around you for advice, investment, and style. And how to negotiate selling a business. And the dot com phenomenon and bubble of the late '90s and early 2000's. Although I like reading business books, I enjoy the glamour, crime, stakes and thrills of the casino stories more: and I suspect there is a bigger audience out there for films like Casino and Ocean's Eleven than for business memoirs. The writing is not bad, and the read is indeed fast. The book will leave you by turns bored and wanting more, unless you are a technology entrepreneur flying to Las Vegas for a weekend of gambling. ( )

My biggest complaint about this book was the author's constant reference to his home town of Burnsville, Minnesota as "Barnsville." Being a lifelong resident of Minnesota and a current resident of the Twin Cities, I didn't appreciate the author's implication that he grew up in a somewhat rural, backward environment. Granted, the Twin Cities metro area is no Las Vegas but, since he attributes much of his success to his parents and upbringing, I'd thank him kindly to give *some* credit to his hometown.

Other than that trifling complaint, I found this memoir to be a light read which I was able to start and quickly finish on a four hour flight to Cancun. (Hey, I love Minnesota but the winter really does get old!) I was expecting more of a behind the scenes glimpse into the world of running a casino and the trials that go with it but the story focused more on the author's friendship and history with Tim Poster, the impetus behind the author's continued financial success.

If you're looking for a light, good humored "rags to riches" story, give this book a try. ( )

The book opens with a high-stakes Craps player dubbed "Mr. Royalty" coming in and winning 2 million dollars from the Golden Nugget Casino which is owned by our two protagonists (Tim Poster and Tom Breitling).

After this hook, the book goes back to cover the genesis of Tim and Tom's friendship and their history starting Las Vegas Reservation Systems and Travelscape (which they sell to Expedia).

While book is full of interesting Las Vegas side characters, it's not really a book about Las Vegas or running a casino - it's a business book about how Tim and Tom started out in a single room using conference tables for desks and turned it into a fortune.

"Double or Nothing" is a quick, light, entertaining read. It doesn't have a lot of depth in the areas of business or insider casino information, but it very successfully brings Tim and Tom and a large cast of quirky characters to life in an entertaining way. Unfortunately, the big mystery is never revealed: who is "Mr Royalty"? ( )

Note: This review is of a pre-publication version in the Early Reviewer program.

Imagine watching a guy play craps in your casino, costing you millions of your money as he rolls and wins, over and over. I can’t, but young financial daredevils Tom Breitling and his partner Tim Poster lived this adventure. Double or Nothing is the story of these self-made men who met in college and began with an idea, a desk and a phone to create 2 business ventures making over $100 million each.

Luck, hard work, knowledge and daring are the elements Tom and Tim used to make their fortune. Tim, the idea man, began the hotel room booking business that became Travelscape which Expedia bought for over $100 million. Tom was the more conservative partner who shared the risk and expanded the vision to make it happen. The second million (actually $115 million) came from the purchase and sale, in less than a year, of the Golden Nugget Casino in downtown Las Vegas. That’s 226% in one year on their $50 million investment.

Tom takes us through the ups and downs of these ventures, sharing Las Vegas anecdotes and history, bold moves and bluffs made over drinks and dinners and the staggering tension and anxiety underlying the risk making it all possible. Double or Nothing is a roller coaster ride through Vegas with lots of dialogue and no filler or fluff. It’s a winner.

Not the greatest book I have ever read, However if you want a quick, fast paced, book and you Love Las Vegas then this book will appeal to you. It is about 2 friends who sold a Company called Travelscape for 100 and something million. Then instead of fading into the sunset, they buy the Golden Nugget Casino and film a TV show, which I can proudly say I have NEVER watched. The one guy also dates Jamie Presley for a little bit. enjoy

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster met while in college. Their friendship lead to a business partnership which grew a small Las Vegas hotel registrations business into an online travel service -- Travelscape, eventually sold to Expedia for $105 million at the height of the dot com boom. Tom took his earnings and set off to prove that his success wasn't a one-time lucky fluke while Tim looked for the next big deal. When Tim decided the next big deal would be to buy The Golden Nugget, restore its glory, and bring back the feel of old Vegas (the Vegas of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, in the days before the city went corporate), the friends set off on a new adventure. With no corporate backing, the two friends put up their own money on a gamble which could (and nearly did) lose them everything. Running the gauntlet of 18-hour work days, a reality TV show which painted a less-than-stellar picture of the Nugget, girlfriend trouble, and the high roller who nearly took it all away, the friends remain steadfast, and then an unexpected offer to sell the casino at a huge profit comes their way.

I have to admit up front that I found this book a thoroughly enjoyable read. The story moved along at a nice pace that kept the reader engrossed and turning pages. That said, I found myself wanting so much more from this book.

The characters -- including, or perhaps especially, the narrator himself -- are shallowly drawn at best -- as are their relationships which, in the hands of another storyteller and/or co-author, could have formed the central draw and tale behind this story.

Shallow, too, is the hoped-for glimpse of Vegas behind the curtains. Scattered throughout the book are small nuggets of stories suggesting the much richer gold that could have been mined. What a wonderful book that would have been.

So, if you are looking for a fast-paced readable story of how two friends made a bundle, risked it all, and came out on top again, certainly pick up Double or Nothing. If you are looking for the story of a friendship and how it survived the ups and downs of the business world or perhaps a behind-the-scenes peek at the running of a Vegas casino, keep moving, there's really nothing here for you. ( )

High on character, low on content.

A book clearly trying to cash in on the success of Bringing Down The House and the recently released movie, 21; Double or Nothing is a solid piece of writing if not as gambling focused as it would have you believe. The story itself follows two college friends, Tim and Tom, who ride their savvy and the internet boom to millions of dollars. Growing itchy after selling their business they follow Tim's Vegas roots back home and together purchase the famed Golden Nugget casino. With no corporate backing and only their personal funds backing the casino every roll of the dice and every turn of the cards directly impacts their bottom line. But using their disparate backgrounds Tim and Tom weather a whale's hot dice streak, a failed reality show, and Tom's love life to improve the bottom line of the Nugget. In the end, they're bought out for even larger sums of money on their casino venture.

Breitling and Fussman move the book along at a rapid pace taking as little time as needed to explain the basics to the reader, but the book wouldn't work at a slower pace; it's like Vegas where the action never stops. The co-authors are a touch ham-handed in their descriptions of the two principles as it's routinely beat into our heads that Tom is a charming Midwesterner who strengths are his caution and his willingness to commit to whatever needs doing and Tim is a classic Vegas wise guy who knows the numbers and is willing to take a risk, but it's needed to keep us from realizing that for once, we're rooting for the house. All in all, Double or Nothing is a breezy little book that will take people little time to read; a great choice for Vegas aficionados and worth a glance from everyone else. ( )

I'm a sucker for a good "rags to riches" story, and this is one of the better ones I've read. Tim Poster and Tom Breitling start a room reservation service in Vegas that becomes TravelScape, which is then sold to Expedia for $105 million. They then buy the Golden Nugget, turn it into the showplace of downtown Vegas, and sell it for $113 million profit the next year.

The book feels very much like having a friendly conversation with Breitling over a drink. He tells about the joys and trials of trying to remake a casino under the all-seeing eye of "reality TV" and finds out just how "real" it is. He explains how - and WHY - his partnership with Tim works. All in all, it's a great read about a great friendship. ( )

If you made a fortune today, enough to live more than comfortably for the rest of your life, would you risk it all for even greater wealth? Tom Breitling and Tim Poster did just that albeit for very different reasons. Tom had something more to prove after making his first fortune with Travelscape.com while Tim is a gambler in need of action, confident he'll always make back anything he might lose.

Told by Tom Breitling, Double or Nothing is the story of how Tim and Tom took the travel reservation business into uncharted and lucrative waters via Travelscape.com and stayed ahead of the big sharks long enough to sell the company to Expedia.com. This piece of the story alone is interesting and returns us to the days went the stock market reached its incredible crest only to come crashing down on a shore packed with newly wealthy tech investors. Expedia turned out to be a safe harbor, a company with genuine value, and Tim and Tom rode out the storm that could have erased their fortune allowing them to invest on a grander scale.

When Tim sees an opportunity to buy the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas he brings in Tom as a partner. Through their wealth, connections, and a reality TV show they become well known in Vegas and beyond. Tom dates a famous model, Mark Burnett's reality TV producers paint a less than classy picture of the Nugget, and under Tim's direction the Nugget takes enormous risks on the whales casinos covet attracting. Predictably, the stress tests their friendship and business partnership. Ultimately the risks taken to return the Golden Nugget to its former glory bring them great rewards when they are made an offer for the Nugget they can't refuse.

Both to help us understand what drives Tim and to simply work in the anecdotes and legends that make Vegas a fascinating place, Tom often writes "there's a story" and although what follows is interesting, we are only getting small bites of a larger, richer meal. Double or Nothing is a good, quick read. If you are about to get on a flight to Vegas to gamble or one to a sales meeting in some drab city pick it up at the airport and it may provide inspiration for either endeavor.

Tom may or may not have thought of this in terms of two separate, worthy stories to be told but the publisher probably only saw the material for one best-selling book promoted mostly on the Vegas part of the story, chasing after the readers of Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. Some readers interested both in the making of a multi-million dollar business during the tech boom and the workings of a Vegas casino may feel like they didn't get quite enough of either story. ( )

Tom Breitling and Tim Poster made a killing at the beginning of the internet era with a hotel reservations company called Travelscape. After selling their company, they decided to live out their dreams by owning their own casino in Las Vegas, buying the legendary Golden Nugget. Double or Nothing is Breitling's account of how he and Poster made their fortunes and ended up at the Golden Nugget. Breitling has a great knack for telling stories, particularly about his and Poster's relationship. Reading stories about Poster's childhood in Vegas and Breitling's career there was really quite entertaining, and Breitling did a great job making me care about everyone in the book. The ending started to lag a little bit after Breitling reached the point when they bought the casino; reading about their time there and the sale of the casino just wasn't as interesting as the rest of the book. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who likes reading quick memoirs or someone who likes Las Vegas, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for a business book. ( )