Hi all

Its interesting at times to hear what it took for a person to go from an hobby or system punter to a reasonably accomplished one.

What did it take for you to realize that its not as easy as they make it sound.

With myself i was always around the stables and helping out at the races since i was about 10 as i got a bit older i use to get quite good info etc and had some fun with bets etc.

Then i went on my way in the big wide world and then decided to look at making some serious money betting the horses.

Well a system sounded just like the right thing and i ended up purchasing one for $600. It was in the business/self employment pages in our local paper and gee it had to be legit being in that section.

I was given all the the financial planner type approach what is it you want etc and then play it all back to you exactly what you wanted to hear.

So i got my A4 piece of paper with the rules and this was my business so i better treat like a business i was told don't do what the 95% do.

Well i was quietly excited and did some research into the system as it was written. Checked over 12 months worth of results and applied the criteria and not one losing day i was estatic.

I wanted to win $20 a day at the time to increas my income betting 3 days a week.

I never forget the Wednesday when the money was in the account and ready to go.

The rules as i remember them not in any detail but you will get the gist of it.


Selection Process
-the pre post favourite from the paper
If equal then go for the one with the best last start
if both the same go back a run etc

no maidens ,2yo races.

If Fav less than even money no bet.

Betting strategy
Go to win x amount
if loses add to amount bet
if loses add amount bet until winner is reached.

Once you have a winner stop betting for the day.

That was it so easy and the research backed it up.

That Wednesday not one pre post favourite won and i saw a $5000 dollar bank dissappear.

I soon realised that progression betting was a very dangerous method of betting unless one knew exactly what they were doing but with the whole cards over 3 meetings not one winner i think only level stakes couldv'e minimised the loss.

Cheers
ubetido

__________________
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body,but rather to skid in sideways, BEER in one hand- PIZZA in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO!

Ubetido,

Take heart that your story is by no means the worse one around.
In fact, I'd suggest that it's probably a very cheap lesson by comparison, but nonetheless would have jolted you into a costly reality.

My story goes a little differently.

For years I bet on whims and fancies "what I liked in the next", like a pinball buffered from one gutterball to the next and invariably I ended up "down the guts".
I had no understanding of odds or percentages and no understanding of staking correctly. My bank was whatever I had allocated (left over) for the week and I spent every last cent of it.
To make matters worse, some weeks I actually won quite a lot of money, but then I got false confidence and ended up giving back most of my winnings...o.k. all my winnings plus more

As I had no way of checking systems, I roadtested every new idea for weeks and also ended up losing a great deal of money.

It's certainly not an easy game to come out in front over thousands of bets.

Along the way I learned quite a bit of information, probably the most information I learned was when manually compiling my own database.

The strongest filter around is the market price of the horse, knowing when it's value and when it's not is the tricky part.

The major advantage over the last ten years has been racing forums and newsgroups, where like minded punters can share information and ideas.
Whether you actually agree or disagree, it gets you thinking and once you start thinking and questioning, I reckon you're on the right path.

I no longer punt like I used to, and when I remember how I used to do it - I shudder even writing about it.

Now, I have an allocated bank, bet selectively and put a lot more thought into it.
I rarely visit TAB's these days, as I tend to think they are negative punting environments.

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Backed every favorite for the place. Couldn't lose!

Well thats what I thought when I was 14 or 15yrs old. Hadn't quite got my head around the real maths. of it. Wasn't a system I bought though [I've never bought one yet], but the logic of it sounded good back then.

Worked on times for many years on light weight up-in-class longshots with a formula for distance and weight differences which would give me adjusted time. Was almost holding my own with that method for about 5yrs. but sometimes it was a long time between milkshakes.

I moved into serious form study after my above efforts, creating systems as an interesting aside to play with for small money. I've had one [undisclosed here] going for a couple of years now which I'm starting to put some decent money on because it has a fairly steady 22% average yearly POT [I'm still waiting for and expecting it to fall over of course].
It certainly has done better than my handicapping efforts, but that's what I mainly like to do as I'm not trying to live off the punt. I'll leave that for the young ones to dream about.

Hi

I thought there might be a few more stories but never mind thanks for responding and sharing yours.

Yes sometimes it takes some sort of pain be it financial in this example to look closer and learn from it.

Psycholgically though i find it very hard to do progression betting even when others share there success from it.

Cheers
ubetido

__________________
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body,but rather to skid in sideways, BEER in one hand- PIZZA in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO!