End of September Update

Realise my last update was a bit poor and lacking in substance. Hopefully I make up for that in this end of month update. September has been something of a low-key month with me turning to the back to basics start with £10 challenge. I'm pretty happy with how that's going to be honest, it's not going to fast process but hopefully it will help me keep that all important discipline as I continue to strive for ultimate gambling perfection. My final figures for September was a loss of £781.24, yes my horse racing systems haven't been doing great but the main culprit of this loss is my own ill-discipline on Betfair.

Although I'm hoping that I've finally turned the corner. Awful saying I know , but it does seem appropriate for my situation. I am to some extent still frustrated with my lack of discipline in my betting adventures because I know (and I have figures to back it up ) that I can be a profitable gambler if only I kept my focus, my discipline and my staking plans in order. I've heard the phrase anyone can make a mistake but only a fool repeats the same mistake (or something along those lines). In which case I'm a pretty big fool by now.

September Profit/loss

Doesn't make for nice viewing that Betfair P/L but I've only myself to blame. I'm now treating my £10 challenge as if that's my only betting funds outside my horse racing system bets (which I shall continue). I could have easily started with a £100 in my Betfair account or £500. But the amount is to some extent irrelevant, if I can't master the skills needed the money will eventually be lost regardless of the size of the starting bank. Now back to my usual Friday night ritual of sorting out my Fantasy Premier League game. Most people my age are probably out drinking somewhere whereas I'm in internal conflict over who should be fantasy team captain for this weekend. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Usually weekly update to follow on Sunday (or more than likely sometime at the beginning of next week).

A winning week

Little bit late as usual, promise I will make a Sunday update one of these days. Anyway not too much to report in all honesty this week, my betting action is very much low key these days with only small amounts being wagered. I ended the week in profit to the tune of £21.09. Remember you can keep in touch with all of my bets in my £10 challenge (the link is in the sidebar).

These Updates are Painful

I'm finding it rather painful to continue to post updates on my failings. Bit like that ol' school detention punishment of having to write lines:

I will not look up rude words in the dictionary.
I will not look up rude words in the dictionary.

Whilst at the present with me it's more like:

I shall not be an ill-disciplined useless twonk when it comes to betting.
I shall not be an ill-disciplined useless twonk when it comes to betting.

and so forth. Realise I just actually typed that out twice when I could have copied and pasted. Well the damage this week was done on Monday where my venture into horse racing trading took a turn for the worse, I forgot the golden rule of never go in-play when your pre-race trading and the result was a predictable mess. Such an easy trap to get into though. My horse racing systems decided to have a off week also, meaning my loss this week was a not to clever £237.43. Which takes my cumulative loss for the first time over the £4,000 mark. Well I can't say I'm not breaking records this year, it's just the wrong sort of records.

One bright thing to come out of this week is my £10 challenge. May seem a bit silly but I do find the enjoyment in slow building a bank up from a small amount. If you can try and imprint the discipline at low levels hopefully that will stay with you if you can get your bank to rise. As I mentioned last week I'm seriously thinking about scraping all my other betting adventures for good and concentrating fully on this challenge. Although I'm happy to stay with my horse racing system for the time being, the ones I still follow are in decent enough profit for the year.

Week #36

Here's my now fashionably late end of week update in which I announce things as if they've only just happened when in fact they are distant memories from several days ago. Sometimes I just feel like kicking myself in the head (not that I'm flexible enough) because I feel I work so hard to get things back on track and moving in the right direction and then one little moment of ill-discipline can wreck a full week's, month's, year's work. I sometimes find myself putting down bets or trades where the logical part of my brain is shouting, 'what the hell are you doing, you shouldn't be doing this' then there's another side of my brain which I like to call the dark side (nothing to do with Star Wars) which is saying 'This is a genius idea, look at the money you could win here'. Think somewhere along the line I've got to try and control this internal battle, the betting world is unforgiving as it is without me fighting with myself all the time. As you may have gathered already this week didn't end to well with me knocking up a loss of £215.90. I also had a bad day on Monday as well which will probably mean next (this) week will be a loss also.

I'm very close to just withdrawing all my money (well what's left remaining) from my various accounts and just starting from scratch with just my Betfair account with a very small amount. I've already started a challenge under a similar ethos called How Far Can A Tenner Stretch? I'm hoping this will help me focus my mind and stop me from being so ill-disciplined. I continue to read various trading and betting books especially those versed in the psychological aspect of trading. Problem is not in what I know, think I've read a lot about the subject it's just about trying to put the methods and ideas mentioned in the books into practice. At the moment I'm a poor outright bettor and a shocking trader. I've become increasingly interested in the trading aspect of betting but for the life of me I can't seem to do it. Maybe more study in finding an "edge" is probably needed but even if I did have a significant edge I feel my lack of discipline would end up screwing it up anyway. General feeling is one of my frustration.

One good thing to come from this week was the amount of sports action to watch, last weekend there was very little sports on TV. Week just gone we had the usual football, cricket (India still not won a game) as well the tennis and not forgetting Formula One. Oh yeah and the Rugby World Cup as well, so it was definitely enjoyably week from a sports fans point of view.

The Return of the Loss

Gone a while without occurring a weekly lost but the week just gone saw the return of it unfortunately. I take full responsibility for the loss, having a lot of money locked in my bet365 caused me to lose my discipline and made me bet amounts I shouldn't have been under my current betting plan of small stakes and steady as I go. Stupid sucker that I am was trying to reach the rollover requirement so that I could withdraw my existing funds plus the extra £50 bonus I received for reaching the rollover amount. I fell straight for the sly workings of such bonuses, they set high rollover requirement so the account holder bets more frequently to secure in the bonus. In the meantime they can't withdraw any of the funds won so the temptation to continue and maybe even up stakes exist. The sensible plan for me to do what have been to simply back something on Bet365 at the minimum odds required for the offer at 1.50 and then lay at let's say 1.52 or so on Betfair. Meaning a small regardless of outcomes, but in the process securing part of the rollover requirement and ultimately the bonus. The loss for the week was £258.21.

Been a very quiet week and weekend in truth, not much sport going on other than the US Open tennis, don't bet on tennis at all (because I'm bad at it) but do enjoy just watching. The international football scene doesn't really interest me too much these days England looked decent on Friday but I don't know whether it was just Bulgaria being really poor. More of the Euro2012 qualifiers to follow this midweek also.

End of August Update

So the eighth month of the year has been and gone which signals we have reached the three quarter mark in the year. With the end of August we see summer turn into autumn, although the word summer is perhaps being generous given the lack of warm weather this summer. Don't know if it's just me getting old but wearing a jumper around the house and needing an extra blanket in bed to keep me warm in August is not the usual. Like how the news always have to report it in some hyperbolic way though, it always the coldest summer in thirteen years, never the 25th warmest out of the last sixty years or something. Like we are going to see a real-life recreation of The Day After Tomorrow at any minute. A little warm weather would be nice now and again though.

Enough of my general rambling the final figures for the month say I made a profit of £376.51. Given the current circumstances I'm delighted with that result. The cumulative profit is teetering around the third of a £10,000, thought that might make it sound better but in reality it's just the same as saying around £3,333. My trading adventures on Betfair have been profitable if not exactly fun, since the beginning of the month I'm up around £200 which means that profit this month has been quite evenly split between my trading and my horse racing systems.

One final thing, the football transfer deadline day. A very weird phenomenon indeed, one where football fans spend the day glued to the TV watching Sky Sports News in hope that their club will sign a quality signing or keep one of their current stars. It's more hilarious and entertaining than informative at times. Lots of hearsay, Harry Redknapp hunting and reporters outside of training ground complexes mobbed by opportunistic kids who make ingenious gestures in the background whilst phoning their mates to say 'look I'm on Sky Sports News right now'. Well at least it keeps them from rioting I suppose.

Anyway I'm peckish and the kitchen is out of bounds whilst being refurbished, so I'm off out for a sausage roll. Bring on September!