There are times in the gambling game
when everything seems to be going your way – and you seem to have
found the goose that lays the golden eggs. At such times, our
over-exuberance and optimism based on the most recent events are our
biggest enemies. The natural human tendency during such times is to
think of you as something of a world-beater. The fall-out form this
is that we also tend to become a little less industrious, a little
more slapdash in our approach – and a lot less self-disciplined in
sticking to the rules we may have set for ourselves.
Of course, the converse is also true;
when we can’t make a profit no matter how hard we try and however
closely we stick to our system – the natural tendency is to become
despondent and again to act in a slapdash “devil-may-care” type
of way – or simply to cut our losses and give up.
So both these situations are bad for
the would-be professional gambler. As Kipling said about triumph and
disaster – we should treat these two imposters both the same.
In other words, we should stick to our
system, whatever that system may be, to test its efficacy, rather
than becoming either overly optimistic or too pessimistic bases
solely on recent events.
And
when it comes to gambling on horse racing, this is probably truer
than with other sports. That’s mainly because there are so many
pertinent statistics and relevant factors to take into account for
most of us, most of the time, when developing our own gambling
systems.
This isn’t the same for everyone,
though. But for students of form, it generally is fair to say that a
whole battery of evidence along with some kind of points or weighting
system for those factors is the way ahead. You then need to balance
this with a strict and disciplined approach to the management of your
fund – gambling only within certain percentage parameters that
you’ve set yourself, over a sufficiently long period to be able to
test your own hypothesis or hypotheses.
These days, though, the way in which we
back and lay has become both more complicated and fuller with
opportunity thanks to the advent of the betting exchanges like
Betfair and others.
In particular, it has become more
complicated for gamblers to establish systems. With Betfair, it’s
perfectly possible to make a profit or to cut a potential loss,
before a race has even begun. If this is your desired system, then
this may work for you and good luck. But for most mere mortals among
us – it’s generally more advisable to study all the form you can
within your own system then to back, or lay, or both – according to
your findings at the best possible price you can find on Betfair or
anywhere else.
Then stick to
your guns and don’t be tempted to increase or decrease your stakes
etc., and test the system without ever deviating from your own rules
– because psychology
and self-discipline are everything for the professional gambler.
Good luck.