How I Got To Here (Part 2)

I suppose that during my 'fun gambling' period I had in my head a theory that with a £5000 bank I could make £100 a day if I was to bet seriously. At the point last summer when I decided to give Betfair betting/trading a go, I still believed this to be the case.

Due to my dwindling finances, I had to settle on running a circa £2000 Betfair stake pot, plus a couple of hundred in Bet365 ( the bookies' liquidity is sometimes helpful ). I accepted that I would make mistakes in my early efforts, but should improve with experience. I also figured that with my 3 years as a fun punter behind me, I should at least be able to avoid complete beginners' cock-ups.

I'm pretty controlled with my personal finances, so was able to quickly review income / outgoings and determine that we could live off £700 / week plus my wife's part time income. I would remove money from my account on a weekly basis, maintaining the £2k pot. Any shortfall would have to come from savings or any other income I could generate. No pressure then......

A simple review of my 2008 betting career would be as follows :

• Went from trainee to junior gambler status.
• Made plenty of mistakes, just different ones to those I made before!
• Confirmed that I am happiest working with Soccer and Tennis, and should avoid getting sucked into punting on sports I know nothing about.
• Have learnt a valuable lesson about the psychology of betting, and how my own emotions work in stressful situations.

The result of this 6 month period was that, in overall P&L terms, I made bugger all, and saw my savings diminish as a result. However, I had enough positive days and learning experiences to come into 2009 with a belief that my initial ideas are still valid.

This blog is part of my attempt to learn from my mistakes and successes, and make 2009 the year I become one of the supposed 10% who make a profit on Betfair.