Lost The Plot

My September aim for continued concentration has quickly fallen apart! Over the last couple of days I’ve lost the plot with my betting, so no bets this evening as I reset my head.

It may be a reaction to the last few days of last month, where I maintained a particularly high level of discipline in the knowledge that I had a month-end blog post to write (!), but my mindset has been off-beam for a couple of days, with predictable results. My problems probably began on Thursday, when I decided to make the second withdrawal from my account this week, in an attempt to tidy up my personal finances and allow me to have the rest of September with no further need for withdrawals from Betfair. This left me back with a circa £300 bank once again, and whilst I momentarily reset my aims towards steadily rebuilding my bank, my subsequent actions suggested that I’m getting a little fed up with this small-stakes betting.

Things started ok, with four winning lays on Wolverhampton’s Thursday evening meeting. With hindsight, the research and cross-checking left a little to be desired. Since then, a catalogue of bets with little semblance of strategy :-

· Friday 8.00pm(ish). Whilst following the US Open, I inexplicably threw a third of my bank at a win for Dutch second division side De Graafschap – at 1.11 whilst leading 2-0 – who proceeded to blow their lead in the 88th minute. Where did that come from? Consistent staking? Bollocks.

· Friday 9.30pm(ish). I throw my bank on the pneumatic-chested Sophie Reade (above) to win Big Brother 10 at 1.15 – a winning bet but hardly consistent with my aims for the month.

· Saturday am. Heavy ( if successful ) bets on both soccer and NRL from Australia, winning £49 in just over an hour.

· Saturday 1.45. Sitting in the café in House of Fraser Birmingham, tucking into a scone and looking through the day’s tennis line-up on Betfair Mobile, I bring to the fore my ability to match a pointless ‘oh f--- it’ attitude with simple bad luck. I click on the ‘next UK race’ button, and then randomly lay a horse at way higher odds than I’d normally choose, simply out of frustration at my lack of focus. I pick out Cheveton at odds of 20 in the 1.55 at Haydock, and it bolts up. £200 gone. An expensive scone then. I could have bought an I-phone 3G with that amount!

So it’s time to take a deep breath (again). The toughest part of this game is discipline, particularly following a loss. In the main, I’ve banished this demon. I have skills and strategies to allow me to make profits. I’ve shown that I can maintain focus when I have a goal. But with no goal, I fall apart!

So tomorrow, I’ll decide between two options, both which require discipline and consistency, to move forward with:

1. Start from £100 and build up to £1000+, no withdrawals, complete focus and consistency, no excuses, no timescale.
2. Put a sum equivalent to a large percentage of my ‘part-time’ winnings on Betfair since March back into my account, and let the weight of bank force me to concentrate!

My criteria for success remains as it did at the start of last month, so the second option is not necessary for profit achievement, I simply think I’ll take my betting more seriously with substantial sums at risk.

Finally, a terrible moment for horse racing overnight in Malton. I’ve only been following racing for a few weeks, but the name of Jamie Kyne had been lodged in my head as a highly-regarded apprentice worthy of caution when picking out horses to lay. I will admit to not having come across Jan Wilson. But when two talented young people are taken from their friends and family at the age of 18 and 19 respectively, there is sure to be a huge sense of loss for many people within the racing community. A sad day.