February - Racing Certainty

It’s noticeable how my attitude towards betting is changed by one decent day. The month has been mixed, but started with a good day ( +£86 ), and ended with a good one ( +£131 ). So I can analyse from a positive viewpoint, which saves my readers from another longwinded moan about my inconsistency and indiscipline.

The month started well and I reached my P&L high point on the 11th of the month ( +£851 ). It started to unravel a little when I decided to increase my staking on a couple of tennis matches ( having made a cautious start to the year ). I then had three successive losing days of tennis betting, ending with a substantial hit when getting involved in a flip-flopping WTA game between Sybille Bammer and Aravane Rezai. This just brought back too many memories of the stresses ( and losses ) I’ve incurred over the years when getting on the wrong side of WTA matches. And as I don’t seem to pick enough regular winners nowadays to offset the hits that a bad trade can bring, I subsequently backed away from any more serious tennis betting.

My football betting went reasonably well for the first three weeks or so of the month, but most of my profit was wiped out by one bad weekend. After that, I just had one of those spells where every selection went wrong, and I seemed to spend the latter part of the month taking all-red positions. I don’t believe there was anything particularly wrong with the individual bets, so I’ll put it down to a bad run, and start afresh in March.

I was pleased with my discipline in keeping away from the ‘sundry’ sport punts which have sometimes tarnished my monthly P&L’s. My monthly total for all sports other than my main three ended at + £1.96, from considerably less bets than in recent months.

And finally the month’s success story. Horse Racing. In my last monthly review, I identified that I needed to be a little more selective and reduce the quantity of bets, having suffered a loss in January. And it made a difference. Upon reviewing my P&L breakdown, I was surprised to find that I had made the highest monthly profit on one individual sport since commencing the blog a year ago – well over £1,000. I had only four losing days in the month, and am feeling pretty confident in my ability to lay losers as the month-end arrives. I also tweaked my average lay odds in the month, looking to shorten the odds, with a lower average liability which would be offset by a lower strike rate. This was mainly psychological – I’ve gone backwards in recent months in my ability to take a loss without going on tilt, and felt that if I could have more losses without it affecting my overall P&L, this would make me less likely to sulk when each inevitable loss comes along. And that has probably been my major success of the month – taking a loss without emotion remains the holy grail of gambling ( in my humble opinion ), and I seem to have taken a positive step forward.

So I’m reasonably satisfied with a month where I incurred overall losses on football and tennis, yet had a final profit of just under £750. Particularly as my expenditure in the month exceeded my income ( note for the self employed : January is a shit month for earning money ). Whilst I prefer betting as a hobby, it’s handy to have a little income stream when needed.

And finally I must thank a number of bloggers whose insights on horse racing have helped me along over recent months. With limited personal knowledge, I need every piece of informed opinion I can get my hands on, and there has been plenty of useful ( and free ) information out there in blogland.