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Betting On Horse Racing
And Managing Your Money – Part Three This is the third in a series of articles on betting on horse racing profitably through sensible money management. I have so far discussed why looking for value in horses, rather than just betting on favourites is so important. This was in the first article in this series. Then, in the second article I emphasized the point that if you’re not using a betting bank, or you do not have a structured staking plan, then you are playing with fire. In short, this is a big mistake when betting on horses. One Of The Biggest Mistakes You Can Make As A Punter In this article, I am going to examine possibly the most common mistake that punters make when betting on horses. This is one that perhaps all of us have been guilty of doing at one point or another, as the temptation can often prove too great. So which mistake is it that I am talking about? Its chasing your losses. The reason that I am dedicating a whole article to this one subject, is because it can literally take the shirt off your back as things can escalate so quickly. Plus I know first hand how this can happen, as I did progressive staking (a posh name for chasing your losses!) several years ago, before I became the disciplined punter that I am today. How Chasing Your Losses Can Spiral Out Of Control Quickly The easiest way to illustrate this is by using a simple example: Let’s say a punter places £50 on a horse, and he loses. What happens next is the punter selects another horse in a different race. However, instead of placing another £50 on that horse, the punter feels the need to also win back what he lost on his first horse, and so places a bet of £100. When this second horse loses, the punter is now down to the tune of £150, just like that. And so the punter selects another horse that is a dead cert to win its race, and its at a price of 2/1, so what does the punter do? He doesn’t place £50 on the horse to recoup £100 and only be £50 down for the day, oh no. He chases his losses by placing another bet of £100, thinking that the £200 profit he’ll get will recoup his losses of £150, plus £50 profit. Right? Well, yes, mathematically and theoretically that is correct, but let us examine this equation more closely to see what big mistake this punter is making by betting on horses in this fashion. Do Not Break One Of The Golden Rules of Betting In effect, what this punter is doing is placing a £100 bet to win £50, as this is the profit that he will make, factoring in the £150 that he already lost. Are you with me? So this is like betting on 2/1-on favourite, where you have to put £2 on just to win £1 back. This is madness, as there is no value whatsoever in this bet and it goes completely against what I talked about in the first article in this series. And that’s assuming that his third horse wins! It’s a fact that good punters get use to; when betting on horse racing you are always going to go through a losing run, it may be two horses, five horses or more, but you need to weather the storm and this is done through the value horses I discussed in the first article in this series. Even the best horse racing tipsters, the ones who work for newspapers and on television, have losing runs, and they’re as close to being experts as you will get. So we all go through it, and the secret is staying focused and true to your plan – not disregarding the plan just because a couple of horses have not won.
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