Head Screwed Backwards

6/11/11

2011-11-06T23:16:00.003Z

19 Days. Well actually 433 hours! Yes I am that desperate, every second that passes I am closer to living again. I didn't think things could get any closer to desperation until today, I am owed money from my Sister and she is still yet to pay up and the money is flying out of my account each day with bills and travel costs to work. It is going to be a close shave on whether I make it to payday on the 25th without any bank charges for going into the abyss.

Today was the one and only time I could do something fun this month. I managed to get out on the golf course for the first time since Spain a few weeks ago. It was a risk with the bad neck but seems to have had a positive effect somehow, although more will be revealed tomorrow when I see how stiff I am. The fact that I had a shocker didn't impress me too much, I hit the ball well but there were lots of trees that got in the way and my putting on the front 9 was woeful. I partly blame that on the transition from the greens in Spain to the more woolly greens of today, and the time it took to adjust.

Last night was pretty special and put a massive smile on my face to see St Nicholas Abbey winning in the Breeders Cup Turf. I really do love the horse and I am almost happy that the plan didn't work out during his classic year (even though I was on him for the Derby at all manner of prices from 22's downwards), as he probably would have been retired by now and we wouldn't have seen a win in the Coronation, a gallant 4th in the Arc and then the great win last night. Credit to Ballydoyle and well done to young Joey O'Brien who I have given a little bit of stick to in the past, which turned out to be premature after Await The Dawn was found to be clinically abnormal after his York run (not much the jockey can do about that).

Another long week at work ahead, fingers crossed I can start betting properly again and then my life won't seem so dull and worthless.

02/11/11

2011-11-02T19:02:00.002Z

Life feels like it is passing me by right now having no money to do anything is really getting to me. I spent as long as I could in bed this morning as I knew I would be bored stiff on my day off, I really have had enough of sitting in the same spot on the sofa watching terrible television. I know it is nice to relax but I have done enough of that and really am craving some golf or even popping into town to do some shopping, both which are impossible. I make going to the gym my last resort normally but today I would have even made an appearance there (as a farewell to cancelling my membership), but I am in so much pain with my neck that I am in no doubt lifting weights would only make it worse.

I had a little look through the tennis this morning and nothing stood out to me except the Tipsarevic v Mayer match. I was on the right side of things and would have collected a some nice profit except Tipsarevic decided to retire at 5-1. That should have been my one and only bet but with nothing else to do I traded a couple more tennis matches, I know that boredom betting isn't the right thing to do but I couldn't help myself with nothing else to do. Two losses were probably inevitable and so the account isn't looking the healthiest now.

Also I have a Loss Limit in place on the account to stop me losing too much and that kicked in after I lost the last bet. I am unsure why it did though as I have not lost £100 in the past 7 days, not even close (£19)! As I have over £80 of current bets this must have something to do with it. This has made me even more angry because I would have liked to have a bet on the football this evening.

Tough times will continue for the next 22 days. I hope the loss limit doesn't last much longer as making some profit can help get a smile back on my face.

31/10/11

2011-10-31T22:00:00.004Z

Happy Halloween! This is probably the two words that I have heard the most since I got home from work this evening. I have probably given sweets to about 60 kids and that is no exaggeration, I don't remember any year like it. Normally you get about 3 or 4 groups maximum but I was up and down constantly for 3 hours, I even kept telling them I was trying to watch Corrie and Eastenders but to no avail. Some of the kids were really cute, some tried hard and some didn't even bother to dress up, I answered 'trick' to these lazy ones and they responded like they had never heard the word before. No costume and no prior planning of a trick, terrible effort.

I was a little disappointed yesterday as two of my tips in the tennis reached finals only to both get beaten in 3 setters. I had already laid off my stake but no profit for decent selections is a shame. I cant find any outstanding bets in the tournaments this week and so some trading in individual matches will probably be the way forward. I had a little luck today and the account is slowly moving in the right direction.

I have added a section on the right hand side of the blog page for Ante-Post bets, these will mainly be for the Cheltenham Festival in March but it will be a nice way of you to be able to see my thoughts on these races and also an easy point of reference for me without looking at the markets. I haven't put my stake size on there as I will be hopefully trading on these selections as it gets closer to the event.

Also the account total in the top right hand side doesn't include current bets (it would read £208.74 if I did), I have a few from before the challenge started and also I feel its best to only put down actual money that I could withdraw from the account. Don't know if this is the normal way of doing things but it seems better for me. Also I have got the £100 starting balance back in the account too, it gives me a little more freedom to be creative and speculative which is what I tend to need. Otherwise having the small amount to bet with leaves me scared to even place a bet as 2 or 3 losers in a row and its almost game over. I have survived so far though (just about) and long may it continue.

27/10/11

2011-10-27T21:33:00.003+01:00

Wow. The next month is going to be fun! Pay day was a little over two days ago and already my bank account has been halved with payments going to a large phone bill (note to self - never call Germany when drunk), Internet and home phone bills and my Mum. I could just about survive if there wasn't worse to come. November 1st is going to be a late Halloween for me as rent, loan, gym and bank account fees all get taken from my account, leaving me with just enough money for travel costs to work for the rest of the month. I am in quite a good mood as I write this, but I doubt that will last long. There is only so much sitting on a sofa on days off that one can do, my body craves golf and a night out - none of which are possible until around Christmas time!

To make things even worse I have been unable to move my neck freely for a couple of days now. I had a little stiffness about a week ago but just thought I had slept awkwardly. On Tuesday night it got far worse and I think I have a trapped nerve, there is slight swelling now which could point to a slipped disc but I am refusing to think the worst. I have a few exercises to help with movement and pain killers to help me sleep, hopefully it recovers itself in a few days as it is pretty painful.

Tennis has been good to watch over the past couple of days, my bet in the St Petersburg open on Janko Tipsarevic is still going strong and he has a decent enough draw to at least make the final. I did notice the way a market can panic when a large lay bet comes in on a certain player, especially when there is no up to date pictures and a slow scoreboard. Marin Cilic was a set to the good in his match and never behind at any point in the second set (he did face a break point at one stage, and was 1 mini-break down in the tie-break) but he drifted out to evens at one point. He should have been trading around 1.07! I didn't get involved because often when these markets seem too good to be true they really are. As you can see from the graph below the market was desperate to send him out further but he won in straight sets so the feeling of fix was misplaced.

The WTA finals in Istanbul has also made decent watching. Azarenka has made it through with the minimum of fuss and my other bet Radwanska still has a chance of qualification after her battling victory over Zvonareva this evening. Rarely do you see such fight and heart on a tennis court but ARad managed to save 2 match points with some amazing scrambling, she was playing like her life depended on it and was a wall in the final 4 or 5 games of the match. She still needs to take a set from Kvitova tomorrow to make it through (if my maths is correct), but bets aside I think she definitely deserves this after tonight's performance.

24/10/11

2011-10-24T23:17:00.002+01:00

Pay-Day tomorrow! Not that it matters at all really with all the outgoings that I have in the coming weeks, although I suppose it will be nice to have a little more than £4 to my name.

The account has made steady progress in the last couple of days with a nice win on the NFL last night and West Ham this evening. Did trade a couple of horse races for minimal gains this afternoon along with the tennis, nothing to write home about but I should be happy with a few extra pennies added to the balance. The NFL bet was on the Saints to cover the -14.5 spread, I feel that New Orleans have the ability to go all the way to the Super Bowl this year and playing against the Colts that seem unable to function without Peyton Manning at all. This bet was practically done and dusted at half time. I will take a little fortune in the West Ham game as they managed to score early through a defensive error, they then let Brighton have 70% possession for the remainder of the tie but the Seagulls were unable to break down the Hammers (I did lay off my stake at HT as it only looked a matter of time before Brighton would score).

I will try to get some screenshots of the P&L on here but for some reason my laptop at home is unable to 'snip' so for now it will just be manual updates unfortunately.

Moving on now to future events and in the tennis this week the WTA holds their season ending event in Istanbul. The top 8 players in the world face off for vast sums of money and after looking at the groups I feel that Radwanska and Azarenka both have decent shouts at winning it. Radwanska has been in great form of late although her group is definitely the tougher. Azarenka looks to have a good draw alongside a potentially unfit Sharapova, Li Na who is out of form and low on confidence and Stosur who has been on a downward curve since her win at Flushing Meadows. I will be having a little outright bet on both players.

In Men's tennis I think Janko Tipsarevic has a superb shout to win his 2nd title in as many weeks in St Petersburg. He has his head set on reaching the ATP Tour Finals in London and a win here would get him a few extra points towards that goal, he is high on confidence after his win last week and potentially his greatest challenger in Gilles Simon went out earlier today.

20/10/11

2011-10-20T18:16:00.004+01:00

I have arrived back from a really great holiday. Playing golf everyday in 30+ degree heat was a treat, although I do praise the pros for hitting 1000 balls a day as I found 150 in practice followed by a round more than enough to give me tightness in my arms and back. I suppose they dont have to lug a bag around or go for a night out in Spanish clubs before a big round.

With my Spanish being worse than terrible I found it very difficult to communicate with anybody, Jerez is not really tourist central and so even ordering food and drink was tough at times - as I found out when trying to order 5 beers and a shandy and the waiter coming back with the beers but also a sweet sherry! Although I have since found out that sherry originates from near Jerez & Cadiz so maybe I should have tried it.

I have had a couple of bets since returning but nothing major. I am actually in a little trouble money-wise, with outgoings far exceeding my income for last month. This was down to a £150 phone bill (don't call Germany from a mobile phone), a little too much gambling prior to the start of this blog, playing lots of golf in preperation for the trip and then the holiday itself. I have worked out that not even being paid at the end of the month will save me from ending November in the red, thats without going out at all, or playing golf or putting more money in to bet.

You may think I wont need to deposit more to bet because of the £100 challenge, well I had to withdraw the £100 to pay off some bills so I could afford the trip to Spain. This has left me with the 20 odd quid that I had made previously in the account and I am having to make do with that as my betting fund until I get my finances back on track. The challenge looks doomed already!

The betting started with a back of Bayern Munich on Tuesday, this finished a 1-1 draw after Bayern conceded their first goal since the opening day of the season, albeit an own goal. Mario Gomez then went on to miss a second half penalty. I then moved onto Wednesday and placed one bet on Nadia Petrova in the womens tennis tournament in Moscow. The fact that the tournament this week is in Russia should have made me stop immediately, Tennis and Russia don't have the cleanest of records. Petrova also lost. I should have just laid both players at 1.2 or lower in all of the matches on Wednesday, I would be rolling in dosh writing this now. I am not saying the matches are corrupt but something strange seems to happen in this tournament each year.

Managed to pick up a couple of quid on the India v England ODI this afternoon, and am hoping Schalke and Fulham can win tonight for a little more profit.

5/10/11

2011-10-05T21:28:00.002+01:00

Bad day at the office yesterday. Cricket trading when not concentrating 100% on it is possibly the worst idea I have had in a while. The markets are volatile and it is usually quite good to trade, unfortunately I was on the end of 2 losing results out of 2 costing me more than I wanted really. Has reduced my profit in the 2 weeks by half and will take a few days to get back into it as I don't want to bet when my confidence is low.

I will probably have a bet before I go away to Spain on Monday, but I think it might even be better to take some time out have a good holiday and forget about the gambling dream for a week or so.

Talking of the golf break the excitement is at a premium after playing at Epsom Downs golf club today. The greens were very tough and undulating but I still managed to smash my previous best score and shot 86 which I am over the moon with. My target is to get to a 14 handicap by next September (currently play off 24), so today's round was a step in the right direction!

4/10/11

2011-10-04T00:01:00.002+01:00

Time to get up and running with this writing lark again I think. I doubt it will last long as I either forget to update or just get bored of it all, I will give it a try though!

If you have read my posts previously then you will know I am a young guy with ambitions to make it big in the gambling world. I have dreams that date back to my late school years and while I was at university to become a professional gambler, something that I have not made happen to date. I do work in the gambling industry and am starting to learn from past mistakes something which at many stages I never thought I would do.

Apart from the gambling I tend to spend my money short breaks often to watch racing or to play golf. I am off to Seville next week for 7 days of golf with a few of the lads, hopefully more of the same to come in the future.

In the past I have suffered from big ups and downs in the betting game, tending to up my stakes to levels which are unsustainable when the poor form or poor confidence strikes. Discipline is a weakness too, and I will be the first to admit that I do make a few to many bets on occasion. To help with the things that have hindered me in the past I spent a few days doing lots of reading and making some rules which will help with staking plans, these rules also have previous P&L for each sport from the past year so the staking is geared towards cutting down on the losses - sometimes its not about winning more, its about losing less.

I am starting with a bank of £100 and the aim is to make £300 from that. I have set the target of 1 year, which works out at less than £1 a day. Obviously I hope to get above this, but there is no real rush and starting small working with percentages is definitely the way forward. If you cant make it work with small sums, then large amounts will only harm your bank balance even more. I have lost enough in the past and am determined to learn from those errors.