Im away till the end of June so no betting for me

Work has me all over the place so Im out for a wee bit.
Good luck!

Running Total to $1250.20

Strange night which on the face of it looks ok but it could have ended in disaster. Everything came together on my last bet which was stretching my systems to the 5th race of the place system and the 7th race of the win/fav system. The win/fav system lost ut but the place/fav system saved my bacon with a hefty won on a 5th race $400 bet. Definately nerve racking.
An interesting result on the win/fav system losing when the previous evening I had spent a number of hours putting all of this years results into a spreadsheet in a paper test  to show a decent profit and only a 1 meeting loss. So the moment I go hard out with real money I hit a losing sequence...
Still have moved forward which is a good result.
I have a week or so of working on away from home so doubt I will get to bet or post again for a short while. Good luck for those still betting.

Running total to 1234.40

Should have been more but the harness dividends were awful. I even used a more aggresive staking plan but typical dividends for place results of $1 to $1.20 meant I made no money from a series of successful bets.
The dogs and Singapore gallops gave me a decent night though.

Seriously....harness racing... what gives with the low dividends?

Someone please enlighten me..... how come harness racing fav dividends are so low?. I get better odds with the dogs and there are smaller numbers racing there and smaller betting pools.
Its so bad I have decided to stop betting on harness racing with either the place/fav system or the win/fav system.

Favourite to place staking system

I hope this makes sense its an explanation of how my staking system works with respect to betting on favourites to place. Click on the image to see the full staking plan.

Firstly, the numbers in pink indicate a loss on return of a bet, the numbers in yellow indicate a break even and the numbers in green are profit.
The 2 left columns are my amounts I bet. For this explanation just follow the $1, $5, $20, $70 and $250 amounts. Across the top are the possible dividends.
So if I bet on the first race of a meeting for a place a bet of $1 then looking across the dividend columns I can see what I win. For example if I bet $1 and the horse/dog comes in 3rd and pays out at $1.50 then I get a return of $1.50 which in turn gives me a porfit for that race of 50 cents.
The far right column is how much I have bet in a sequence so if I am up to the 3rd bet in a sequence ( my first two bets havent finished in the top 3) I have spent $26 so far. That means I need a dividend on the 3rd race of $1.40 or better to make a profit. A dividend of  $1.3 breaks even and $1.20 or less means I have lost.
Its a very rare thing at a meeting where I have to make the 5th bet of $250 and from memory only once have i lost on that bet.

I do have a more aggressive staking plan which means I get profits even at $1.20 dividends but the staking for that is $1, $7,  $50, $300, $1200.  I did breifly try it but the risk over reward for this doesnt work for me so I dont actually use it. Also with the low betting pools in NZ a bet over $500 for a place is rejected by the TAB. On top of that it would have an adverse effect on the dividend paid out.

So my cut off point where I accept a loss on a meeting is 5 races in a row where a fav doesnt place. As I have mentioned I have only seen that once.

The plus side of this system is that if one sticks to the rules you make small consistent wins.
The down side is that its simply not possible to make large amounts.

My fav/win system offers more of a chance for bigger winnings and i will draw up a staking plan to explain that soon.

Cheers
Mike

any questions please feel free to drop me a message.

Camera on the jockey

Just watched a race with the jockey having a camera onboard, wonder how long till we see this on all horses in a race........

Running Total to $1214.30

The dogs were good to me tonight and typically the Harness racing was close to not being worth the effort.
Why are Harness dividends so low?. I really dont get it.

Running Total to $1183

A quick $9 last night. I bet for an hour after footy practice, had planned to go through a late night Hong Kong meeting with the win system but was too tired and thought better of it.
When I resumed betting a couple of weeks ago I had a great start and got my running total to $1191 before having a couple of bad days. Its taken about 6 betting days to nearly catch up.
Its a funny thing but I have real confidence about what Im doing and my expectation is to win everyday.
This could be complacency or cockyness but I think its mostly because I firmly believe my 2 little unconventional systems do actually work when I stick to the rules.
Im now expecting the probability gods to slap me in the back of the head sometime soon.....

Gallops, Harness or Dogs?

Im running 2 different systems, one based on favourites to win and one based on favourites to place.
Both systems require time to be free and bet without interruption however the place version is easier to exit from without risking a loss.
Ive been doing this for nearly a year now although i have had a couple of months break around xmas. I have lost count of how many bets I have made in that time but its a considerable number.
I still know bugger all about proper punting where one bases bet choice on knowledge and understanding of horses etc etc.
I love harness racing, especially night harness racing however sadly due to the dividends on offer it gives me the smallest returns. I no longer run the win favourite system with harness racing, it simply too often isnt worth the amount of time for the meagre returns i get based around my system. I do run the place system with harness racing but in truth its only if there are no gallops on and I have nothing better to do with the evening.
The win favourite system doesnt work with the dogs, too often a meeting wont have any favourites winning but the place system works very well with the dogs. Its a funny thing but sometimes the place dividends can be poor but usually the dividends are good. The other funny thing is that sometimes the pace dividend is better than the win dividend.
The gallops are where I do the best, I dont understand why the dividends are better but its just the way it is. I also get to run my win/fav system with the gallops which i quite enjoy, it has more tension for me and also very satisfying everytime I get a result. I suspect its because its the original system i dreamed up and there is more opportunity for bigger winning days. However its very time consuming so I only use it when i have a totally free afternoon.

Wish i knew why harness dividends were so poor, its a shame really, visually for me its far more exciting, well it is live anyway and those mad French have a pretty unique version of trotting racing with the jockeys on the horses....

Running total to $1174.00

Part of yesterdays betting, a few bets at the end of the evening when there was nothing on tv and I felt like giving the dogs a spin. Another $8 added in the space of half a dozen bets.

If it wasnt for the fact that the size of bets used in the staking system gets so high so quickly I know I could do this full time and make some decent money. However if it was really this easy someone would have worked it out years ago.

Loss days via my system do come along but within the parameters of my systems they iron themselves out. The loss days due to me being a dumbarse are the frustrating ones and they are the true fly in the ointment. I looked at my records and I think my loss days due to my mistakes account for about 80% of all losses.
Those errors revolve around not following the system rules, missing a bet in a sequence because of interruption, taking a punt and trying to recover a loss with a speculative bet, betting while tired and missing a race because I fell asleep, missing a bet because I was multi tasking while waiting for a race and not checking frequently enough how far till it starts etc etc.

The last few days have been successful, mostly error free and relaxed

Running Total to $1166.00

With time free I have been able to bet while in a relaxed state of mind and had a nice little afternoon, about $30 added.

Routine and Rhythm

My re-entry from a break from betting has been pretty erratic because of work and footy coaching clashing with betting times etc and my results have been pretty erratic too. However when I have a clear day and clear head to bet and follow my system it does generally flow pretty well. I suspect its the same with many people that once in the groove everything tends to fall in to place.

The other interesting thing is how you can have good or bad days with respect to dividends. Yesterday was a classic example where I messed up with 2 bets, ended up $40 down but was able to recover it fairly easily simply because the place dividends were so juicy. I have had other days where I have bet all day, had reasonable results in terms of winning but the place dividends were so low the profit margins were very poor.

Im wondering if different parts of the racing season have an impact on dividends etc?

Running total to $1137.60

Running total to $1137.60 but it should have been $40 more. A day after I make the comment about how easy it is when I simply follow my systems rules I break the rules and quickly lose $40 which it then takes me a few hours to get back.  I do wonder if I will ever learn.....

Running total to $1124.60

It all seems so easy when I simply follow the systems rules to the letter.....

Running total to $1101.30

Sorry just a quick post, good day here about $50 winnings taking the total to 1101.30
I havent got the exact winnings total as I have just grabbed the number from my tab account while racing out the door.....

2 steps forward 1 step back

I havent really done much this week apart from a couple of spradic attempts to get some bets on. The trouble is that having to stop halfway through a sequence ends in a small loss of $20. Currently grabbing some back but the key issue here is I dont have enough time spare right now to do this properly. My system is based simply on statistics and because of this its quite time consuming in terms of having to devote time to live racing. Most others systems are based more on knowledge and analysis of horses etc which I suspect means people arent waiting till 15-30 seconds before a race to place a bet.
Im convinced my system does work but the drawbacks are its time consuming and also difficult to make larger sums of money.
Im going to be moving house soon as well so hopefully once all my extra stuff is under control I will be able to do this with a bit more conviction. Till then its bits and bobs betting and updates for me.

$40.90 winnings

running total to $1077.10

research research and more research.

Ive had a fun week, havent posted results etc as i have also been flat out with work.
After the nice win courtesy of Singapore I had a bad loss of $80.40 when i fell asleep on the couch part way through a sequence and missed the fav bet which would have made it a positve effort.....  Never mind
Then I caught up with a friend of mine who is a bit of a maths whizz and got him to take a look at what im doing from a statistical point of view to see if he could spot any improvements to my thinking.
He made one interesting observation and we debated his thoughts for a while till I decided to try out his idea with some paper testing first.
Well after a day or so I came round to his way of thinking and instead of testing the idea I ran with it. Of course it fell over and I found myself horribly in the hole with a loss pushing $400. Gathered myself and worked hard to recover that loss back to $118. Its a funny thing but Im almost happy about it.  So all in all the last weeks efforts have me sitting just $20 down on my opening balance.... Ha!
So running balance is now $1135.40.

Back to the normal routine tomorrow.....

24 April $121

Good day today thanks to the generous place dividends from Singapore/Kranji.
Total winnings this month $136.30
Total balance $1192.00

23/Apl $15.30

First day back at it, short burst of betting using the place system. $15.30 profit.
Ive restarted with a balance of $1055.70 which now sits at $1071.00.
I will add screen shots of the account later.

OK Im back...

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been busy with life in general. I had been annoyed at a couple of stupid losses due to not sticking to my system and that coincided with work and coaching taking up a lot of my time. The good news for me was to find that i was able to walk away as its been a great fear that i could become addicted to something potentially ruinous, gambling...
Anyway Im back and will  be updating with results soon.
Hope everyone is well and I will be doing the rounds checking how you have been doing
Cheers
Mike

Lack of activity and another loss

Work has been very busy lately, couple that with house sitting here and there and I havent been betting much. 

I did have a go at a few sports bets, using multi's here in NZ. I had been chatting with a mate of mine about the whole betting thing and had a go at a couple of multis. Unfortunately  Spurs let in an equalizer at home against leeds in the last seconds to kill one multi and another was killed by Arsenal losing to Stoke so a very unsuccessful effort there.  Even worse that the total loss for that was $140. So my betting bank is down to $375.

The sports bets for me were just pure gambling without following a system and this bothers me somewhat. Im going to give the betting a break for a couple more weeks, partly because Im annoyed at whats happened over the last 2 weeks and partly because to bet within my system I need to be based at home working within that enviroment. At present work and house sitting for friends has my life a bit disjointed. 

Back soonish

Biggest Loss ever

Nasty big loss of about $300 and I have just discovered by accident I have  bet on the wrong race which is pretty frustrating. So yet again my loss comes from my error and not the system. Will post a screen shot tomorrow when im back home.

Still a loss is a loss....

Tipsters and their success rates?

Do many people use tipping services and do they give you long term positive returns?
Im especially interested in sports tipping, it seems such a difficult area to accurately tip in to me.
Do those using tipping services use any special staking plans?

Winnings and Losses 5 months on.

I have so far a total profit of $1769.60 after losses are taken out and for fun decided to total up all my loss days which came to  $893.20.

13-1-2010 $14.20

$14.20 today which takes my bank up to $800.60.  A few days off after getting away with betting outside of my systems rules.  Glad to be back betting with discipline hopefully it wont be a lesson I forget. Essentially I bet out of sequence and then ended up in a situation of having about a $120 loss in play and the final bet of the day ended up being virtually my entire bank. I had decided to take the loss but at the last minute went for it with a huge place bet. Fortunately the horse came through and I ended up with a healthy $75 profit however in all honesty I deserved to have lost it. My system isnt foolproof and at some point there will be big loss days but I really dont need to have self inflicted loss days outside of the system.

NOTE: ran a few bets on the greyhounds tonight and took the days winnings to  $25.80 which brings my bank to $812.20

The dumb bet below

Not much betting ahead for the next few days, I have a busy day of work tomorrow and then Im off with 40,000 yahoos to a music festival here called "the Big Day Out". Looking forward to Lily Allen among others.

10-1-2010 $75.20

$75.20 winnings today taking the balance up to $786.40 and my total winnings to $1796.60.
Im not on my computer tonight so will post screen grabs later.

9-1-2010 $16

Should have been a whole lot more but I got tripped up by late odd changes which meant I bet on a horse which wasnt a favourite late in a sequence and the true favourite came through with a healthy dividend.  However its a win day so all is good.  Bank total now to $711.20 and overall winnings to $1694.40

Targets

Im looking to try and hit about $250 per month in winnings and since I started this I have averaged $270  per month. 

The fav/place system I run mostly is quite limited as to how much I can make because of the size of bets having to be made if I up the staking plan to win more.  The fav/win version is much more friendly with respect to increasing the staking without becoming dangerous in bet size but to do this I do need a decent sized bank. So my first target is to get to a betting bank of $2000 and from there I will look to increase the staking plan on the win/fav side of things.

While I have been betting with real money i have also been paper trading the racing as well and in January alone  with a $10 base bet the win/fav system would have me already just under $1000 up.

So $250 a month and an initial target of $2000 should keep me occupied till about May.

$1000 withdrawn $30.50 win

OK the car looks great thanks to the $1000 I have taken out of the account. So i start again with a balance of  $663.70

5-1-2010 $23.50

Last bets before I withdraw $1000 from the TAB account which will leave me with a new starting bank of $658.90

4-1-2010 Loss $14.60

Doing quite well today about $20 up but finished of with evening greyhounds and got nailed by last minute dividends indicating the wrong favourite 5 times in a row and each time the actual favourite came in the top 3.

I could have carried on as there are a number of greyhound meetings running but there is clearly something screwy with the tote etc so might as well save myself for another day.

I was looking at my record number of days in a row of winning closely but will have to start again. Still at least its only a small loss.

3-1-2010 $7.20

Another evening of low dividends on the harness racing having a negative impact on the gallop returns. I have been messing with staking ratios via spreadsheets and may have to use different staking ratios for harness and gallops. Essentially the theory with respect to the place/fav system is working but the difference in place dividends between harness racing and gallops is having an impact.  There are too many place dividends of $1.30 or less happening with the harness racing.
I will have to look at it some more. The concern is that the staking plane which will give me more consistency with harness winnings also carries the bigger loss when I finally have a true losing day with the place system.

The current total loss on the place/fav system for 1 meeting would be $346 which would take me about a month to recover from. The revised staking plan would give me a loss for a meeting of $456. Historical records show a meeting where the fav didnt finish in a place for 5 races in a row to be very very rare but at some point it will happen so do i risk the extra $100 and would it be worth it for more consistent returns from the harness side?.

Below is a snapshot of my place system staking plan. The top one is the slightly revised version, the bottom one my current plan.  The green is profit, yellow break even and pink is loss. The stop point is the 5th race and from historical records in NZ and Aussie I have only come across 1 time when the fav didnt come in a place by the 5th race.

So having given it some thought for the harness races I might go with a 4th race stop point, increase the staking to as listed and see how this works. Since I have started with this place system I have only had a few times when I have gone to the 5th race, it could be worth the risk in the long run. I will check the historical records on this.
 I will stick with the bottom plan for the gallops as it is working well for that.

2-1-10 $9.50

$9.50, mixed day. The harness racing hurt me today with too many low dividends. A shame as the gallops went well.
Balance to $1647.80 although at one point it looked like hitting $1660.