Intelligent Betting - 3 Rules to Begin With, What NOT to Do

Hey again buck hunters, Mike here. Back to intelligent betting and how to make some serious cash out of sporting events. I assume you have your account ready and funded by this time and you might have already checked out some of the events this week. Some of the events looked like real winners, right? That's because they are! But are you the winner, or your bookie? Here's where we need to draw a line and see where we stand - we are on the side of the player, or the honest buck-hunter as I like to call myself. I want myself and you to win, and for that we need to be clever and disciplined. So here's your first advice: know who you are betting against! Never forget that things aren't ever the way they look! If your bookie wants you betting on an event/outcome/special then that's exactly why you should NOT follow that suggestion. Keep your head clear of propaganda and follow your own plan. The more you go astray from that plan, the more chances you have of losing your investment and the bookie getting your money.

OK, now that we decided to follow our own plan, let's see how this plan looks like. First, like all good plans, it's really SIMPLE! Rule nr.1 - stick to one sport. I'm serious - no fooling around here and there, betting on snooker players you never heard of or going for the nr.1 tennis player just because he's supposed to win always. Even if that's true, we decide not to care. Pick your favorite sport, the one you know most about, and stick with it. My sport is football, i never put my money on anything else and this is one of the reasons i'm successful overall. NOT LOSING is an essential part of making money in this "business" and yes, you can call it a business as long as you have a plan. I sometimes win and sometimes lose, but the losers have to be part of a larger plan in which winners are a constant and the overall result is a positive curve. More about this in the next posts.

OK, so up till now we have 2 starting principles for successful betting: 1) do NOT go for your bookie's choices, always follow your own and 2) do NOT try to cover more of this business than you are actually capable of, stick to 1 sport. I'll give you one more today, and let you think about them seriously until next time. Here it is, rule number 3: do NOT aim for jackpots! Once again: NEVER, EVER, aim for Jackpots!! Have you ever hit a jackpot? If you haven't, that's because it's highly improbable that you ever hit one. If you have, then just sit and think for a moment: your time is gone, you had your chance, the probability of that happening again is even lower!! Stop chasing ghosts, this is NOT the lottery! Treat this as a business, and you will have a chance to business-like results.

This last rule is one of the cornerstones of my system, so I cannot emphasize it enough. As a person with extensive knowledge in the investments field, I know well that the psychological engines of the investors are mainly fear and greed. The gamblers are not much different, however for them greed seems to be much stronger than anything else. They want ALL the money from the table, and that's because they are supposedly so damn good, so intuitive, so extremely skilled in sports and hey! what the hack!! soooo lucky too!! They think they have it all, so they deserve it, right? Wrong! One minor thing goes wrong, the whole thing blows in their face and the bookie gets their money, leaving them with an unfulfilled dream and an empty pocket. It's often a cheap dream, but nevertheless it costs money and the bookies LOVE free rides. A sea of dreamers and greedy losers equals a sea of opportunities for the bookies.

We don't want to belong to this emotional crowd, so we must respect this third rule in all our bets: we don't shoot for the moon only to miss by an inch (or more), but shoot for the closest bird in sight. The clearer and closer the target - regardless of the profit - the more we get interested. That's what the losers fail to do, that's what WE shall do, and that's why we can make some real money. This is the wildest secret of successful betting, and those of you sticking around will be able to see with live examples what I'm talking about. Stupid gamblers are impulsive and greedy, so we have to control our impulses and our greed. If you manage to do this trust me - you're already half way there!

Until next time (I promise this will get more interesting as we advance to more direct applications of this knowledge in real betting), I give you a task: open your Gamebookers account, choose football, and pick 3 bets. Just combine on your slip whatever you like, as many events as you like, and take those bets with real money. How much? Well, let's assume your account is 1000 units - take each bet with 5 units or less. Make it ridiculously small, as the whole purpose of the exercise is to learn something. Check the results, and e-mail me your conclusions - I'll refer to them next time.



In the next post, I want to discuss about choices - what we choose to bet on and what we must simply ignore. All bets involve a certain amount of luck - there's no such thing as a sure bet, whatever you bet on! You can NEVER be sure that your bet is going to be a win, anything can happen. But there is a HUGE difference between educated gamblers and monkey players throwing their money anywhere, just because "look, there's no football today, let's bet on scuba-diving instead!". Keep your discipline no matter what, stick to your plan, always.

I hope you haven't lost interest in following our series. Stay close, next we will take this a step further and I'll tell you all about what kind of bets you should take and what to avoid. In the meantime, don't gamble your shirt and be patient! Try to "make your hand" on very small bets - winners or losers, at this point it's not really important. What is more important is that you accumulate some rookie experience without losing too much of your initial investment. Once you will see for yourself how losing feels it will be easier for you to get out of the loser's framework of mind. Once we get rid of this a new, intelligent gambler will be born - and that's when the real fun starts and the cash begins to flow in! ;)

Stay safe and see you soon!