Defending Your Money
So
how do we defend your money? We achieve
this by determining your bankroll, setting your unit amounts, limiting your
session (the numbers of plays a day or the amount you are willing to lose a
day), staying consistent in your wagering system, sticking to your budget, and
having triggers that tell you when to get out.
Limitation System/Budgeting
We
all have had times where we clearly just do not know when to leave. We are always pressing bets, doubling up, and
justifying the next bet as the last bet.
One sure fire way to manage your bets is to limit the amount of plays
per day. For flat bettors what is the
most you are willing to lose a day?
Daily
Fix
Smart
gamblers have a game plan when going to places like Vegas or even gambling
online. If you are planning to be
gambling for X-amount of days then we take our entire bankroll and divide by
the number of days. Should we reach our
limit for the day we quit for the day and find something else to do. Chalk up the day as a bad one but do not over
reach as this is a sure fire way to begin chasing bets. For wagering on sports I suggest thinking
about how much you are willing and able to lose in a week and dividing that by
7. You may weight Saturday as a bigger
portion of your bankroll since it tends to have more games and you are able to
most likely watch or want to bet on that day.
If that is the case, divide the amount you are able to lose by 8
days. Should you reach your limit for
the day quit and wait for the next day to bet.
An
adaptation to this theory is the idea of pulling from other days. I am not a fan of this as it encourages over
betting in a single day and sticking to your plan. However, if you bet one more and lose on one
day then the next day should have one less bet.
Simple adaptation but could leave you with less plays for the day you
really want to bet.
Session
Play
In
addition, we may take this one step further by dividing that a single day into
several sessions. If we have a bankroll
of $600 for the day, we can split our bankroll into 2-3 sessions:
1.
$300, $300
2.
$200, $200, $200
If
you should every reach your session’s limit you walk away and take a break. Now one thing to note about a session is that
you do not need to lose all of your money in order to quit a session. The biggest problem people have is that they
lose every single dollar of a session with disregard of walking away to
minimize their losses. See our next
section on Series Play.
In
sports betting, you can play 2-3 bets.
If you end up with three straight losers perhaps this is a good time to
walk away and call it a day. You can
save the rest of your money for another day to gamble. Personally, I split my day into several
sessions of games. I attempt to never
play more than 4 games in a session based on budget and to not create too many
line series to cover. Then over each
session in a day, depending on the number of games available, I would have
several sessions. In a day like Saturday
you could have as many as 5-6 sessions.
On these days I like to limit plays per session and or get in and get
out. If I am up early I may decide to
call it a day to secure profits. See the
last section on Knowing When to Walk Away for more information.
20%
Rule
Another
problem people have is greed. We do not
know when to simply quit. During any
session, should you lose 20% of the session you need to consider walking away
for the time being to collect yourself and when you are ready begin on your
next session. If you are winning for the
day you can always increase to an additional session for the day but there is
always tomorrow. In the long run most
people who continue sticking around tend to not profit so think about it.
On
the opposite end it is also important to consider walking away should you win
20% of your current session. So if you
current session is $300 than when you hit $60 consider calling it a successful
session. Here are some ideas on walking
away.
1. Use the series pull system to hold winnings on the side
2. Never pull from your winning series (except to replenish
initial amounts lost)
3. If you are HOT at the moment remain systematic but do not press
with multiple wagers since you have come into new money. Be disciplined
4. Should you realize that after a few more games/wagers that
you are now at the 20% mark and have been up and down feel free to walk away
and consider yourself a WINNER!
I
cannot express how many times I have had a HOT streak and have been up a
considerable amount only to press and lose it all back. If you have doubled your money why do you
need to triple it right then and there?
Be systematic in order to protect your profits. Here are some things that I do when wagering
in Vegas and have been attempting to implement in sports betting.
- 40% rule – If I hit 40% of my series, I quit for the
session (Consider continuing, but beware of dropping below 20-30%; better to always walk away up a winner)
- If you could walk away at the end of the day with 40% more in your pocket would you be happy? Then what difference would 50% be? What about 20% cause you gave some back by pressing?
- Consider $100 session and walking away with $140? Consider $1000 and walking away with $1400?
- By any account this was a great session keep it that way
- Unit Goal – do you ever set a unit goal for a session or day?
- Why not?
- With an average bet of 5 units I would consider 20 units a great day. What about you?
- If you agree than you would also know that a $50 bet (5 units) would equal a $200 profit
- So if you are 4-0 should you quit? I would consider it but I know I would fire at least once more because I am a degenerate. Lose and I would really want to walk away.
- If you ever hit 40 units in a day really consider quitting. The temptation to double up wagers, play more games, risk money on a lean, or simply throw your money around drinking, eating, celebrating, or whatever is likely.
Conclusion
Knowing
when to leave is a personal issue and takes personal discipline. Know what your limits are, what your goals
are, and be a fan for a change and simply sit back and enjoy some great
sports! There will always be bad days,
but the seasoned gambler will ride out those seasons with discipline.
Think
like a champ and remember the goal is to Walk Away Each Day a Winner! So if you had a choice between a winning day and
betting one last game what would you do?
Do not be mistaken, I am not talking about playing scared; I am talking
about securing profits. This is a big
reason why I avoid last games of the night and want to walk away for a spell to
debunk a bad session. Many a time’s gamblers
emotions are running high depending on how you are faring. Be sure to keep a cool head and remember
there are other days to gamble to win more or win back your money!
Got
any questions or thoughts to improve? Contact me on Twitter! Best of Luck and as always “On to the next
game!”
@secondhalfwager
