New Year Resolutions

[NeilM]

I have a few but my racing related ones are: To overcome my (purely psychological) dislike of laying. I know that it is the best course of action if I've read a race right and believe a short priced favourite will lose, especially in mid week stuff where I don't really fancy any of them to win. To focus more on my blog At the moment I just do a few race previews and daily 'quick selections' which are showing a small profit in the very short time I've been doing them. I'm going to focus on one race per day which may not be in the UK (see below) but continue to offer low value place bets because I'm getting alright sort of return on them and can tweak this fairly easily. Hopefully this will help me properly move my focus from the flat to the jumps. Greyhounds I formerly wrote an in house preview for the televised meetings- which most of my colleagues ignored- but it has become increasingly obvious that, recent losing efforts aside, I'm really getting the hang of this. I'm some ten points or so up over December when I adopted the more forecast based approach I've had in my thread on here on top of the 25.2 points I was up over the rest of the year (not including the Derby). I did OK last year when I was based between Sheffield and Gibraltar and ended 13 points up so need to spend a lot more time on this. Non UK and Ireland racing I need to follow Irish racing a lot more and am determined to at least get a handle on Australian racing. Irish because I know I don't follow it properly and with the lesser number of races I should be able to avoid being totally blindsided when a 58.0 shot pops up in the UK. Australian because its a betting opportunity and nothing more- whilst this isn't the best of reasons to take an interest, it could provide me with some ammunition for the big events and get an edge on the UK bookies in those events. Similarly US racing. There is a virtual overload of US information out there and some very interesting systems that look like they could produce winners. The advantage here is that both the exchanges and the pool are available with fewer waters being muddied by bookmakers. I'm going to run a US racing thread from January which I hope will help me and also provide interest for people in what I've come to believe is an unexploited market for the British punter. Also, I suspect that some of the American methods could provide a view on betting on fibresand. In a broader sense but still to do with betting my aim is to relocate back to Gibraltar- working there improved my betting enormously. Feel free to chip in.

[Gavlar17]

Re: New Year Resolutions I'll chip in for what its worth. Discipline Something which seriously lacks in my punting at the moment, but I've started to introduce measures to ensure I don't make the same mistakes next year as what I made this year. 1. Betting to level stakes 2. Record all bets to identify strengths and weaknesses 3. Don't bet blind (I.e bet for the same of a bet). Too often I've walked into the bookies and backed a horse without reading or assessing the race. 4. Stick to singles (excluding a Sat where I need my weekly fix of a Yankee. We all chase the dream don't we?) 5. Stay firmly away from any electronic gambling machines found inside bookies, pubs and nightclubs - you know the ones I mean! 6. Walk away in front. So, point 1, betting to level stakes. The mistake I often I make is after a few winners my confidence increases and then my stakes increase in line with this. Before u know it, after a few losers with bigger stakes I've lost any profit I had made. Leaves for a frustrating walk or drive home for the bookies. The Saint has been kind enough to give me a spreadsheet to use for tracking my bets so I'm hoping this will help me identify my betting strengths and weaknesses. This should help drive down the losses and allow me to focus specifically on the type of races and size of fields I tend to do well in. Point 3, we've all done it, walked into the bookies and had a bet for the sake of having a bet. Without really thinking about what were backing. Sure its okay now and then but doing this frequently eats into any profit that you've worked and studied so hard to achieve. Onto point 4, sticking to singles. Seems simple enough but its all too tempting to include that even money fav in a double to boost profts and time after time its the shorter price or the rash decision to make it a multiple that lets you down. Point 5, the demon inside. Staying well away from any roulette machines or puggies. It must be the flashing lights but I seem to be drawn to them! Bar a few relapses this year, I've managed to stick away from them for the majority of the year. I plan to avoid them permanently in the new year and no going back. Not even £1. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get back on the wagon. I'll admit to pouring hundreds of pounds into these things and I'm ashamed to admit it. Leaving this behind is my biggest aim for 2013. Finally, walking away whilst in front. Just because you've had a winner. It doesn't mean you have earnt the right to have another bet. More often than not it results in a loser and reduces any profit already made. This probably goes hand in hand with the betting blind point. This covers everything I aim to do to make 2013 a better year from a betting point of view. I feel better having written them down now, I've got rules to follow and can always refer back to this if I need to. You'll notice the recurring theme is self-discipline and believe me, I'm gonna conquer it next year! :ok Have a lucky 2013!! Gavlar.