Do you have your own betting rules?

[MPLouis]

(Note: I am posting this thread in this forum because I've seen other similar threads here. Although I bet on football rather than horses, I think the same principles apply). Earlier this week, I researched a long-odds 2-way football bet (odds were over 3.0) that I thought was good value, and managed to talk myself out of putting it on only to see the team pull off an apparently deserved win :eyes. (I won't mention the fixture because I don't want to discuss the details or be accused of bragging or 'after-timing'). But this sort of thing has happened before. And it's also happened the other way round - putting on a ridiculous bet that in hindsight I could see was just foolish. So it made me think 'perhaps I should have a rule, say "If it looks like value and smells like value, it probably IS value" to stop me talking myself out of good bets in future. And then I thought other people must have similar betting rules which they've adopted through experience. So - do you have your own betting rules? What are they, and how do they help you?

[Kithanga]

Re: Do you have your own betting rules? Yes, simple rules really but they do help with the discipline. I only bet on horses but I look for those that I think may be at the top of their form or likely to improve and then price them up. I only back those that give me at least 20% margin of safety above that price. I must say though that it's easier said than done and takes a lot of courage some times either to leave alone when slightly below a price or to plough in when significantly above. I find differential staking (based on odds percentages) helps with the latter as you are at least paying some attention to the market (which is a very efficient pricing mechanism)