This is a blog that will follow my progress towards winning £200K in 2012 ... and my return from retirement in 2022.
A busy end to October
Well October has seen quite a few changes in the IR market. The slow down of the SIS pictures and the associated severe lack of liquidity in the place market has really made it a hell of a lot harder to win nice sums of cash. Luckily I did kinda see this coming (back in March I think I mentioned on this Blog that the IR game would possibly implode at some point in the future). So now I'm really starting to focus on the pre-race markets. By moving into these markets I'll no longer have to worry about paying a premium for the SIS and TurfTV pics and I'll also be moving into a market (the pre-race win market) where I believe that the liquidity is still good enough for me to make cash. OK, I know that some tracks can be light in pre-race cash, but I still think that there's more than enough to meet my meagre requirements.
Accordingly I've beem immersing myself in the content of Jack Birkhead's training site 'Trading for Freedom'. I've already whizzed through his 'Journey' videos and they're great. I've traded a few races (with mixed results!), but now I'm pretty sure that I'm beginning to get the basic hang of how these markets work. Jack and Caan also presented a really interesting Webinar in the week and I found this really useful. The guys will be running these on a weekly basis and I think that they will be a great success, with like-minded traders meeting-up once a week for advice/chat/inspiration etc. PS Im not financially involved in any way with Jack's website, I just mention it as I think that it's a great and pretty unique way in which to learn a trade.
So I've been having a bit of a shop around on Gumtree, eBay and Amazon and my home setup now looks like this:
I have 2 Viewsonic 23in LED monitors attached to an Acer slimline running an i5 processor with 6gb of RAM. My SKY+ HD box (for ATR and RUK) is connected to a HDMI splitter which sends one signal to my TV and another to my left monitor using a HDMI to DVI converter. Sound comes from the audio outputs on my Sky box to speakers on my desk. All of this is completed by an emergency bottle of Hoegaarden (only to be opened in times of stress and/or excitement!).
As from the start of November I'll be trading from home. Obviously it's going to be a steep learning curve and I'm going to have to see if I can combine a bit of IR with a bit of pre-race trading. I would imagine that I'll pre-race trade on the SIS/ATR meetings and see if I can still nick a bit of IR money using RUK.
You never know, I might become the new Adam Heathcote!
Mid October .... and the wheels have come off!
What the fuck is happening to the IR markets eh? I just took a look at my P&L for September and October to date and I nearly fell off my chair! I knew that things were getting tough but fuck me it's becoming near on impossible to win anything. One noticeable change is that the SIS pics have slowed down even further and there are reports that we're as much as 5 seconds behind the live action at certain tracks. In my book that makes IR playing pretty much a non-starter on a lot of tracks, unless you know the form like the back of you hand. The only way to try and compensate for this delay is to know the general running styles of certain horses in each race an to play relatively early, as the thieving track mongrels generally wait to the later stages of each race, where they feast like rabid hyenas over the scraps of money still in the market.
Therefore I've decided to try a few days playing from home using BF live pictures and Racing UK, with more of an emphasis on using smaller stakes and playing earlier in the race in an effort to get involved before the market gets raped by the above mongrels. This means I'll have to get a Racing Post subscription on the go and start watching some of the race replays again, although as mentioned previously I don't want to spend too much time watching the replays as it's as boring as fuck. I'll also be making much more of an effort in the pre-race market so that I don't have to be dependant on the fast SIS and TurfTV pics.
It's still early days in my pre-race career, but I think that I've already learnt a lot just by playing a few races in the past few weeks, mostly what NOT to do! I know that there are a few good pre-race judges out there who make it pay, so that gives me the confidence that it can be done. I've just joined 'Trading for Freedom' which is Jack Birkhead's new training site. I know Jack from a few years back and I have to say that his pre-race training videos are great. I'm going through these at the moment and they should fast-track me into the pre-race markets. All I'll be looking to do for the next few weeks at least is to nick a few quid while I'm trying to learn the game.
It's Time to Have a Bash in the Pre-Race Market!
Pre-Race Market
I tend to struggle at certain tracks, such as the SIS tracks over the jumps. Additionally, at some point I'll have to move over to Betdaq to avoid this poxxy 20% Premium Charge, which really eats into my profits. If I can make a fist of it in the pre-race markets then I'll be able to play from home, ideally somewhere on the coast, which will also help cut down on my daily expenses.
So I'll be firing up a new Betdaq account and sticking a few quid in and having a crack. If there are any good pre-races traders out there willing to give me a bit of advice then feel free to contact me! I know that Jack Birkhead from 'Sports Trading Journey' is one of the leaders in the field of pre-race market training so I'll be giving him a shout as I know that he has some new material about to be released. I've also been following the progress of Caan Berry over at 'Trading a Profit' and it seems like after a lot of hard work he's also cracked the pre-race market and is now in the process of offering 1 to 1 training.
Betdaq
Well I've already encountered the first hurdle! I've downloaded both Gruss for Betdaq and Geeks Toy for Betdaq and neither show the 'Last price' or 'Total matched' figures, which is obviously a pain in the arse. Apparently the Betdaq API doesn't return this info for some strange reason, so that's going to make things a bit tougher before I've even fucking started! Actually, I can't even believe that people can even trade with these missing, so I suppose most of the money on Betdaq is cross-matching between Betfair? I've contacted Betdaq about this issue and apparently they will be providing this data at some point in the future but can't be specific about a date.
Pre Race Dog and Horse Trading Results
The horse racing figures below are purely from where I've had an opportunity to pre-race trade in between my IR trading. The dog racing figures come from a combination of trading and also using a system I've devised which usually nicks me a few quid a day.
04/09 - won £4.03 on the horses and won £4.97 on the dogs = +£9.00. Total = +£9.00
05/09 - lost £0.98 on the horses and won £12.40 on the dogs = +£11.42. Total = +£20.42
06/09 - won £7.28 on the horses and lost £7.70 on the dogs = -£0.42. Total = +£20.00
07/09 - lost £8.24 on the horses and won £48.58 on the dogs = +£40.34. Total = +£60.34
Well, I'm only on my 4th day of trying this pre-race game and I've just fallen for the 'had it on the wrong channel and all of a sudden they went in-play!' ... whoops ... grabbed a quick £10 red and chastised myself for not paying attention!
08/09 - won £4.62 on the horses and won £29.12 on the dogs = +£33.74. Total = +£94.10
09/09 - won £28.25 on the horses. Total = +£122.35
I think that I'm also going to try to implement my greyhound system on the pre-race horse markets for small stakes to see if I get any joy. I'll run this alongside my pre-race trades and see how it goes.
10/09 - won £103.20 on the horses and lost £55.60 on the dogs = +£57.80. Total = +£180.15
I've somehow slipped back into trying to be more of a layer, despite the fact that I mentioned a while back that I was struggling with the laying but doing OK with the backing. So fuck knows what's happening, but I'm not having a particularly good day today so far!
I'm not really getting the opportunity to do much pre-race trading as I'm testing my greyhound system on the horses, and I'm currently trying this on every race that I can lay my hands on, from RSA to USA. I'll even try it on the Oz racing when I get a chance.
11/09 - won £12.82 on the horses and won £3.81 on the dogs = +£16.63. Total = +£196.81
Started OK today but then encountered a Betfair fuck-up on settlement where they took my money instead of paying me out! Quite frustrating and had to spend a while on their live chat trying to get it sorted while I missed a few races. Still waiting for my refund ... these are the sort of things that fuck with your concentration, so now I have to be double careful and play cautiously until it's sorted and I can relax again.
12/09 - won £20.25 on the horses and lost £82.11 on the dogs = -£59.86. Total = +£136.95
Guess what? No fucking refund from Betfair yesterday because the old grey haired cunt of a judge at Redcar made a balls-up of the result and called the wrong 4th. By the time the stupid old senile fucker had realised his mistake Betfair had already settled the market and instead of winning £60 I lost £230. If I ever bump into the stupid old git in the street he'll get a good hard kick in the bollox!
13/09 - lost £7.59 on the horses and won £89.60 on the dogs = +£82.01. Total = +£218.96
There was a possibility that the weather was going to be OK this weekend, which meant that I could have had a final bash on the beers down on the coast. But the forecast has changed and Betfair nicked my spending money on 11/09 so looks like I'm going to have to spend the next 6 months beavering away in front of the screen..
Stop press: fuck me if Betfair didn't only go and put my £290 back into my account!! Good old Betfair eh? Fucking lovely!! All we need now is a couple of sunny days this weekend and I'll be back on the piss down by the coast.
14/09 - lost £27.64 on the horses and won £214.02 on the dogs = +£186.38. Total = +£405.34
Just having one of those days where I'm seriously lacking in concentration. Keep finding myself watching Gordon Ramsey on CH4 and wishing my kitchen was that big and nice!
15/09 - lost £2.48 on the horses and lost £31.70 on the dogs = -£34.18. Total = +£361.16
16/09 - won £3.93 on the horses and won £6.98 on the dogs = +£10.91. Total = +£372.07
17/09 - won £5.47 on the horses and lost £54.71 on the dogs = -£49.24. Total = +£322.83
18/09 - won £0.55 on the horses and lost £63.72 on the dogs = -£63.17. Total = +£259.66
19/09 - won £9.04 on the horses and won £114.80 on the dogs = +£123.84. Total = +£383.50
Every time that I lay something early in a race I seem to do my dough. Maybe I'll have to have a closer look at some of my recent bets to see if this is true.
20/09 - won £1.19 on the horses and lost £27.30 on the dogs = -£26.11. Total = +£357.39
21/09 - lost £6.51 on the horses and lost £78.83 on the dogs = -£85.34. Total = +£272.05
22/09 - won £9.01 on the horses. Total = +£281.06
23/09 - won £5.02 on the horses and lost £4.24 on the dogs = +£0.78. Total = +£281.84
24/09 - lost £29.83 on the horses and won £32.77 on the dogs = +£2.94. Total = +£284.78
25/09 - won £0.41 on the horses and lost £2.60 on the dogs = -£2.19. Total = +£282.59
Just downloaded the 'Geeks Toy' and paid for a 3 month subscription. I've used it briefly before, but it'll probably take a few days to get the screen setup nicely.
26/09 - lost £27.46 on the horses and lost £0.79 on the dogs = -£28.25. Total = +£254.34
OK, I've been using the Geeks Toy to trade some pre-race horses and dogs (in between my usual IR punts) and this is what I've learnt:
- you can't fire in 1 tick offset bets at random judged on BF graph price movements. It's quite obvious that any big price swings more than eradicate the small winnings of a few scalps. I think that I knew this beforehand but still had to try!
- a technique that did work was to use the BF graphs to spot a drifter and fire in a lay bet at the head of the queue with 3 tick offset
- trying to monitor and play on too many horses in each race makes my head explode!
- entering bets a few ticks away from the action seems to work OK. It seems to be more effective when you let the action come to you instead of chasing prices?
- in theory if something doesn't work then that should make it easier to find a technique that does work?
- trying to do pre-race dogs, pre race horses and IR is impossible, so something will have to give
- how do you avoid getting caught by a swing that goes against you?
- my trading is haphazard at the moment ... I need to be more analytical
- fuck me this pre-race game is impossible!!
- no point trading the dogs ... just stick to my system
Well yesterday was an interesting day to say the least! I fired up the 'Geeks Toy' and was hammering in bets left, right and centre without really knowing what I was doing or having any clear plan. However during this frenzy I managed to compile a few notes (above) and these should help me to improve my game over the next few days. I also had a quick look at the 'Geeks Toy' forum to see if I could pick up any snippets of advice and stumbled across this post which is quite interesting.
There are 4 meetings during the day today so pre-race trading opportunities may be low as I'll be playing IR most of the time. However, my aim today is to be more focused, patient and analytical in order to string a few winning trades together - let's see how it goes! PS I'm currently on £6 a click.
- I've changed the chart that I use from the Betfair graph to a streaming chart displaying the last traded price with a chart range of 240 seconds (4 minutes). This seems to give a more accurate representation of price movement over the standard Betfair chart.
- I'm gradually becoming more and more convinced that I am now more efficient as a backer rather than a layer. I've mentioned this fact in previous posts, but I sometimes still have to remind myself during the race!
- I'm wondering whether or not it's an advantage to know who are the main gambling stables? Stuart Williams landed a touch today so I'll put him on my list
- I also need to understand the best times to enter and exit the market with regards to proximity of the off time?
- started betting/trading a few dog races this morning and gave decided to stick with my system on the profitable tracks and trade on the others.
- I need to find a way to access the bookmaker dog shows.
- Pallasator - missed this opportunity as the favourite sweated badly and played up at the start. Price drifted from 3.0 to 3.8 in a flash!
29/09 - lost £1.08 on the horses. Total = +£649.11
30/09 - won £0.38 on the horses and won £11.50 on the dogs = +£11.88. Total = +£660.99
Had a few beers last night and now feel like a sack of shite! I'm trying to persevere and nick a few quid, but it's hard when you're nursing a hangover.
September ... time to bet like a MAN!!
Well it's September already and we've already seen the best part of the year in terms of the number of UK races per month.
So, after an alcoholic fuelled Summer I've decided that it's time to knuckle down (well after one more visit to the coast) and start betting like a man.
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| Outside the 'Foresters' @ Deal |
Time to Start Backing
Over the last few months I've gradually become more of a backer, so I've tweaked my Gruss buttons and will now be looking to get involved earlier in each race, especially once I get back into studying some race replay videos and getting to know the form a bit better. This will be crucial at tracks like Wolverhampton where the track mongrels have a distinct advantage as they have the absolute live pics, but it seems that many don't get involved until they can see the whites of the leaders eyes.
Studying the Form
Over the last few months I've gradually become more of a backer, so I've tweaked my Gruss buttons and will now be looking to get involved earlier in each race, especially once I get back into studying some race replay videos and getting to know the form a bit better. This will be crucial at tracks like Wolverhampton where the track mongrels have a distinct advantage as they have the absolute live pics, but it seems that many don't get involved until they can see the whites of the leaders eyes.
Studying the Form
Having previously studied hundreds of hours of race replays I've realised that it can be time consuming, tiring and pretty boring. I started the year coming into the office at 09:00 'ish each morning, but eventually noticed that I was knackered and making mistakes, especially during the evening meetings. So my new strategy will be to concentrate on studying the running style of just the favourite in each AW (All Weather ... Kempton, Lingfield, Southwell and Wolverhampton) race by watching the race replays. This will mean that I can probably condense my AW study time into maybe 90 minutes per day. I should really be doing this form study in the evening, especially as we approach the months were the UK racing finishes by 17:00, however, I might decide to trade the USA racing in the evening, I'll have to think about this over a few beers this weekend. Additionally, I also need to get a basic grasp of the jump form, as I did get caught quite a few times earlier in the year laying horses that looked well beat only to find that they were dour stayers that rallied towards the finish, and sometimes even won the race when I had layed them for a place! So I need to complete my glossary of abbreviations that I use, i.e 'R' indicates that a horse generally runs on, 'F' indicates that a horse finds little or nothing in a finish, etc. This should help me making some of the basic mistakes that I made earlier in the year.
Betting Like a Man
I've found it hard to shake off my risk adverse style of betting, so once again I'll be trying to focus on becoming a bit more aggressive.
Leisure Time
I'm obviously not going to try and spend all of my time fucking about with horse racing. There are 2 leisure pursuits that I have in my life at the moment and that's weight training and playing the guitar. I train in the mornings, usually before I get into the office. Now that the beer drinking season is over (well for me anyway) I really need to get the training and diet back on track as I've put on a few kilos of lard over the last few weeks.
I think that I'll probably aim to get into the office about 2 hours before racing starts in order to get ready for the day. Might even bring my guitar in and have a little practice between studying the form (I'll post some videos on YouTube of my guitar practice and we'll see how I progress) ... any requests?
Betting Like a Man
I've found it hard to shake off my risk adverse style of betting, so once again I'll be trying to focus on becoming a bit more aggressive.
Leisure Time
I'm obviously not going to try and spend all of my time fucking about with horse racing. There are 2 leisure pursuits that I have in my life at the moment and that's weight training and playing the guitar. I train in the mornings, usually before I get into the office. Now that the beer drinking season is over (well for me anyway) I really need to get the training and diet back on track as I've put on a few kilos of lard over the last few weeks.
I think that I'll probably aim to get into the office about 2 hours before racing starts in order to get ready for the day. Might even bring my guitar in and have a little practice between studying the form (I'll post some videos on YouTube of my guitar practice and we'll see how I progress) ... any requests?
Sunny June, July & August
Well June is here already and the weather is still shite. I thought I'd cheer myself up by posting some happy drinking pics taken over the last couple of years or so. Here's how I'm doing :
01/06 - won £303.85 on the horses and lost £126.06 on the dogs = +£177.79. Total = +£177.79
02/06 - won £150.61. Total = +£328.40
03/06 - won £180.41. Total = +£508.81
Guinness outside 'The Thomas Kemp' @ Kemptown
04/06 - won £200.38. Total = +£709.19
05/06 - won £137.79. Total = +£846.98
06/06 - won £224.70 on the horses and won £154.59 on the dogs = +£379.29. Total = +£1226.27
Stella outside 'The Rock' @ Brighton' ... was fucking hot that day!
07/06 - won £136.68 on the horses and won £75.03 on the dogs = +£211.71. Total = +£1438.00
08/06 - won £1147.26 on the horses and won £146.28 on the dogs = +£1293.54. Total = +£2731.54
09/06 - lost £97.42 on the horses and won £29.63 on the dogs = -£67.79. Total = +£2661.75
San Miguel in the jacuzzi @ Gran Canaria
11/06 - won £86.70 on the horses and lost £64.04 on the dogs = +£22.66. Total = +£2814.83
12/06 - lost £33.44 on the horses and lost £39.67 on the dogs = -£73.11. Total = +£2741.72
Hoegaarden (my fave tipple) outside 'The Barley Mow' @ Kemptown
13/06 - won £188.73 on the horses and won £117.31 on the dogs = +£306.04. Total = +£3047.76
14/06 - won £130.92 on the horses and won £68.13 on the dogs = +£199.05. Total = +£3246.81
15/06 - won £146.36 on the horses and won £35.07 on the dogs = +£181.43. Total = +£3428.24
Either an Estrella or Stella in 'The Belgian Cafe' @ Ramsgate
16/06 - won £99.42 on the horses and won £12.17 on the dogs = +£111.59. Total = +£3539.83
17/06 - won £00.21 on the horses and lost £4.94 on the dogs = -£4.73. Total = +£3510.83
I'm now finding it near impossible to spot a good lay bet, as my miserable performance today indicates. Over the last few weeks I have gradually become more of a backer and this seems to be a more effective strategy when there are loads of races on the flat. Think I'll have to change my custom columns on Gruss as most of them are lay buttons!
18/06 - won £188.90 on the horses and lost £80.20 on the dogs = +£108.70. Total = +£3619.53
Stella (again!) in 'The Dolphin' & Broadstairs
19/06 - won £124.93 on the horses and lost £27.35 on the dogs = +£97.58. Total = +£3717.11
20/06 - won £97.42 on the horses and lost £68.24 on the dogs = +£29.18. Total = +£3746.29
21/06 - won £248.93 on the horses and won £31.85 on the dogs = +£280.78. Total = +£4027.07
Ice cold Peroni outside of 'The Bohemian' (probably my favourite boozer) @ Deal
22/06 - lost £51.69 on the horses and lost £43.00 on the dogs = -£94.69. Total = +£3932.38
23/06 - lost £126.48 on the horses and won £185.61 on the dogs = +£59.13. Total = +£3991.51
24/06 - lost £92.76. Total = £3898.75
Fosters outside 'The King Ethebert Inn' @ Reculver (had just cycled 15 miles and it was FUCKING HOT!!)
25/05 - won £48.21 on the horses and won £69.79 on the dogs = +£118.00. Total = +£4016.75
26/06 - lost £49.25 on the horses and lost £91.85 on the dogs = -£141.10. Total = +£3875.65
27/06 - won £457.01 on the horses and won £176.14 on the dogs = £633.15. Total = +£4508.80
Oranjeboom outside 'The Saracens Head' @ Deal
Think I'll have to continue this post into July as it gives me a good reason to get some more beer drinking pics!
28/06 - won £95.16 on the horses and lost £45.74 on the dogs = +£49.42. Total = +£4558.22
29/06 - won £217.16 on the horses and won £22.70 on the dogs = +£239.86. Total = +£4798.08
30/06 - won £181.29 on the horses and won £46.44 on the dogs = +£227.73. Total = +£5025.81
San Miguel outside 'The Master Mariner' @ Brighton marina
With July now upon us I'm trying to decide whether or not to up my stakes and/or aggressiveness? It's pretty obvious that I'm not going to hit the £200k mark for this year, so now I'm not too sure on how to play the second half of the year? One thought is to play steadily over the next few months in order to build a bigger bank for another assault next year maybe?
The weather has been so shite that I haven't even been down to the coast in 2012, but I'm hoping that we get a few nicer days towards the end of July so that I can get down there and smash into the beers. I'll have to partake in a few 'warm-up' beer sessions locally before I go though as I've recently shaved off over 8kg of beer belly by regular training, diet and abstinence from alcohol. But until then it's nose to the grindstone in order to eek out a few more shillings.
01/07 - won £134.31. Total = +£5160.12
02/07 - won £3.01 on the horses and lost £27.35 on the dogs = -£24.34. Total = +£5135.78
03/07 - won £153.94 on the horses and lost £133.25 on the dogs = +£20.69. Total = +£5156.47
Coors in 'The Orleans' @ Las Vegas
04/07 - won £199.56 on the horses and won £229.66 on the dogs = +£429.22. Total = +£5585.69
05/07 - won £246.63 on the horses and won £21.54 on the dogs = +£268.17. Total = +£5853.86
06/07 - won £26.15 on the horses and lost £28.38 on the dogs = -£2.23. Total = +£5851.63
Mahou outside a bar @ Gran Canaria
07/07 - won £77.54. Total = +£5928.17
08/07 - won £163.76. Total = +£6091.93
09/07 - won £22.63 on the horses and lost £95.50 on the dogs = -£72.87. Total = +£6019.06
Carling outside 'The Dolphin' @ Littlehampton
Double BOLLOX!!
I've been waiting patiently all year for the Summer to come along, and now that it's arrived the weather is PANTS!! I was planning on driving to the coast on a glorious hot Summer's day (via the usual 6 a.m stop at McDonalds for the obligatory 2 double sausage and egg McMuffins and a cuppa), cruising down the A2 while munching on my Muffins with a bit of Oasis/Pink Floyd full whack on the car stereo, slipping the Oakleys on and then cycling alongside the shimmering sea, stopping at pubs along the way to get pissed and getting the local women to apply copious amounts of suntan cream to my rippling muscular frame (pictures to follow). However, the poxxy shite weather has fucked it all, and we're still getting meetings rained off .. in JULY!!
So to summarise: I'm not wining my fortune, I'm not getting pissed, I can't remember the last time I got laid, my body is still chalky white and I keep having wet dreams about Ronald McDonald.
On a good note, I have managed to slim down to a sinewy 89.1kg, so with any luck once I reach 86 kg and the sun shines for a couple of days I'll be like a ripped Adonis (once again pictures to follow!).
10/07 - won £0.77 on the horses and won £30.34 on the dogs = +£31.11. Total = +£6050.17
11/07 - won £456.33 on the horses and won £90.80 on the dogs = +£547.13. Total = +£6597.30
12/07 - won £265.19 on the horses and lost £44.56 on the dogs = +£220.63. Total = +£6817.93
Fosters outside a pub @ Mallorca
13/07 - won £28.74 on the horses and lost £79.51 on the dogs = -£50.77. Total = +£6767.16
14/07 - won £130.70. Total = +£6897.86
15/07 - won £47.34. Total = +£6814.50
San Miguel outside 'The Nelson' @ Littlehampton
16/07 - won £238.58 on the horses and won £37.42 on the dogs = +£276. Total = +£7090.50
17/07 - won £240.99 on the horses and lost £108.10 on the dogs = +£132.89. Total = +£7223.39
18/07 - won £23.93 on the horses and won £236.14 on the dogs = +£260.07. Total = +£7483.46
San Miguel polished off outside a restaurant @ Mallorca
19/07 - won £109.25. Total = +£7592.71
20/07 - won £194.27 on the horses and won £24.73 on the dogs = +£219.00. Total = +£7802.44
21/07 - won £135.27 on the horses and lost £10.71 on the dogs = +£124.56. Total = +£7927.00
Tropical outside a restaurant @ Gran Canaria
22/07 - won £26.29. Total = +£7953.29
23/07 - got pissed (see August below)
24/07 - got pissed again
Guinness in 'The Fiddlers Elbow' @ Brighton
25/07 - ... and again
26/07 - ... and got pissed again just for luck
27/07 - won £52.59 on the horses and won £12.02 on the dogs = +£64.61. Total = +£8017.90
Stella Artois in the beer garden of the 'Earle St Vincent' @ Ramsgate
28/07 - won £371.11 on the horses and lost £56.12 on the dogs = +£314.99. Total = +£8332.89
29/07 - won £125.59. Total = +£8458.48
30/07 - won £51.24 on the horses and won £26.24 on the dogs = +£77.48. Total = +£8535.96
Amstel on the riverbank of 'The Crispin Inn' @ Sandwich
31/07 - won £113.64 on the horses and lost £37.59 on the dogs = +£76.05. Total = +£8612.01
Blazing HOT August!
OK I feel like doing a pictography (if there is such a word) of my recent 4 days in Ramsgate. Here goes:
On a mission to drink their reserves of Hoegaarden on Monday 23/07 @ 09:25 outside the Belgian Cafe @ Ramsgate.
01/08 - won £265.46 on the horses and won £76.59 on the dogs = +£342.05. Total = +£8954.06
02/08 - won £224.68 on the horses and lost £80.65 on the dogs = +£144.03. Total = +£9098.08
Followed by a Stella in 'The Royal' @ Ramsgate
03/08 - planning to go back to the coast next week so might try and push it a bit today & tomorrow to see if I can nick a bit of extra spending money (and if I lose in the process then I'll just get extra pissed next week to drown my sorrows!) - won £181.60 on the horses and won £267.68 on the dogs = +£449.28. Total = +£9547.36
04/08 - won £237.10 on the horses and lost £21.05 on the dogs = +£216.05. Total = +£9763.41
Pint number 4 of the day was a refreshing Amstel outside 'The Mariners' @ Ramsgate
05/08 - lost £94.13 on the horses and won £0.66 on the dogs = -£93.47. Total = +£9669.94
06/08 - I've come to the conclusion that it's really hard to lay early on the flat unless you really know your horses. I've fallen for 2 already today (and nearly fell for a 3rd) that have looked to be struggling early on, only to sprout wings and fly late! So while the races are coming thick and fast I really do need to stick to being mainly a backer and chipping away, only laying bigger late on when I think something is beat - lost £299.79 on the horses and lost £133.78 on the dogs = -£433.57. Total = +£9236.37
The early session of Day 1 was completed by a Stella Artois in the 'Port & Anchor' @ Ramsgate
07/08 - has a real shite day yesterday, so it's a softly-softly approach today and hopefully I can play safe, nick a few quid and steady the boat before the alcohol onslaught that's about to ravage my internal organs! - won £122.95 on the horses and won £2.88 on the dogs = +£125.83. Total = +£9362.20
08/08 - spent another day in Ramsgate, this time with the family, and actually managed to stay in 'The Belgian Cafe' until closing time (02:00!). Had a nice walk along the beach in the sea mist and finally hit the sack at just gone 03:00!
The evenings beerfest started with a Stella Artois outside the 'Queens Head' @ Ramsgate
09/08 - up at 07:00 for brekky at 08:00. Spent another day in some of Ramgate's finest drinking establishments and had another cracking day with the family.
10/08 - just back from Ramsgate and feeling a tad fragile, so the softly-softly approach again today and I'll be more than happy if I can just nick an easy £100 - won £93.63. Total = +£9455.83
Quickly followed by another Stella in the 'Red Lion' @ Ramsgate
11/08 - won £333.99. Total = +£9789.82
12/08 - won £14.13. Total = +£9803.95
Tuesday started with a stroll along the beach and into 'The Dolphin' @ Broadstairs where I sampled the medicinal properties of another excellent pint of Stella Artois
13/08 - looks like we might have a scorcher this coming weekend so might be able to get down to the coast again and do a bit of cycling as well as drinking! - won £180.47 on the horses and won £32.60 on the dogs = +£213.07. Total = +£10017.02
14/08 - won £59.87 on the horses and lost £14.52 on the dogs = +£45.35. Total = +£10062.37
Swiftly followed by a pint of Oranjeboom outside 'The Wrotham Arms' @ Broadstairs
15/08 - having a shite day already and it's only 16:00! Going to have to play steady and try and nick a few quid back before I go out and throw myself off the bridge. Actually I feel like a verbal outburst ... FUCK WANK BOLLOX SHITE WANK FUCK. That feels better ... - lost £58.41 on the horses and lost £17.15 on the dogs = -£75.56. Total = +£9986.81
16/08 - won £82.65. Total = +£10069.46
Then back to the 'Port & Anchor' @ Ramsgate for another Stella!
17/08 - fucked off to the coast again, cycled to Deal and a had a few pints relaxing by the beach
18/08 - cycled to Minnis Bay and chilled out with a few pints of the wife beater
Tuesday evening became the early hours of Wednesday morning with a few more Hoegaardens outside the 'Belgian Bar' @ Ramsgate ... taking my total consumption to well over the 20 pint mark!
19/08 - strolled around Ramsgate and drunk as much beer as possible
20/08 - drove back home and couldn't be arsed to play today
No hanging about for yet another Hoegaarden at 09:45 Wednesday morning outside the 'Belgian Bar @ Ramsgate
21/08 - won £197.20 on the horses and won £31.14 on the dogs = +£228.34. Total = +£10297.80
22/08 - won £84.73 on the horses and won £26.50 on the dogs = +£111.23. Total = +£10409.30
Another Hoegaarden in the 'Belgian Bar' @ Ramsgate took the pint tally to 29
23/08 - won £60.26 on the horses and won £2.34 on the dogs = +£62.60. Total = +£10471.90
24/08 - won £258.80 on the horses and won £114.04 on the dogs = +£372.84. Total = +£10844.72
Smashing into another Stella Artois outside the 'Queens Head' @ Ramsgate
25/08 - way back in December I started reading 'The Daily Trading Coach'. It's a fantastic book that really takes a good look at the psychological turmoil we all face as sports traders. It gives great examples of how to coach yourself to become a much more efficient trader. Although I read many of the chapters I've found that I have reverted back to old ways in many areas of my trading. I realise now that I should have maintained my focus during March - May in order to really kick on during the Summer months. Instead I have gradually settled for winning average amounts with little risk. This is not what I set out to achieve, and looking back over the past few months I'm a bit pissed-off with myself. So, the plan is to re-group and re-focus on my goal, and once again plough through the above book and make more of an effort to implement any required changes to my trading. Once I get myself re-focused I'll blog my expectations for the remainder of 2012 - won £119.87 on the horses and won £7.33 on the dogs = +£127.20. Total = +£10971.92
26/08 - won £38.37. Total = +£11010.29
Thursday morning outside the 'Belgian Cafe' @ Ramsgate again with yet another Hoegaarden
27/08 - won £21.39. Total = +£11031.68
28/08 - won £138.45 on the horses and won £22.84 on the dogs = +£161.29. Total = +£11192.97
Then off to the beer garden of 'Jacksons Wharf' @ Ramsgate for a rare pint of Fosters
29/08 - it's just not happening today. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come in the Autumn and Winter. I feel like punching the fuck out of the TV. Not a very mature approach , I know, but that's how I feel. Might have to try and smash it (the market that is, not the TV) in September just to relieve a bit of stress.
Just looked at the cards for Sunday and Monday and I'd rather sit at home with electrodes attached to my testicles, so guess what, I'm gonna fuck off to the coast again with the missus and get absolutely wankered ... good luck!
30/08 - won £61.76 on the horses and lost £69.48 on the dogs = -£7.72. Total = +£11185.25
Then back to the 'Port & Anchor' @ Ramsgate for yet another Stella
31/08 - won £192.21 on the horses and lost £13.57 on the dogs = +£178.64. Total = +£11363.89
Looking decidedly fucked (but feeling on top of the world) in the 'Queens Head' @ Ramsgate with another Stella Artois
All washed down with a final Hoegaarden outside 'The Belgian Bar' @ Ramsgate in the wee hours of Friday morning ... bringing the 4 day tally to at least 42 pints ... not big and not clever, but bloody good fun!!
Well that's May done and dusted ... nearly
Well things haven't exactly gone to plan in 2012. Profit levels were mediocre at best during May, although they seem to have increased slightly towards the end of the month. I've decided to crack-on during June with the thought of increasing my bank nicely so that I can fuck off to the coast during July (dependant upon the weather). I think I'll do a daily update in June with a focus on profits and beer!
When's it going to stop fucking raining???
Well I didn't add £10K to my bank in April but one thing I did do was get back on the beer and spunk plenty in my local bar and kebab house! And what about the poxy rain? Just when we thought that Summer had arrived we experienced the wettest April since the start of the world and we lost zillions of meetings.
It's now May and it's still pissing down, but more meetings have survived and my profit seems to be picking-up, largely due to the number of races that we're getting per day/week. I've also moved more over to the dark side, so that now most of my initial, and sometimes only, bets are backs. Additionally I've also managed to stay out of the boozer and kebab house so the only money leak that I have at the moment is my missus helping herself to my hard earned!
As soon as we get some nice sunny weather (maybe early June according to the idiots at the Met Office) I'll be off to Ramsgate to re-charge the batteries, get focussed, get sunburnt, get laid and get pissed (not necessarily in that order).
It's now May and it's still pissing down, but more meetings have survived and my profit seems to be picking-up, largely due to the number of races that we're getting per day/week. I've also moved more over to the dark side, so that now most of my initial, and sometimes only, bets are backs. Additionally I've also managed to stay out of the boozer and kebab house so the only money leak that I have at the moment is my missus helping herself to my hard earned!
As soon as we get some nice sunny weather (maybe early June according to the idiots at the Met Office) I'll be off to Ramsgate to re-charge the batteries, get focussed, get sunburnt, get laid and get pissed (not necessarily in that order).
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