Here’s a plan I played with whilst I was seeking out a challenge for Statsman’s The Dark Horse 2006. It can be used on any good system, although I really did design it for The Dark Horse 2006. If you have that plan, it’s worth trying out.

I started small, although many readers would want to add a decimal point (if you go to the right with that point, you make, say, $2.00 into $20.00). This is the same principle for every bet, so all you do is shift that point and everything else stays as is.

Some will commence with a $20 bet, but you can use any level that you feel comfortable with. I used Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Saturday events, but Adelaide can be added for extra selections. I will show you how it works, and then we can make a few comments about it.

MONTH 1
(Add 50 cents to each selection, every week.)

  • Week One: Commence with $2.00 per selection.
  • Week Two: Raise your basic win bets this week to $2.50 per selection.
  • Week Three: Raise your basic win bets this week to $3.00 per selection.
  • Week Four: Raise your basic win bet this week to $3.50 per selection.
  • Week Five: If there is a fifth weekend in the month, raise the bets to $4.00 per selection. (If no fifth  weekend, ignore this step.)

MONTH 2
(Raise the original base of $2.00 bet by 25 per cent.)

  • Week One: Commence with $2.50 per selection.
  • Week Two: Raise your basic win bets this week to $3.00 per selection.
  • Week Three: Raise your basic win bets this week to $3.50 per selection.
  • Week Four: Raise your basic win bets this week to $4.00 per selection.
  • Week Five: If there is a fifth weekend in the month, raise the bets to $4.50 per selection. (If no fifth weekend, ignore this step).

MONTH 3
(The original base bet plus two lots of 25 per cent = $3.00.)

  • Week One: Commence with $3.00 per selection.
  • Week Two: Raise your basic win bets this week to $3.50 per selection.
  • Week Three: Raise your basic win bets this week to $4.00 per selection.
  • Week Four: Raise your basic win bets this week to $4.50 per selection.
  • Week Five: If there is a fifth weekend in the month, raise the bet to $5.00 per selection. (If no fifth weekend, ignore this step).

MONTH 4
(The original base bet plus three lots of 25 per cent = $3.50.)

Continue to add to the base amount. We add another 50 cents to our first week in each month, until you reach your highest comfort level. So Month 4 will commence with the base bet ($2.00) plus three lots of the 25 per cent of that base bet (.50 + .50 + .50) making a total of $3.50.

Again, I’ll explain from a different angle: Using $2.00 as your base bet, each month will commence 50 cents (the original 25 per cent) above the previous month’s base level, and will increase by that same figure each weekend for the entire month’s activity. So (as an example), Month 2 commences at $2.50, which is 50 cents above the starting point for Month 1. Then, each weekend, that same increase (50 cents) is added.

The next month, Month 3, will commence 50 cents above Month 2’s base level. The monthly increase is always the same.

So as outlined above, Month 4 would commence at $2.00 + .50 + .50 + .50 = $3.50, and each bet for each weekend would increase by 50 cents per weekend.

Your $2 bets would look like this for a month: $2.00, $2.50, $3.00, $3.50 (and possibly $4.00 for a fifth weekend).

The second month would then be: $2.50, $3.00, $3.50, $4.00, etc.

Outlaying $54.00 on The Dark Horse 2006 selections since they were released to the public, returned $93.60, or $39.60 profit. That’s a pleasant 73 per cent. It was not as good as had been achieved for The Dark Horse 2006, which got well above that, and I abandoned it in favour of other staking plans, but I thought it worth passing on as a possible alternative; something you could experiment with, and you could use elsewhere as well. The return for each month’s activity was positive.

THE WORKINGS
I suspect that this will appeal to readers who like a modest little progression. Of course there is the risk with any plan that progression can be a negative, but if you have a plan that wins regularly, you ought to be able to apply the idea to increase your profits.

I have factored in a safe passageway. At the beginning of every month you return to a point only 50 cents above the starting point for the previous month.

Winning months can benefit most if the winners fall in the right spot, but overall, since you are carefully building on your bank at a very small rate, you should find a lot of pleasure in this concept.

If you have lost early in the month, you are chasing these losses with a very mild increase. If you have won early in the month, then you are betting up a small percentage of your profits. You won’t get into trouble, so long as you can find regular winners.

With The Optimist

PRACTICAL PUNTING – MAY 2006