There are many misconceptions about the 'average' professional punter. He is not always what people expect him to be.
You'll hear talk of well-dressed men about town, driving Rolls-Royces and smoking Havana cigars. There may even be a glamorous blonde doting over him.
Well, this imagery is all very well, but it's mostly completely erroneous. For instance, I'm a professional punter and I live in a comfortable three-bedroom Sydney home, with a wife and three noisy children. I drive a Holden and it's several years old.
You see, I'm a working professional punter and I don't make hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Wish I did. But pro punting is not like that; it's a hard working grind that might nett me $40,000 to $50,000 a year. Nice money, yes, but not the grandiloquent multi-thousands you often hear about.
I like to make regular, steady profits. I rarely seek the spectacular bet. I leave that to other more glamorous punters, not that there are too many of them. There are 'gamblers', yes, but pro punters, no.
If you use safety-first as the maxim in your betting life, you will be doing yourself a big favour. It's the rule I introduced many years ago. It has saved me plenty saved me going broke several times.
A friend of mine, one of those quiet professionals content to earn maybe $500 a week, has for years operated a'due bet' method of betting. He outlined the plan to me recently and I thought it interesting enough to pass it on to PPM readers.
Now, the bank you will require is dependent on how much profit you wish to make. If your aim is to make $20 a day, then my suggestion is a bank of some $700 or $800. For a $10 a day profit then you must have a bank of around $350 or $400. The chances are that your bank will never be in danger of a wipeout, but one of the safety rules in betting - any form of betting - is always to be over-cashed. You don't want to run out of money at any stage, nor do you want to be betting with frightened money.
You can use any method with this 'due bet' system as long as you know that it doesn't run into exceptionally long losing runs. The rules for the selection method I have in mind for this test are simple.
You bet on the favourite! The only exceptions are when the favourite is odds-on. In those instances, you miss the race. You also avoid those races in which the second favourite is priced at 2-1 or less in the pre-race betting.
With this selection system, you will not get any ties. If there are two favourites then miss the race. The rules, then, limit the amount of bets you will have and this is a good thing. You don't want to be in the position of having to select the winner of every race on the program.
Now for the betting procedure. Read what I have to say very carefully then read it all again. Make sure you know exactly what is required. 'Due bet' means exactly that. You set yourself a monetary goal for each racing day and adjust your bets accordingly.
Okay, let's say you want to win $20. You look at the horse's odds and determine how much you need to invest to return you that $20 (or close enough to it). If your first horse wins, then you collect the cash and close up shop for the day. This is an important rule. Finish betting as soon as you have won your desired amount of money. Wait for the next day.
If your first bet had lost, you add the amount you lost on to the $20 you want to win from the 2nd race. So, if your first bet had been $10 you would now be seeking to win $30.
How do you arrive at the staking figure for each horse? One way is to do it like this:
Divide your desired daily goal (say $20) by the first digit of the horse's odds. If your horse is 5-2 you divided $20 by 5, giving you 4. You then multiply this result by the second digit of the horse's odds, which is 2, therefore it will be 4 x 2 equalling 8 and this is the amount you will stake to get your $20 at 5-2.
When you strike a fraction, you should always lump the size of your bet to the nearest unit. Here's a simple example: If your desired profit is $20 and your horse is at 7-2, you divide 7 into 20 and this results in 2 and 6/7ths.
If you multiply this by 2 it will equal 5 and 5/7ths. That's close enough to 6 so your bet would be 6 units, or $6.
You never bet less than the amount needed to obtain the due profit.
What you will be saying now, of course, is what do you do when you fail to strike a winner? On the rare occasions when this happens you must always carry over the amount you were after. So if you failed on Day A to get your desired $20 then your target the next day will be $40.
Here's an example of some 'due bet' staking, using the above selection method.
You should now be quite familiar with what you have to do. I believe this is a simple, easy and businesslike method of betting, as long as you exercise caution and use a selection method that is sound and logical.
As we always do in PPM, we urge you to try the system out on a 'dry run' first that means, without using your cash! Get the hang of it, and make sure your selection system is good enough. You don't want a run of 20 losers or so!
Remember, too, that your desired profit per day can be any amount. You might want to bet big and seek $100 or $200 a day. If you do, then please remember to have a betting bank that suits. It must be at least 35 times your desired daily profit.
By Des Green
PRACTICAL PUNTING - JUNE 1986