Manage your money and you'll manage to win. Good advice, I can assure you. A professional punter handed it on to me many moons ago.

He was extraordinarily insistent that without proper money management a punter couldn't win-no matter how sharp his selections might be.

"I'm a business," he told me. "So like any good businessman, I set myself goals and cash flow projections. Each goal must be attained." My friend is still plying his trade today and still winning. He now controls his punting business with the aid of a home computer programmed with the very latest sophisticated software. He is making more money than ever before.

"I've got it all under total control," he said. "The computer makes sure I'm on target for everything I set out to achieve. All I have to do is make the right selections."

The key words, then, are MONEY MANAGEMENT. Just as a person runs a small business, or a large business, you must treat punting in the same way. It's a serious business if you are serious about wanting to win.

Poor money management can easily turn a potential winning punter into a regular loser. Do you always have more money on a 6-4 chance than you do those 20-1 winners that come up? Does it seem impossible to beef up your betting capital to the point where you can make some decent-sized wagers?

The goal of proper money management is to make as much money as possible while avoiding the chance of losing your bank.

Proper money management always entails a compromise between considerations of safety and considerations of profit. We must ensure the cash we bet is staked as efficiently as possible.

It's my firm belief that when you set out on the long, hard road to making BIG money at the races that you must set yourself an achievable goal. You must determine how many dollars you want to win in a year. Then off you go to get it.

I'm not talking here about dreams or flights of fancy. I'm referring to achievable goals. Using proper business procedure you can set yourself a target like this and steadily make your way towards it. Shake off thoughts of greed, panic and fear for a start. Never deviate from your set plan of attack, even in the face of setbacks. Never be discouraged. Be positive.

My recommendation is that you adopt a 10 steps business plan to achieve your final goal. The steps provide a sane, sensible way to reach the target, without placing undue pressure on you.

The steps are in easy stages beginning with, say, $10 and moving all the way through, leaping $10 a time.

Your Target Chart would look like this:

Stage Goal
1$10
2$20
3$30
4$40
5$50
6$60
7$70
8$80
9$90
10$100

This is a total target of $550 for your first 10 steps.

Once you have this objective in mind you must go about your punting in a serious, sober, determined fashion, taking all setbacks within your stride. Try to focus your complete attention on the separate stages. Make the start with a substantial bank. In seeking to win $550 in 10 stages, you would need, I believe, a minimum bank of $1000, more if possible. Of course, you can seek only a percentage of this target-say $55, and begin with a bank of $100, or more.

You have then, in hand, your BETTING STEPS. Your next task is to set your time deadlines. Each stage must have a deadline. The first $10 to be won by such-and-such a date, the next $20 by another date.

Keep a good, tight rein on your cash flow, with the following:

Capital-Original
Capital-Currently In Use
Capital-Acquired from Profits
Capital-Written Off
Capital-Added from areas other than profits.

Keep total track of your business expenses. These would include telephone calls, form guides newspapers, transport to and fro -TAB shops and racetracks, pens paper, etc. All these are legitimate business expenses and MUST be taken off your annual returns. By keeping a record of all the incidentals that make up your entire punting lifestyle you will be giving yourself the FULL TRUTH about how much your activities are costing you.

Too few punters bother to add up all the expenses incurred in being a punter! You will probably be surprised at how much money can be used up. For example: Sportsman twice a week $4, two daily newspapers six days a week at 40 cents each $4.80, two Sunday newspapers $1, transport to and from racetrack, say $5, entry to track and racebook $5, food and drink at racetrack $5. Here is a total of $24.80 in one week-and you haven't yet had a bet!

To achieve your goals, you must now come up with proper selection plans. Goals can only be achieved with the correct business decisions in your case, winning bets.

My advice is that you steer clear of progressive staking methods. 'They can work, but they can be misleading. No progressive staking plan - is superior to flat stakes investment.

The professional punter Eric Connolly, whose advice we always like to recall in P.P.M., said you should never bet more than you can afford, always bet in set amounts according to your capital, be satisfied with small profits, and never bet on races in which you feel you can only fluke the winner.

The staking plan I recommend, for its simplicity and rationality, is the following.

  • Keep to a level bet (win) on all wagers. Treat each step of your punting plan as an individual game. That is, the first step, to win $10, is a ball-game all by itself. Win that $10 put it aside from your original capital and then chase the second step, to win $20. If you happen to win more than the sum you are after then place the extra money in a separate 'reserve' fund.
  • Always bet carefully and with a great deal of thought and do not panic when a losing run sets in. Keep well in mind the simplicity of your betting operation-you merely have to meet the goals you have set for yourself and all will be well.
  • You should study as many staking plans as you can to find one that suits your style of operation. I have always been a great believer in the 6-Point Divisor plan, although this veers away from the flat stake rule. Nevertheless, think about it carefully in conjunction with your money management. Full details have been published in P.P.M.

Let's take an example of 'what might be' to see how goals can be achieved with flat stake betting.

You have now achieved Step No. 1, a $10 profit plus an extra $2.50 which goes into your Reserve bank. The outlay to achieve this First Step was $25. You now set out to win $20 with Step 2.

I have provided you with the tools you need to win. Bear them in mind and—good luck.

19870904
NB: R/T equals Running Total.

By Des Green

PRACTICAL PUNTING - SEPTEMBER 1987