Why do people bet? In contrast to most things in life, betting presents us with two things: a certainty (the money in your pocket) which is converted into something which is highly uncertain-the prospect you might lose your money or end up winning a lot of money.
Betting, then, is seeking out risk, to varying degrees. In other words, some people are prepared to take a small risk (they probably back favourites) while others will quite willingly take greater risks (betting on outsiders).
All punters, though, seek a form of satisfaction, which changes according to what his/her wealth level may be. There is no doubt in my mind-and psychologists around the world agree-that the 'satisfaction' level in betting increases as one's wealth increases.
The problem in betting, as we would all agree, is how to increase wealth! How do you back enough winners to make a profit? How do you sustain a profit once you've got into the black? The simple answer is that you find a winning system, or hone your selection skills to such a fine degree that you always back more than enough winners to make a profit.
But it's not as simple as that-and I'll begin this article by saying that the psychology of betting is as important in itself as the actual betting. How you control your own mind is so vitally important to how you will emerge at the end of the betting tunnel ... a winner or a loser.
I have friends who go to the races and who bet on almost every race. They strike their quota of winners, but they rarely win. Only the other week, I was at the races with a pal and he struck the first three winners, at good odds, but ended the day with a pocketful of losing tickets and about $200 down.
My experience tells me that the majority of punters are like this man. The reason is, I believe, that they lack the mind control needed to win. It's been said before in P.P.M. that punters don't expect to win, they only hope they can win, and this is so very true.
Most punters bet irrationally and in doing so they stack the odds against themselves of winning. After a while, short of striking a colossal windfall, their long-term prospects are zero, and they will continue to slip back a bit each year.
How do you gain control of your own mind? How do you control haphazard and irrational impulses? How do you stop yourself from continuing to commit the mistakes of last week, last month and last year?
It means a lot of hard work, a great deal of grinding of teeth, an enormous amount of discipline. The discipline must last not for one or two races, not for one or two meetings, but for all the time you continue to bet.
Take, for example, a punter who decides he's had enough of betting on too many horses. Instead, he decides that he'll bet only two horses per day - separately and in a double. His outlay will be $30 win on each plus a $40 double. In itself, this is not a bad approach, and a punter who could pick horses reasonably well would most likely fare quite well, depending, of course, on whether his winners were at good enough odds.
But let's say that Bill Punter heads off to the track, or the TAB, on his first day. Now, remember, this man is used to betting on a lot of horses in one day. He has always had plenty of betting action. He is not used to discipline, and he is certainly unaccustomed to restricting his betting to two horses in a day.
His first horse isn't racing till 2.30 p.m. The second horse is racing at 5.10 p.m. Bill arrives at the track in time for the first race at 12.20 p.m. Now, as yourself, what does he do now? Before, he has got straight into the action. Now he has to cool his heels and simply look on.
It's hard. Very hard. There's a horse he fancies in the first, at 8/1. Should he just have a 10-spot on it? Maybe an each-way bet at those odds. just for the interest. But, no, he tells himself, you've got to wait. You're betting only on two horses today.
He allows the race to pass, congratulating himself on his discipline. The 8/1 chance loses. There, you see, he tells himself, you would have wasted your money. So far, so good. But within a few minutes of that race, there's another one, and this time a friend advises him that Such And Such is a good thing.
Once more, temptation! What does Bill do? The tip, he knows, is very good. The friend has tipped him many winners before. Does he resist the temptation or have just a little something on it-just to be safe? Well, Bill gives in. At 4/1 the tip looks like a plum picking. He puts $20 on it. Guess what? It loses.
This is but one example of the pressures facing any punter who decides, like Bill, to restrict his betting. What Bill had to do was to go to the races, or the TAB, with just enough money for the bets he had planned. If Bill had taken only $100 with him he would have been far less tempted to break his new betting rules, merely because he knew he didn't have enough money.
So the point is that when you seek mind-control you have to bolster your own approach. Take away all the elements that might lead you to break the rules you have set. If necessary, stay away from the racetrack! It's always best to go to the races because you can often secure better prices from the bookies, so this particular back-up plan is a bit shaky.
If you're a TAB punter, the idea is to pick your horses, go to the TAB and back them-and leave immediately! No hanging around to be tempted!
If we look at the mind-control aspect of betting, the underlying 'fault' as far as most punters are concerned is the action factor. The urge to bet is very strong; resisting it is difficult, no matter how much your betting habits have failed in the past.
One professional punter I spoke to recently said: "Bad habits kill most punters but they cannot change them. Each week they repeat the same mistakes. It's like a drug addict. He knows the heroin is killing him, but the taste is too addictive to resist."
It's been my experience in racing that it is invariably the 'well ordered' punter who wins. He is the punter who sticks to a fairly rigid schedule, aiming at the same number of bets per day, and betting them to a carefully planned staking plan.
Compare this with your own efforts. Do you have a plan at all? How do you approach a meeting? How do you choose which races on which to bet? How do you bet them-orderly or any old fashion that seems to suit the occasion?
In order to begin to change your betting style-and your economic health-you have to come to terms with the sort of punter you are. If you're happy with what you do, and you feel there is no room for improvement, then you simply ignore this article. If you know there's something seriously amiss with the way you bet (i.e., you keep losing) then you should think carefully about what you have so far read.
If there is room for change, how can you change? What are your biggest failings? Is it the way you choose your bets, or is it the way you bet them? Do you have too little on the winners, and too much on the losers? Do you back six winners in a day and still lose, because you've also backed 18 losers?
What you have to decide, for yourself, is what kind of punter you want to be. Are you happy flinging $50 a week away and treating punting as a harmless hobby? Do you want to WIN $50 a week? Or maybe $100 a week? Do you lose more than $100 a week, and desperately want to turn your fortunes around?
Our great friend Statsman has this to say on the matter: “The winning punter is a self-made mm. He possesses daring, caution, discipline, commonsense and the will to win. He shrugs off negative thoughts. He shrugs off the urge to bet blindly on every race. He ignores feelings of panic and despair when a losing run strikes. He looks for value and does not bet unless he gets it.
"If he's a systems follower, he follows the rules and gives the system every chance to deliver, and refuses to drop off when it encounters a sticky time. He is a man who looks to a 12-month spread to determine how he is going. He doesn't seek haphazard short-term goals, but sets himself an achievable profit figure and sets out after it, determinedly."
Statsman, then, tells you what you should be. By now, you may well be thinking 'I can never attain that sort of stature as a punter' but even if you got only halfway you'd be a lot better off.
If we assume that you can devise a method of betting which gives you only a couple of bets a day, but with the chance of long-term profit, you still face the problem of being able to stick with the formula through thick and thin. If you're the type who just can't resist having more than two bets a day, one answer could be to give yourself a separate bank for these extra bets-but keep them to the minimum stake.
If you keep an honest record of what transpires, you will be in a position after six months or so to understand how much these extra bets are costing you. You may find that while your disciplined approach returns a cosy 15 per cent, your haphazard extra bets are losing 15 per cent. By this time, you might well have enough mind control to drop them altogether.
It all depends, ultimately, on you and your frame of mind. If you cannot break losing habits-and it is hard to do so you may well face a long and winding road on which you lose gradually. Depending on how well or badly you punt, the pain will be easy to take or difficult to swallow.
In the special 'systems' section of P.P.M. in this issue, the magazine's team provide you with some ideas that could well help you to lift your game. Study them carefully, decide which ones suit your style of betting, and then try to draw up a betting plan so you can follow them in a proper, sensible manner.
It will take discipline, and a lot of mind control, but you can do it if you try. If systems are not your bag, then why not draw up an alternative plan, based on the things you do best already?
You may realise that you do better betting only on Saturday meetings, or perhaps you know you perform profitably betting midweek. Get that element sorted out, then choose a staking approach that suits your temperament, and get stuck into betting properly.
If success doesn't come immediately, don't panic. Bet safely, cautiously at all times (never risk the mortgage or the food money!).
By Martin DowlingPRACTICAL PUNTING - MAY 1992