Having second thoughts

I’ve had a frustrating couple of days. Buoyed by my win, and with time on my hands at work, I had a little wager on most races on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

The good news is that I didn’t lay horses blind to win a couple of quid, while risking more than £100 (well, not too often). The bad news is that I lost a high proportion of the bets that I placed.

Wednesday wasn’t a disaster, as I lost only £30. But Thursday was a highly frustrating day. Basically, I had a quick look at the Racing Post website, then backed either the favourite or second favourite in each race. And I got it wrong every time.

My bets were: £5 at 2.3 (2nd); £6 at 1.92 (2nd); £3 at 2.5 (pulled up); £5 at 2.5 (2nd); £6 at 2.27 (2nd); £3 at 2.64 (4th); and £11 at 2.76 (5th).

For a little diversity, I also laid a favourite at 2.26 for £5. Naturally, it won. I should have known it wasn’t going to be my day when I laid an outsider for £3 at 9.6. As I sat watching my screen, the price drifted out to 25.0. The horse was clearly tailed off, so I went to the toilet, safe in the knowledge that I had recouped £3. When I got back to my desk, I was aghast to discover that it had won – and I had lost £25.60.

I lost another £20 on the evening racing. Rather than laying no-hopers in running, my losses dictated that I backed outsiders, as the returns are significantly higher. But I didn’t get close.

As I totted up my losses for the day, I checked out the result for the horse that was tailed off but somehow cost me £25.60. It had been miles behind its rivals in fifth place, when all four leaders fell at the same fence, leaving it to plod home in its own time.

When your luck’s out, it’s out. And my luck is out to the tune of £100 in two days. Ouch

Running total: getting smaller

Here we go, here we go

Monday afternoon was nicely profitable. Some unambitious, but successful, trading had put me about £10 ahead. Then I backed a favourite with the intention of laying it off in-running, for a small profit. But I got distracted and forgot to place the lay bet. When I logged back on to Betfair, I found that the horse had won – and I had trousered £32.

In the evening, I fancied lots of goals and corners in the Northampton v Leeds FA Cup tie. For some reason, though, I had more money on the number of corners than on the number of goals, despite the former being being less easy to predict and not going in running (so you can't cut your losses if it isn't going well).

My predictions were both spot on. There were 17 corner and seven goals. My profit on the match was £50, but I couldn't help but be frustrated that I hadn't had a larger total-goals bet. Still, a profit of almost £90 on a Monday is not to be sniffed at.

The following day, I did another hour of gentle trading during my lunchbreak. I was successful on every race and made £15. After work, I spent half an hour studying the form for the evening's football fixtures.

My only strong fancy was for Torquay to beat Lewes (1/4). But I had a few other inklings, so added Hartlepool (Evs) and Dagenham and Redbridge (6/5) to win, and the Barrow v Eastbourne (4/5), Lincoln v Kettering (8/11) and Rochdale v Barnet (4/5) matches to each have more than two goals. I combined them in fivefolds (£1) and an accumulator (£10).

At half-time, Torquay were 3-0 ahead, Dagenham were winning and there had been two goals in the Rochdale match. But the Lincoln game was scoreless and Hartlepool were losing at home to Brighton. Another near missed looked likely.

But it wasn't look before things started getting exciting.
47 minutes: Barrow 2 Eastbourne 0
54 minutes: Lincoln 1 Kettering 0
57 minutes: Barrow 3 Eastbourne 0
56 minutes: Rochdale 1 Barnet 2
67 minutes: Hartlepool 1 Brighton 1
68 minutes: Lincoln 1 Kettering 1
70 minutes: Hartlepool 2 Brighton 1

With Torquay 4-1 ahead and Dagenham leading Hereford 2-1, I needed one more goal in the Lincoln v Kettering match in the final 20 minutes. I sat with my eyes glued to the BBC website, imploring one of the sides to score. And then, just when the final scores were starting to come in, it happened:
GOAL Lincoln 1-2 Kettering: Christie (90+1)

As the final whistle had yet to go in either the Dagenham or Hartlepool matches, both of whom were holding one-goal leads, I logged off and went to bed. It was only the next morning at work, when I checked my betting account, that I found the sum of £413.82 added to my account.

So that's £500 profit in 48 hours.

Running total: ask me at the weekend

Home discomfort

I had a late night on Saturday and was going round my parents' for lunch, so there wasn't going to be much chance for betting on Sunday. That suited me because I was getting fed up with my poor luck and even worse decision making.

At about 11.30, I decided to check how my football bet had got on. I knew Chelsea and Manchester United had won, but at half-time, the Swindon v Leicester match had been scoreless. To my delight, there had been four goals in the second half, and as my other 'more than two goals' selection had ended 3-1 to MK Dons, my first four selections had won. The idea of an afternoon's gambling was suddenly a far more attractive proposition.

I'm embarrassed to say that I spent little more than an hour at my parents' (and it was their anniversary), before heading back to my TV and laptop.

As usual, the wins were far more regular than the losses. However, as happens every time, I managed to sustain one substantial loss. But as it was only £66, I was quite nonchalant about it. It's only £66.

My luck on the football was equally poor. For a change, I backed 'fewer than two goals' in the Hamilton v Celtic match, only for a third goal to be scored in the 86th minute. At the same time, I had backed 'more than two goals' in the Everton v Middlesbrough match, which finished 1-1. Most frustrating of all was a bet I had on 'more than 12 corners' in the latter match. The 12th corner of the match was taken in the 58th minute – and that was the last of the game. So I finished one goal short and one flag-kick short. It was so frustrating.

Of course, I still had my football accumulator running. With hindsight, I definitely made the wrong decision with regard to hedging my final two selections. I laid Milan(second in the table and having won their last seven home matches) for £20 at 1.25 against Chievo Verona (bottom of the table, without a win since the opening day of the season, and only one goal on the road). Milan scored after six minutes and held on comfortably. I had wasted £5 on a result that was never in doubt.

On paper, Udinese (unbeaten at home and averaging two goals a game) should have found it just as easy against Reggina (lost all six away games, while scoring only one goal). But Udinese don't have the quality of players that Milan have and were anything but a certainty. So my decision to lay them at 1.57 for £10 wasn't a clever one, bearing in mind that if they had won, I would have pocketed £173. They lost and I won £10. But the original bet had been £17 and I had lost £5 laying Milan.

A win on 'more than two goals' in the Hull v Man City game meant that I finished the afternoon £3 down. But I was £110 down on the weekend. Why do I bet on Italian football sides that I know nothing about?

Running total: running out

Blowing Chunks

I was again going out for the day, so I was up at six to work out my bets for the day. That meant that the last thing I did before going to bed on Friday night was gambling related, as was the first thing I did on Saturday morning. Hmmm...

I could find very little I fancied on the football coupon, so plumped for a £17 sixfold on Manchester United, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Udinese to win, with 'more than two goals' in the Hartlepool v Milton Keynes and Swindon v Leicester league games.

After a trip to Tesco and a quick workout in the gym, I had 45 minutes to spare. No prizes for guessing what I did. And I was on top form. Using various strategies, I made money on the first five races. And it was reasonable money – between £5 and £12 a race – meaning that I was £35 up for 40 minutes' work.

And then it happened. It was the final race before I had to leave the flat and a horse that I had laid successfully last week was running. I had noticed that it never ran well on soft ground, and although the going was good to soft (compared with heavy the last time I had laid it), I decided to lay it for £3 at 20, for an easy profit.

The race started and Chunky Lad settled in third place. It didn't look as if it was struggling with the ground, but it wasn't jumping as well as some of its rivals. The horse remained in third place, but confident in my theory about the going, I laid it for another £5 at 12.

Approaching the second-last fence, the favourite was going very easily, so I had £10 on it, just to increase my profits on the race. And then disaster struck. The favourite fell and Chunky Lad's other rival made a mistake. I tried to get a bet on Chunky Lad, but the price had plummeted to such an extent that I would have had to have £100 on just to recoup £20 if the horse had won. But if it had lost, I would have wasted £100.

It was such a hard choice – and I had a split second to make it – but I decided to let the bet run. Going over the last fence, Chunky Lad's rival took the lead – and it looked as if I had made the right decision. But Chunky Lad fought back and they passed the line together. It went to a photo (every big loss I suffer goes to a photo) and the price on Chunky Lad to get the verdict flashed up on Betfair at 1.08. I didn't need to wait around for the official result. I knew that I had lost £122 on the race.

Running total: I've thrown my calculator away

A fool and his money . . .

It's the biggest cliché in gambling. And after my behaviour on Thursday, I must be the biggest fool on the planet.

Boredom at work led me on to Betfair. I was keeping my head above water, when the inevitable happened. I laid a big-priced horse for the sake of winning about £4 and, after it had surpassed all its known form, I had lost almost £100 on a horse for the second time in 48 hours.

I had written on here at the time that I must stop taking bets on horses I know nothing about in races that I can't watch. Yet I've done it again – and lost big again.

I am starting to worry on many fronts. Not only about my bank balance, but also about my sanity. Even more worryingly, I am worried about being addicted. I eschewed a night out to go home to try to retrieve some of my losses on the evening racing. I had a good night. I recouped £50 – and if it hadn't been for a losing bet that went to a photo finish, it would have been £90.

The following evening, I made another £30. So I had wiped out all but £20 of the deficit. But if I had shown a little more discipline, I would have been about £600 up over the past seven days.

Running total: you do the maths

The kids are all right

I was starting to think making money from gambling was easy. But after 20 years of continual losses, I shouldn’t have allowed one successful weekend to have clouded my judgement.

I had a quick study of the form online last night and found two horses that I didn’t think would like the heavy going. One was third favourite in its race and the other an outsider. I laid them to win £15. One came last in its race and the other a remote fourth.

I also had a £30 win on a horse that I fancied, and despite a couple of unsuccessful trades, I was £36 up going into the last race of the day. I wanted to make it a round £40, which would have meant that, with my (undeserved) wages, I had earned £200.

So I laid a horse at 24.0 for £4. There was an odds-on favourite in the race and the Racing Post’s website said about the horse I had laid: ‘Showed a little promise when fifth of 13 finishers at Plumpton in April, but needs to improve BUNDLES on that level to take a hand here.’ I also had £8 on the favourite to win.

You know the rest. Four minutes later I had lost £100 – my single biggest ever loss on a race. I don’t know how I managed to suppress a scream while sitting at my desk watching the odds on the horse I had laid plummet, as it drew away from the field, with the favourite treading water in fourth place.

But why do I do it? I’d used my skill and judgement to make £15 on two horses that I couldn’t envisage winning. I’d won £30 on another horse. And then I lost £90 on a horse I knew nothing about, on the strength of a sentence on the Racing Post website. It’s not as though I could assess how the bet was going – I was betting completely blind, as wasn’t in front of a TV.

So I was more than £50 down on the day and determined to win the money back on the night’s Carling Cup matches, which are notorious betting minefields, as so many clubs play under-strength sides.

Chasing losses is one of the biggest mistakes a gambler can make. You don’t have to make a profit every day – as long as you make one in the long run. But it’s a trap into which I still regularly fall (or should I say jump two footed).

The only game that caught my eye was Arsenal’s youth team playing Wigan in the Carling Cup. I thought the price for ‘more than two goals’ was too high, so I had £40 on it, then traded it off after 20 minutes with the match still goalless, for a profit of £15.

But it was such an open game. Wigan’s goalkeeper had made several outstanding saves and it looked as if it was just a matter of time before Arsenal scored. So I had £30 on ‘more than two goals’. I was right, as Arsenal scored just before half-time.

The price on ‘more than two goals’ had obviously plummeted, but it was still a good bet, in my eyes. Wigan would have to be more ambitious and if any side could exploit the gaps left by a team Arsenal pushing forward, it was Arsenal. So I kept backing the outcome every few minutes at the start of the second half, as the price continued to rise.

My hunch was proved correct. Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners and I had made £80 on the match. I had managed to recoup the afternoon’s losses and made an overall profit on the day of £22.

Let’s hope I heed the lesson that when I bet sensible on things that I have some knowledge (top-flight football) or have done some research (the two horses that wouldn’t like the going), I am becoming pretty successful. But betting against a horse I know nothing about in a race that I cannot watch is folly.

Running total: I’m almost ready to work it out

Back to black

I had found out in the pub on Saturday evening (how did we live before iPhones?) that my first bet had won me £142.39. I also knew that the first two legs of my second wager had been successful.

By Sunday morning, Barcelona had won 6-0. So my fortunes rested on the fate of Chelsea, Genoa and Sevilla. I considered Chelsea a certainty against an injury-hit Blackburn, so settled down in front of the TV for an afternoon’s trading. I had planned to nip out early to buy the Racing Post, to see whether studying form could give me an edge. A late night and splitting headache ruined this plan, but I still spent a couple of hours on the paper’s website. I identified a couple of horses that I didn’t think could win in the heavy going and laid them. One was second favourite, but as I was trying to establish whether I could pick horses that couldn’t win, I laid it for £10 (twice my usual maximum).

The afternoon started as the previous day had finished. I made a profit on the first 14 races of the day, albeit it generally small ones (my losses have led to a more cautious approach). The two horses I had laid that morning were both well beaten. The second favourite I had laid at 4.7 drifted to 9.4 by the start of the race, and ran and jumped as if its legs were tied together. When Chelsea went into a 2-0 lead, I was feeling invincible.

Not invincible enough to let the Genoa leg of the bet run without laying it. I laid them for £20 at 1.4, but despite going in scoreless at the break, they beat 10-man Reggiana 3-0. So I had lost £8 – but my main bet was still running.

My luck on the horses dipped, but I still lost on only four races all afternoon – and the biggest of them was £15. I finished £70 up on the gee-gees.

The final leg of my football bet was Sevilla to beat Recreativo Huelva. Sevilla had won six of their seven home games, keeping five clean sheets, while Recreativo had scored only twice in their five away matches. On paper, it should have been a comfortable home win. But 20 years of the last leg of an accumulator letting me down – and always ‘comfortable home wins’ – had taught me to fear the worst. So I laid Sevilla at 1.39 for £25.

The match was scoreless at half time, but Sevilla eventually put one of their chances away. The scorer was Freddi Kanoute, who I used to watch in action at the Boleyn Ground. Although he missed a penalty a few minutes later, this was definitely a fonder memory than anything he ever produced in the claret and blue.

The game entered four minutes of injury time with the score still 1-0. By now, Sevilla were 1.1 to win. The sensible thing to do would have been to lay them for another £40 (losing £4 if they held on), but my mood had swung from pessimistic to bolshy, and I let the bet run its course. I was almost left to rue my cockiness, as Recreativo had three golden chances. But Sevilla hang on and I had pocketed £191.92. Incredibly, none of the seven teams I had fancied (Wolfsburg won 3-0) even conceded a goal.

I was happy – but not as happy as I should have been. I couldn’t help but think that I should have put Barcelona into my first bet, which would have won me another £30. And why did I leave out Liverpool to beat West Brom? And what if I had used my £53 stake as a straight accumulator on my eight successful predictions? That would have won me almost £2,500. And why do I win only when I am less ambitious, whereas all the wagers of the past few weeks that would have paid out four-figure sums are thwarted by the width of the crossbar.

But the bottom line is that I had made just under £400 on the weekend’s gambling. And if Leeds could have secured a deserved win on Friday night, it would have been nearly £500.

Running total: back in the black

Sweet FA

I was up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to work out my football bets before heading out for the day. I could find only two games in which I fancied ‘more than two goals’, but there were several short-priced teams that I wanted to back. The problem was that most of them were in other European leagues – and I always hate backing sides when I don’t know the team news (or even if I do know it, how important the players that are missing are to their team).

I was soon scouring websites devoted to Serie A, La Ligue and the Bundesliga. The problem was that they weren’t in English – so I was none the wiser. My shortlist was ‘more than two goals’ in the Walsall v Scunthorpe and MK Dons v Bradford FA Cup matches, and Chelsea, Reading, Wolves, Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Genoa and Sevilla to win.

To combine them all in a single bet would mean a lot of permutations (and consequently a low unit stake or high total outlay). But my recent poor performance made me scared of putting ‘bankers’ in (which reduces the number of bets, but means that if a banker fails to win, the entire bet is a loser).

After much deliberation, I decided to combine Wolves with the two FA Cup games in a £25 treble. I dropped Wolfsburg (thinking that playing a league game on Saturday afternoon, only 42 hours after a UEFA Cup match, left them vulnerable) and combined the other six in fivefolds (£3) and an accumulator (£10). My total outlay was £53. It was then off to the Lord Mayor’s Show and to watch West Ham play Everton.

Running total: ask me tomorrow

Leeds-ing me a merry dance

Whisper it quietly, but I seem to be getting the hang of this trading game. I’m still laying too many winners, but they are becoming less common. On Friday night, I made £50 on the racing at Dundalk and Wolverhampton. Yes, I know I should get out more.

The problem is that I am having a horrendous run on the football. I had £30 on Leeds to beat Northampton (at 1.51) and £15 on ‘more than two goals’ (at 2.00), only because the game was live on TV. Northampton scored with their first attack, after 10 minutes, but soon after had a man sent off. From then on, it was one-way traffic. Leeds equalised before half an hour was gone, but despite hitting the post twice and having countless efforts saved or blocked, they couldn’t score a winner. So I ended £5 up on the day.

Running total: see previous entry and add a fiver

Two ain't my lucky number

I have never had a run like this. I've lost a reasonable amount of money over the years, but my losses have always been punctuated by the odd decent win. Or at least the odd bit of luck.

In the paper this morning, the Aston Villa manager was lamenting the number of chances his side had missed the previous evening. I know how he feels.

At least my lunchbreak was more enjoyable than the previous day, as I made £45.
It was a Champions League evening, with a few games in a tin-pot domestic trophy. I had a small total goals bet on the tin-pot matches. It was almost a bet for the sake of it, I'm embarrassed to admit. I backed five matches to have more than two goals. All five had fewer than three goals.

As far as the Champions League was concerned, I had a corners bet on the Liverpool v Atletico Madrid. The decisive corner came in the 93rd minute. A win, at last. Unfortunately, I'd only had a token bet because I hadn't really fancied it. So instead of wiping out my corners losses, I reduced them by £10.

I also backed 'more than two goals' in the same match. I started with a small stake and kept putting more on throughout the game. I even had £2 on at 25.0, when the score was 1-0 with 10 minutes to go. I reasoned that it was the only way to wipe out my debts without investing a small fortune (I would have made a profit of £110 for a £23 stake). The game finished with a total goals figure somewhere between one and three - just for a change.

To top it all I had £20 on Barcelona to beat Basle, to make £2.50 profit. Barcelona had won their previous three matches 4-1, 5-0 and 5-0 (the latter was an away win against their Swiss opponents). Basle had failed to win a point in their Champions League matches. The result was 1-1

I am now £230 down on total goals and £50 down on corners. So if I have £220 on 'more than two goals' and £35 on 'more than 12 corners' in the Celtic v Manchester United game tonight, I will be level if both eventualities come right. Of course, if they don't, I will be £535 down.

Am I brave enough? What do you think?

Running total: the cupboard is bare

Working lunch

I'm working only a five-minute walk from work this week. So I timed my lunchbreak to coincide with as many horse races as possible. I nipped back to the flat and logged on to Betfair and, employing my bolder tactics, made £30 on three races.

I just had time for one final race. There was a horse looking very uncomfortable (the Racing Post reported 'she was pulling going to five out and not jumping fluently') towards the back of the field, so I laid it for £4 at 21. Between the final two hurdles, it flew out of the pack and soon had an unassailable lead.

Whether I hadn't been quick enough to back it (thereby cutting my losses) or had been too proud, I'm not sure. But the outcome was an £80 loss. At £50, that was the most expensive cheese bagel of my life.

In the evening, there was a live match on each of Setanta and Sky. I backed both to have more than two goals. Both had exactly two. I also backed 'more than 12 corners' in both games. Another two losing bets - with one finishing with exactly 12 corners. And I couldn't even watch the Newcastle v Aston Villa game because the 'satellite couldn't be located'.

Running total: down to the pennies

Reffing hell

I like to have a bet on live football matches. I generally back 'more than two goals' and 'more than 12 corners'. If I get it wrong, I just increase my stake to recoup my losses and give me a profit.

If I do this on every match I watch, I'll eventually come out on top. The problem is that I've got Setanta and Sky (so there are lots of live matches), I think I know a lot about football (so rather than bet on every game, I pick and choose) and I've got a limited budget.

Anyway, I'm having a terrible run on both fronts. I'm about £80 down on total goals and £30 down on corners. The former is more of a concern because not only are my losses a lot bigger, but the odds are far shorter, necessitating higher stakes.

On Saturday evening, Cardiff v Wolves was live on Sky and Tottenham v Liverpool on Setanta. I studied the form and really fancied goals in the Championship match. The price was about 1.82, so I placed a bet, requesting odds of 1.9 (it's a matter of principle never to accept the odds on offer on a betting exchange). If the match had remained goalless for about 10 minutes, my bet would have been matched. Unfortunately, Wolves scored after four minutes and eight minutes, with Cardiff hitting back after 19 minutes. So, I should have been sitting pretty less than a quarter of the way into the game, having recouped all of my losses. But my bet was never matched.

The same thing happened on the other channel. As fewer goals were expected in this game, the price was higher. But I still requested one that was even larger. Liverpool scored after three minutes and the price for 'more than two goals' plummeted. I'd asked for a price of 2.6 which I decided would only be met late in the game if there had been no more goals. As I feared that Liverpool would shut up shop, I didn't fancy two goals being scored in the last third of the game. So I cancelled the bet. If I'd had let it run, I would have collected when Spurs scored an injury-time goal to win the match 2-1.

And so to Sunday - perhaps the worst day's football betting I have ever suffered. There were three live games on TV and I decided not to pick and choose. I backed 'more than two goals' in each and 'more than 12 corners' in two of the three. Needless to say, each game finished with two goals and only one of the matches had more than 12 corners - the one I'd left alone. In all, I had seven bets - and they all lost.

Two of the games were particularly frustrating. Celtic missed a penalty in their 2-0 victory over Hearts. In the Derby v Nottingham Forest match, Derby scored a last-minute winner (which would have mad me a winner). But the referee, for some inexplicable reason, gave a penalty. The penalty, naturally, was saved. From the resulting corner, Derby scored again. But the referee blew for a foul, despite nothing untoward happening in the penalty area. Someone must have a lumpy bet on the draw.

Those two bizarre (and wrong) decisions cost me £80. Sometimes it's impossible not to think it's a conspiracy.

Running total: running out

Colours blind

Last week was an average one. No decent wins, but no catastrophic losses either. Of course, I finished the week with less money than I started it. This wasn't helped by logging on to Betfair while at work and laying horses 'blind'. Basically, I picked out a horse in a race at about 20.0 (19/1) and took a bet of £2 or £3 on it, without having studied the form or being able to watch the race. It worked several times, but then one of the horses that I had laid won, costing me more than £40. Shrewd betting, eh?

On Saturday, I decided to have another serious dabble on Betfair. I plonked myself in front of the TV and decided to be a little more adventurous, in an effort to win more money per race. And it worked incredibly well. I was making between £2 and £15 per race. What's more, I was showing more caution, in that if a horse I had laid and had a significant liability on started to move through the field, I backed it at shorter odds (reducing my profit or giving me a slight loss), rather than crossing my fingers and hoping it got beaten.

I was more than £100 up when I made a crucial mistake. Two races were going off at the same time, so the TV screen was split in two, with commentary on one of them. As I felt infallible, I laid a horse in the race without commentary. The picture was too small to see how exactly how it was running. I may even have laid the wrong one, because it was hard to differentiate between the jockeys' colours. The upshot was that the horse in question ran on to win a close finish, costing me £70.

I still won £40 on the afternoon's racing (although my profits were wiped out by a £40 loss on England to beat the Stanford Superstars in the 20-20 cricket match) but to have so much hard work wiped out by a single mistake is galling.

Running total: just about in three figures

So near and yet so far

Excuse my absence, but I've been licking my wounds (metaphorically, of course).
As I said last time, it must be boring to read the same old story. It's certainly tedious continually writing it. But as the purpose of this blog is to recount my gambling experiences as I hurtle towards financial oblivion, I feel obliged to tell you about last weekend's football bet.

It's taken me 10 days to come to terms with it. I'm still in a state of disbelief, in fact. I backed Hartlepool to beat Brighton and then selected five matches to feature more than two goals each, combining them in fivefolds (£3) and an accumulator (£9).Hartlepool won 1-0 and these are the results from four of the other matches: Watford 2 Wolves 3; Scunthorpe 3 Millwall 2; Darlington 3 Dagenham & Redbridge 0; and Rochdale 3 Aldershot 1.

In my final game, Swindon went 2-0 up against Oldham after 34 minutes. So if either team scored in the following hour (and Swindon hadn't kept a clean sheet all season), I had a full house. The match finished 2-0 (there was, obviously, a disallowed goal). I picked up £53 for my £27 stake. But that elusive goal would have netted me almost £1,400. Quite a difference.

Running total: your guess is as good as mine

It's a game of two halves

After hours of continually switching it on and off, my laptop eventually booted up on Sunday lunchtime.

And by 4.30, I was glad that it had. I had either traded or laid in running with 100% success. My profits per race weren’t big (I have cut my stakes when trading), ranging from 47p to £8. But I was still sitting there £60 for two hours’ “work”.

Then trouble struck. I have been receiving unsolicited email tips from a couple of websites for a few days. And they have been providing some good-priced winners – none of which I have backed. So I thought it was time I filled my boots and had £10 on a well-backed favourite. It finished nearer last than first.

For some reason, I decided that I had to chase that one loss – even though I was still £50 ahead. So I had £22 on the favourite in the next race, with the intention of laying it off in running for a profit of about a fiver. Unfortunately, it hit the first fence so hard that AP McCoy dropped his whip. The horse never recovered, the price shout out – and I was £22 down.

I turned the TV over and a race at Southwell was approaching the last couple of furlongs. I picked out a horse near the front that looked as if it was running on the spot, and laid it for a tenner at 4.75. It suddenly sprouted wings and won easily. And I had lost another £37.50.

To top it all, a bet on more than three goals in the Stoke v Spurs game lost. The match finished 2-1, with a missed penalty and the woodwork struck three times.
So after a couple of hours when I was seriously considering giving up work to lay three-legged donkeys full time, a crazy 20 minutes had cost me £90. And there was no one to blame but myself.

Running total: I think there are a few coppers down the back of the sofa

Foiled again

After weeks of heavy losses, just when my trading has taken a turn for the better, technology issues are now hampering me.

I made £50 laying horses in running (with a 100% success rate) on Friday night and was confident of a profitable afternoon on Saturday. Sure enough, I made about £30 in the first hour of racing. But then my laptop, which has been temperamental since the day I bought it eight months ago, crashed and refused to reboot.

Although I can access the internet with my old laptop, it is not quick enough for the split-second actions needed when trading.

So that was the end of my day. To make matters worse, Shrewsbury, who cost me £400 last weekend, returned to winning ways by beating Bournemouth 3-1.

Running total: fighting back

Vale of tears

I took a few days off last weekend to enjoy the delights of the North Yorkshire coast. As a result, I haven’t been near Betfair. I would probably be quite a lot better off financially, had I not succumbed to the temptations of the penny fall machines, to which I have been addicted for about 30 years.

To my embarrassment, I spent about 12 hours over the course of three days feeding 2p pieces into these machines. The result was a crippling backache, 12 replica mobile phones, four soft toys, various packets of sweets, a pocket book about Thunderbird 4 – and a £40 hole in my wallet.

My absence from the computer necessitated a rare visit to a bookmaker. A different medium, but the same result. I got six out of seven correct on my football bet. The match that cost me almost £400 in lost winnings was Shrewsbury v Port Vale. Shrewsbury had won their four home games this season 4-0, 1-0, 7-0 and 2-0 respectively. Port Vale had lost five consecutive games. A home banker, you would have thought. But Port Vale scored a last-minute winner to secure a 2-1 win.

Running total: I'm hanging on in there

A Dag-ger to the heart

Another near miss. My main football bet for the weekend was the following games to have more than two goals: Man City 2 Liverpool 3 (6/5); Charlton 2 Ipswich 1 (Evs); Carlisle 1 Tranmere 2 (5/6); Burton 2 Crawley 1 (4/5); Weymouth 3 Eastboune 2 (4/5); and Rochdale 0 Dagenham and Redbridge 2 (5/6).

I permed the selections in any five (£1.10) and all six (£7). My return was £28.75. But one more goal in the Rochdale match would have made it more than £900. Even more galling was that it was Dagenham's first away clean sheet of the season. And they hit the bar and had a shot cleared off the line.

It's only a matter of time. I'm just hoping that my betting bank holds out that long.

Running total: you should know the answer to this

Naughty - but nice

Friday night and Saturday were par for the course. Most of my trades were successful, but several losses wiped out all the profits and put me heavily into the red.

I can't be bothered to write - and I'm sure you can't be bothered to read - about the minutiae of my trades. It just seems that every time I lay a horse and it is involved in a photo finish, it wins. While every time a horse I have backed is in a photo, it loses.

Luckily, I won £72 backing a horse called St Trinians on Saturday evening. Otherwise, my losses would have been far greater than the £160 I suffered.

My financial health was not helped by Barcelona, who seem to delight in costing me money every weekend. I fancied 'more than two goals' in their match against Atletico Madrid. But I thought the price of 1.72 at kick-off was a little short. So I decided to have £30 on 'fewer than 2.5 goals' at 2.34 and then trade out (with the game goalless after about 10 minutes) for a guaranteed profit of about £4. Unfortunately, Barcelona scored three times in the first nine minutes. And that was that.

Running total: still waiting for that win

Here we go . . .

Sit down and brace yourself for a shock. I've had a win. Not a big one, obviously. But a win's a win.

It was all thanks to Reading's Kalifa Cisse who scored his side's third goal in the 88th minute in their 3-0 win at Wolves to ensure my 'over two goals' prediction was correct. The other legs of the £15 accumulator - Manchester United (won 3-0), Arsenal (won 4-0) and Ipswich (won 3-0) - were never in doubt.

So that's a £68 profit on the night. I'm tempted to put in all on Liverpool to beat PSV Eindhoven tonight. But I'll probably bottle it.

Running total: another couple of wins and I'll work it out

Laying myself open to ridicule

Another bad day at the office. I should have known it when I horse I had backed in the first race of the day (with the intention of laying it off for a small profit in-running), unseated its rider as it came out of the stalls. So one second into the afternoon's racing, I was already £20 down.

The next half-dozen races were all profitable. Then disaster struck. There was a horse jumping like an arthritic pig at the back of the field in the 2.50 at Market Rasen. It had been pulled up in its only three previous races. So I laid it at 44 for £2. It beat the odds-on favourite in a photograph, losing me £86.

The situation got even worse a couple of races later, when I laid a horse at 15 for £3. It stuck its neck out on the line in a finish in which the first six were covered by less than a length. No matter the margin of victory, I had lost another £42.

It was hard to believe that my luck could get any worse. But it did. An outsider fell in the 3.25 at Market Rasen, bringing down both joint favourites in the process. The horse I had laid too advantage and trotted up. Another £20 down the drain.

Desperate times required my utmost concentration. And I almost pulled off. I won on the next 15 consecutive races, simply by laying horses in running. As always, the wins are never as large as the defeats, but I did claw back £75.
But all good things come to an end and I laid a horse that looked beaten in the last race of the day, only for it to a find a second gear and get its nose in front on the line. This loss was £35.

My overall loss on the afternoon's racing was £110. Considering I made a profit on 23 of the 30 races, this was a disastrous result. Two successful football bets (£20 profit on each of the Portsmouth v Spurs and Wigan v Man City games) kept my losses on the right side of three figures.

Running total: getting smaller by the day

This is the road to Hull

The big win (well, I'd take any win) is just around the corner. I'm calling 80% of the football matches on which I bet correctly, but there's always one 'coupon buster'.

Take Saturday, for example. I had a £30 accumulator on Man Utd (won 2-0), Reading (won 4-0), Wolves (won 2-0), Scunthorpe (won 2-0), Celtic (won 3-2), Lyon (won 2-1) and Arsenal. Yes Arsenal, whose reserves had beaten a Championship side 6-0 three days previously, who lost at home to Hull for the first time in their history. At 1-5, they were the shortest-priced team on the weekend coupon. And they had cost me nearly £300.

Running total: less than it was yesterday

Worse luck

Don’t worry. I haven’t done anything stupid. My absence hasn’t been down to me going for a swim in the Thames wearing concrete boots. It’s just that this project is taking over my life. I spend most of my free time studying form or gambling. And the last thing I want to do is then write about it, particularly as have had only a couple of winning days since starting the project.

Take the Saturday before last, for example. West Ham were playing away from home, so I had no commitments. Consequently, I went up to the paper shop at 07.00, before returning to bed to study the form for a few hours. I then gambled on the horseracing and football from midday until 20.00. I lost about £50. Not a disaster, but if I’m going spend such a major chunk of my leisure time betting, it has to justify the investment.

Anyway, my trading on the horses has improved immeasurably, helped in large part by signing up to At The Races and Racing UK. My latest strategy is to find a horse that is under pressure during a race, and to lay it at long odds. It has generally been successful, but laying even one winner in 10 or 15 at odds of 20/1 (and I’ve laid two) soon wipes out all your profits.

My football betting is causing me great consternation. I know it’s every gambler’s favourite lament, but my luck has been incredible. Take last Tuesday, for example. I did an accumulator featuring four games to have ‘more than 2.5 goals’ and Werder Bremen to beat Anorthosis Famagusta in the Champions League. The first four legs of the bet won comfortably, but Werder, the top scorers in Germany last season, drew 0-0 with the Cypriot team making their debut in the competition. Their failure to justify their position as ‘the night’s banker’ at odds of 1-7 cost me £400.

Things were no better last weekend. Five out of my seven ‘more than 2.5 goals’ selections won. The other finished 2-0, with a goalkeeper man of the match in one, and the woodwork being struck twice in the other. One more goal by either side in either game and I would have won £500. One more goal in each and it would have been £1,500. I’m confident that it’s just a matter of time before I win a decent sum, although any sum would be nice.

Despite ¬a heavy loss on the Ryder Cup – I know very little about golf, but backed Europe to win after an ‘expert’ said it could be a record margin of victory – I’ve lost a negligible amount in the past fortnight, which suggests that my trading skills are certainly improving.

Running total: I’ll work it out when (if) I have a win

Recovery position

I had a day off work yesterday. So what did I do? Take my mum out for lunch? Tidy my scruffy flat? No, I spent the day on Betfair. After Sunday's debacle, I decided to take it easy. After copious study of the form, I agreed with all the experts in the Racing Post that only of two horses could win the first race of the day. So I backed them both. They finished third and seventh respectively and I was already £36 down. But I was determined not to repeat yesterday's mistakes, so I traded short-priced horses for small stakes, combined with the odd gamble on anything I really fancied. It was a successful strategy, although ironically almost every favourite won. So if I had been following yesterday's tactics of backing favourites without laying them off, I would have won about £400. Rather, as each jolly waltzed home, I made a couple of quid, to finish £50 up. Even when I win, it's frustrating. A good day's work culminated with a successful wager on Roger Federer to beat Andy Murray in the US Open final. Running total: about £400 (I'm still too sick to work it out, although slightly less sick than I was 24 hours ago)

Records are there to be broken

I don't know what came over me on Sunday. There was plenty of racing on and without more than a cursory study of the form, I started backing the favourites heavily, without laying them off. The problem was that the torrential rain had resulted in heavy going at all the courses - and that is notorious for turning the form book on its head. So off the 26 races I had a bet on, only four were won by favourites - an incredibly low percentage. But in every race, I blindly backed the short-priced horses, increasing my stake till I found a winner. And I found only a couple all afternoon. I ended the day with £20 on Rafael Nadal to beat Andy Murray in the semi-final of the US Open. Murray beat the world number one, and Wimbledon and Olympic champion, comfortably. I said last Tuesday had been my worst-ever day's gambling. The record had lasted only five days. Running total: about £340 (I'm too sick to work it out)

Drawing more blanks

They say that a fool and his money are soon parted. Whoever 'they' are must have met me. I logged on to Betfair one day last week, in a few spare minutes at work, and made three unsuccessful trades. At the end of the day, I decided that I was going to recoup all my losses, so had £50 on a short-priced favourite. It came second. I went home and had a couple of bets on the Blue Square Premier and Johnstone's Paint Trophy matches - neither of which I know much about. I was close, but still lost another £25. Probably my most costly day's gambling ever. The next few days were uneventful. I was so sick about the amount I was losing, I reined myself in a little. But by the time Saturday came, I was in the mood again. I nipped up the paper shop early and bought the Racing Post. Unfortunately, most of the meetings had been called off because of waterlogged courses. Still, there was plenty of football to get stuck into. I had a reasonably successful afternoon's trading (in other words, I didn't lose too much), but my football bets were again a whisker away from being highly profitable. Only late goals in the Eire and Northern Ireland matches prevented me from winning £6,000. I think there is cause for optimism there. I decided to have a large bet on Argentina to beat Paraguay because I thought the odds of 1.45 were too high. In the first 10 minutes, Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme and Carlos Tevez ran the Paraguayan defence ragged, and I was already counting my winnings. Then a hopeful punt upfield was headed into his own net by ex-Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze. The price for Argentina to win went out to 2.05, but with 75 minutes still to go, I was confident that they would turn it around. I nipped away from the computer and TV for a few minutes, and when I returned, Argentina had drifted to 4.2. What a ridiculous price - so I had another £20 on them to win. It was only then that I realised that Tevez had been sent off (I suddenly remembered why Man Utd aren't my favourite team). Despite being a man down, Argentina dominated the second half. They equalised and then missed three great chances. But the match finished 1-1 - and I had lost another £80. Running total: £541.12

Goal difference

It has certainly been a topsy-turvy few days. I'd been doing a little trading in the evenings and had a couple of unsuccessful football bets, but was maintaining an even keel financially.

Then on Friday evening I had an absolute aberration. I logged on to Betfair to do some light trading. By the time my potatoes had boiled 20 minutes later, I had lost £95. I don't want to say any more, other than that I am going to be eating salads from now on, as they offer me a shorter window of opportunity for going skint.

Saturday was a day that I experience far too often. I spent an hour studying what little football form there has been so far this season and came up with three games to have more than two goals and three others to have more than 11 corners. I placed an £18 bet combining them in fourfolds, fivefolds and an accumulator. When I checked the results the following day, my three corners bets had won, as had two of my total-goals bets. The third had finished 'Hereford 2 Crewe 0'. It was the first time Hereford had kept a clean sheet this season and the first time Crewe had failed to score. Needless to say, Crewe had a goal disallowed. Another goal by either side would have won me more than £500, rather than the £30 profit I made.

Sunday was a reasonable day. I won a couple of corners bets and did OK on Betfair. But my backing 'more than two goals' on live games is proving costly. The plan is to back the outcome on each game I watch, while increasing the stakes each time I am unsuccessful to cover my previous losses and turn a profit. I'd already lost my last three such wagers, and backed Chelsea v Spurs (1-1) and Aston Villa v Liverpool (0-0). Unfortunately, I haven't got Setanta, so missed the Celtic v Rangers match (2-4). If I want to continue this strategy, I have got to have £100 on 'more than two goals' in the next game I watch on TV. If that fails, my next bet will have to be more than £200. If that goes belly up, the betting bank will be empty. Decisions, decisions.

Running total: £748.62

Horses for courses

At last - a winning day. And maybe it wasn't just coincidence that it was the first time I had eschewed the traditional method of trading (looking solely at the numbers) and based my bets on the information presented in the Racing Post. After spending two hours studying the form before racing started, I had four horses that I wanted to back and half a dozen that I wanted to lay. It was a busy afternoon, trading on every race at six meetings. But the study paid off, with three of my four fancies winning, and all six of my lays losing. Although it did provide me with some nervous moments, as a horse I had a liability of £300 on was backed down to 2.7 as it led until the penultimate fence. Maybe I am not cut out to be a pure trader. I regularly read the market correctly and successfully carry out up to 10 successful trades on a race. But on the stakes I am using (between £5 and £25 per trade), I am making less than a fiver a race. And then one market goes against me and I lose everything I have earned in the past hour. I think that my best option is to incorporate a study of the horses into my trading. The only downside to a very profitable day's work were some losing football bets. My head tells me to stop betting until the form is a little more reliable, but football gambling gives me far more of a high than trading on the horses, so my heart won't let me stop. I also had two unsuccessful corners bets. Both my heart and my head tell me to stop. But I can't. Running total: £868.73

All in a day's work

I've decided that I am no longer going to log on to Betfair at work. I placed a £30 bet on a horse on Wednesday, with the intention of laying it off. But I was asked to do something urgent by my editor, and by the time I had returned to my screen, the race was over and the horse had lost.

It's been a mixed few days. I'm not making as many stupid mistakes, but I'm still making them. I'm slightly up on my trading on Betfair, although my football wagers are struggling.

I had a good day yesterday, which would have been even better had West Ham not capitulated so pathetically in losing 3-0 to Manchester City, as I'd had a decent bet on fewer than 2.5 goals.

Running total: £820

Hitting the crash barrier

I had only one bet yesterday – £20 on a horse at 3.7 in a six-furlong race. As it was traditionally quick out of the stalls, the plan was to lay the horse as soon as the price dropped to about 2.5.

Unfortunately, my computer crashed just before the race started – and before I had placed my lay bet. By the time I had rebooted it, the race was over, my horse had lost and I was £20 poorer.

It seems as if everything is against me at present.

Running total: £740.18

In a tight corner

I thought that I had unwittingly stumbled on the solution to my lack of success. A bet on Essex to win the Friends Provident Trophy (as an Essex Man, more an act of loyalty) came off, while my two short-priced bets on the Olympics were never in danger. And the first four teams in a football sixfold won on Saturday. Just steer clear of horseracing and I’ll reach my £10,000 target by Christmas.

So with a 100% betting record, a great day for Great Britain at the Olympics, and Essex and West Ham both winning, I was in cocky on Saturday night – even if Walthamstow dog track was ‘enjoying’ a last hurrah 10 miles down the road.

But pride comes before a fall – as Sunday so harshly proved. The last two teams in my footie accumulator were Aston Villa and Manchester United. If they could triumph against Manchester City and Newcastle respectively, my bank would be back to where I started a week ago. I thought United were a certainty, given Newcastle’s abject record at Old Trafford. But Aston Villa worried me a little, so I laid them to the tune of £20. Needless to say, Villa won comfortably, while Manchester United could only draw against a Newcastle side they had beaten by an aggregate score of 11-1 last season.

My main fancy for the afternoon was more than 12 corners in the Chelsea v Portsmouth match. I have a bit of a weakness for betting high on corners on live matches, but I genuinely fancied it in this game, with two sides committed to attack. When I saw the price of 3.3, I lumped on. Incredibly, the odds started to drift. Each time the price improved, I had another bet. By kick-off, I was in a position in which I would have made £100 profit if there were more than 12 corners.

I was feeling so pleased with myself when Chelsea notched two corners in the first six minutes, that I treated myself to one of their namesake buns. But by the end of the match, the corner count stood at 11, thanks largely to Pompey’s inability to even get into Chelsea’s half, let alone win more than two corners.

There was only one thing for it – have the same bet on the Manchester United v Newcastle game, but with a higher stake to cover my earlier loss. But the price was poor, so I had only a token £12. I was somewhat gratified that, according to the BBC website, the 13th corner of the game was taken with 20 minutes still to play. That was the last corner of the match – but a win’s a win. Or at least it is until you find out that whoever is updating the BBC’s site can’t count – and the total was, in fact, one short of my required figure. Even more frustratingly, on one occasion, the referee gave a goal kick when he should have awarded a corner.

I consoled myself with some trading on Betfair. I made a slight profit, but only 20% of what I had lost on the exact science (I don’t think) that is corners betting.

Running total: £760.18

Den of iniquity

My alarm woke me up at 3am this morning. But I can't believe I needed it after what I can only describe as the worst day's betting of my life.

I made every mistake possible. I chased losses, overstaked and started gambling, rather than trading. The result was a loss of £100. It could have been worse, as two bets that I failed to lay off won, saving me £50. The reason I failed to lay them off was because I was watching Dragons' Den on video and forgot about them.

I'll repeat that. I was watching Dragons' Den on video and forgot to lay them off. And I've got pretensions of becoming a professional gambler. What a joke.

My desperation to win back some of my money saw me log on to Betfair at 3.30am. I had £20 on cyclist Bradley Wiggins to win gold in the Olympic 4000-metre Individual Pursuit (at 1.08) and £12 on Great Britain to win more than 10 gold medals (at 1.1). If both bets are successful, I will make a profit of £2.80 (less commission). The phrase 'clutching at straws' springs to mind.

Fortunately, I'm off out for the day (I'm joining the march to save Walthamstow greyhound stadium and am then heading to the Boleyn Ground to watch West Ham take on Wigan). It's probably just as well, because the way I am performing at the moment, the betting bank could be empty by the end of the weekend.

Running total: £808.20

Beginner's luck?

As it was my last day before going back to work, I decided that another afternoon of trading on Betfair was in order.

Once again, I won on far more races than I lost, although the losses are still always bigger than the wins. That is something that needs to be addressed. But luck was on my side today, and one horse that I backed then decided against laying off won at 3.8.

With no football to sidetrack me, and a little more discipline, I managed to claw back more than £30 from the weekend's losses.

Running total: £942.26

Under starter's orders

Things couldn't really have started a lot worse. I backed 'under 2.5 goals' in the Scunthorpe v Leeds game on Saturday lunchtime, with the intention of laying it off a few minutes into the match for a small profit (to the uninitiated, this is known as a 'green screen' - when price changes have ensured that you make a profit, whatever the outcome). The problem was that as the game wasn't live on TV, it wasn't being traded in play. So I layed 'under 2.5 goals' and accepted a small loss. I blame it on jetlag.

I spent the afternoon trading on the racing and watching that consummate pro Jeff Stelling on Soccer Saturday. It felt like groundhog day as I made a profit on the first 10 races of the day, before the market went against me on the 3.30 at Ascot. Rather than be professional and accept a small loss, I switched the TV over and watched the race. Strategic Mount was treading water at the back of the field, so I laid it at 22, to try and recoup some of my losses. Needless to say which horse won by a neck, costing me a loss of £60.

All my profit had been wiped out in two minutes. And I panicked. I started increasing my stakes and betting when I shouldn't have been. A couple of insignificant wins were interspersed with a couple of heavy losses.

Even Hartlepool's most famous fan's new toy (a James Brown model that he makes sing 'I Feel Good' every time his namesake scores - and he did, twice, in the first 14 minutes) couldn't relieve my depression. Particularly as my fixed-odds bet on the footie was another loser.

The following day, things were very similar. Small wins on most races, wiped out by one bad trade. On one race on which I was going to lose after failing to lay a horse at a shorter price than I had backed it at, I backed another animal in the final couple of furlongs at 1.5. It came second. I also had an 'interest bet' on 'more than 2.5 goals' in the Nottingham Forest v Reading match. It finished goalless.

Not an auspicious start. But as I long as I heed the lessons of the weekend, it will have been worthwhile. Do not have bets for the sake of it (why bet on the first games of the season, when there is no form to go on?), do not be afraid to accept small losses when the market goes against you and don't watch the racing in the hope of back winners. That is gambling - I am (supposed to be) trading.

Running total: £909.07

Life's a gamble

I've been gambling since I was 15. I used to pop into my local Coral and have a 50p accumulator on 15 football matches every Saturday afternoon. Of course, I never won.

I got a job in a betting shop when I was 18, and by the time I was 22, I was a relief manager for Ladbrokes, covering 35 in shops in north-east London, Essex and Hertfordshire, settling up to 700 bets a day.

Over the past 25 years, I have placed thousands of bets. Football is my main passion, but I used to be a regular at Walthamstow dog track (RIP), and have also gambled on everything from tennis to Big Brother.

From fixed-odds betting in the days when you had to make a minimum of five selections if you included a home win, and tax stood at 10%, I started dabbling in spread betting, till Ipswich's fifth place in 2001 cost me £1,500. I was a late starter on Betfair, but over the past 12 months, I have started trading, with a degree of success.

As the years have passed, I have spent an ever-increasing amount of time studying form, thanks (or perhaps not) to the information online.

But although last season was my most successful ever (including my first four-figure win), I still went into work several times a week and greeted my colleagues with 'I was unlucky yesterday...', after a last-minute penalty miss by some Division Two striker cost me several hundred pounds.

It is to save my friends and families from my continual moaning that I have set up this blog. All my hard-luck stories (and, hopefully, a few good-luck ones) in one place.

The aim is to turn £1,000 into £10,000 over the course of the 2008-2009 football season, via fixed-odds and spread betting, and trading on Betfair. I will not be detailing every bet, but will be discussing some of the more interesting ones. I will also provide a running total for anyone who can't be bothered to read my rantings.

With my track record, it is an exceptionally tall order. But as Del Boy likes to say: 'He who dares, wins.' Or goes skint.