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