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