Highs and Lows

An interesting couple of days betting. As mentioned in the last blog entry I backed Cheltenham, ended up chucking another £100 at them. So had £340 riding on them to return just over £600. This is a large bet by my standards but felt very confident. I felt too tired to head to Whaddon Road so decided to listen to it on the radio, unfortunately only radio Bristol were covering it live so it was biased commentary all the way.

If you want a sure fire way to make you feel ill then put a large bet on and then listen to radio commentary – it’s bloody awful. Luckily Cheltenham went 2-0 up and were turning on the style a little. At this point I really wanted to lay my bet off. Obviously as it’s a lower league game I couldn’t so there I was looking to the 2nd half praying that we’d hold on. Well, within 4 minutes Bristol Rovers had equalised and then spent the next 10mins peppering our goal. This wasn’t good as thoughts of how else I could have spent that £340 were flying through my mind. Thankfully the messiah, as I shall now call Martin Allen, opted for a three-man substitution and reverted to five at the back. This seemed to unsettle Rovers and the Robins eventually held on for a nervy win.

I was left a nervous, if a little excited, wreck. However, the betting balance was back in order and I could even withdraw some profits – so a nice night’s work.

The following night and things returned to normal with a bump. Not much to say other than I ended up having £200 on Arsenal who looked sure things to beat Dynamo Kiev. The first half was all Arsenal and they really should have had a goal to show for their dominance. As it was a dodgy 2nd half penalty gave Kiev the lead and wiped out my hopes for a Gunners victory. I did think about laying Kiev but thought better of it as I didn’t want to lose any more. Anyway, Arsenal got a late equaliser which was a hell of a lot better for them than it was for me.

Might bet on the snooker tonight as I fancy Higgins to see off Ding. Will post later.

Allen to start with a win

It’s been a great weekend for my club Cheltenham with the arrival of Martin Allen. The place suddenly seems rejuvinated and everyone has a belief that great things are ahead. Well, i’ve also been caught in this sea of optimism and have £240 on Cheltenham to bt Rovers at 2.88 – a very generous price considering there’s not much between the two clubs. We now have a stronger squad and of course we’re at home so this is a half decent bet with a nice return promised. Will probably go and watch the game as it should be a great atmosphere. If this loses my balance will be wiped to zero and I will be forced to deposit – not good.

Not much else to update you on as i’m been winning the odd bet and losing the odd bet so we’re now about evens for the month. Did lose a couple of hundred backing Spurs last night. It was a boredom bet really as i’ve finished all my work and that was the only thing on the box. Shouldn’t have got involved, however, I did and learnt a lesson.

Anyway good luck if you’re having a punt.

Been Busy

Back at work and have been busy writing so apologies for further lack of updates. To summarise very briefly -

I didn’t win a penny on the tennis final, could have laid off but had confidence in Murray, so much confidence in fact that I stuck another £150 on him.  Unfortunately Federer was very much at the races and looked more like his old self. I don’t regret not evening things up and still think it was a good bet…so at least my conscience is clear. So lost around £180 on this one.

Lost a further £100 on the US golf. Thought I was on to a winner here but things turned against me hence the loss. Again don’t think it was a bad bet but it lost.

Good night finally last night as I backed England at 3.3 laid off after they scored to secure a £250 profit. But that’s not all, also had a nifty little £11 bet on Walcott to score 1st. So another £200 in the bag securing £450 for the evening. That was very much needed as my betfair balance would have been down to zero if we hadn’t got this result. I don’t like having to deposit more funds.

A couple of bets tonight also. Have backed Mark Selby to bt Ding Junhui in the Prem League snooker at 2.96. Hoping he’ll win the opening frame and then i’ll probably lay off. Still very tempted to lay Ding in case the draw comes into play, will go with my gut instinct before it starts. Have also backed Rushden to bt Lewes in the Conference at 1.71. Ok the odds aren’t the best but Lewes are very poor while Rushden should have Daryl Clare back in their line-up alongside Leon Knight so should have too much firepower for the Conference newcomers. Stuck £150 on Rushden and £125 on Selby. Good luck if you’re having a punt.

Finally an Update

Sorry for lack of updates. Been busy doing work in between feeling tired from all the drugs. Have now finished the antibiotics so should start feeling brighter soon..back to proper work tomorrow!

On the betting front it’s been a mixed bag really. Backed Kidderminster on Thursday to win a couple of hundred. Lost £150 backing Cheltenham on Saturday. Cheltenham were 2/1 and I really fancied a win and nearly came on here to highlight what a cracking bet it was. Anyway after 45 mins (I went and watched it by the way) Chelt for 1 up and looking pretty good for their lead. Never was the old cliche ‘it’s a game of two halves’ more apt. Chelt were shockingly poor in the second half while Huddersfield had obviously had a half time rollocking. It finished 2-1 to Uddersfield and I went home slightly peeved.

Still have my Murray bet going strong £30 at 14/1 for the title. Also have another £100 if he wins tonight, might go in again as i’m certain he’s going to win this match. Have Kim in the golf although as I type he’s just had a bogey so is two shots back. Should have greened up a little. Anyway good night of sport so better go and watch it!

Miserable week

I can’t believe the amount of rain we’re getting at the moment. I live in Longlevens in Gloucester which was an area hit in last year’s floods. Fortunately the bit i’m in doesn’t flood, or at least it doesn’t normally. Literally as I write this blog the rain is hammering down outside and the forecast for tomorrow is supposed to be even worse. I’m sure we’ll encounter flooding again as the land simply cannot hold all this water. It is quite nice, on days like this, to be inside and writing which is what i’ve got planned for today. I’m back at work on Monday which is going to be difficult having been signed off for the last three weeks but I do now feel a lot better so the Verve got it all wrong ‘ the drugs do work!’.

Add to this miserable week some very miserable bets. Following on from the golf on Monday i’ve managed to lose with the footie on Tuesday (Swindon could only draw). And on Wednesday I lost on the snooker as I backed outsider James McBain to bt Mark Davis which he didn’t. I’m now at a -£600 stage for the month. This is some way off my target of +£1k per month. I have a small acca for the snooker today and am tempted to back Kidderminster Harriers tonight against Torquay in the TV game on Setanta. On a plus note Murray is still in the US Open..but for how much longer?

Anyway had better do some writing as time is ticking.

Bad start

Not a good night with the US golf. Ended up losing £360 which simply isn’t justifiable. I enjoy betting on the golf but the figures just don’t add up. My main punt last night was backing Mike Weir, who didn’t collapse, but equally didn’t have the round of his life as VJ unfortunately did. It was going to take something special to beat him and VJ is in some real form at the moment. My punts on the golf are going to have to be restricted to £50 per tournament and i’ll be looking to take smaller profits, at least until I start profiting in this area again.

I will concentrate on the football which is by far the main earner and have had a little dabble (£140 at 2.5) on Swindon to bt Aldershot in 90mins in the LDV Trophy. Swindon are fielding a full strength team and Malpas is taking this comp very seriously. I think the Robins will have too much for the newly promoted League Two club. Could do with this landing as we’ve £360 to recoup – by the way this isn’t chasing, if that was the case I’d have been lumping on the horses this afternoon!!

US Golf

Going blog crazy, two posts in one day. Just looked at the betting for the golf and think that Mike Weir, current leader, is a good back at 2/1. Villegas is one shot behind but think he’ll crumble under the pressure today, you also see players that have exceptional rounds one day (as Villegas did yesterday with a 63) follow them up with a dissapointing round the very next day. Therefore if my theory is correct, the solid and dependable Mike Weir has a three shot lead heading into the final round. I fancy him to hold off the challengers from here. I’ve had £150 at 3.1 to win £315. That figure will be minus my outlay on the other players I picked on Thursday.

New month, more profit….hopefully

August saw a profit of £584,38 which is good although not quite near my target of £1k per month. To be honest i’ve never hit the £1k mark for a month but have been close on several occasions. I think £1k is very achievable although it may revolve around me changing my betting strategy. It’s quite simple really – I have to bet on football and football only. Football is the only sport that I consistently produce profits in although feel I have a pretty indepth understanding of snooker and golf however the figures don’t really prove this.

Here is the breakdown of the month by sports – I would have just copied the figures from Betfair but I don’t just use Betfair so have taken them from my spreadsheet.

August

Boxing 
Cricket £91,86
Darts 
Financials 
Football £1,453,64
Greyhound -£15,00
Golf -£1,205,33
Horse Racing 
Snooker -£230,18
Specials 
Tennis £489,39
Rugby 

Total £584,38

Golf really doesn’t look good and without that we could have been talking a £1k+ figure. I did pick up £180 yesterday on Havret after backing him on Friday so things could have been even worse. The US golf went a bit pearshaped last night so i’m looking at a smallish loss to begin the month of September with already!

Other bets from the weekend include backing Carlisle to win, netting me about £140. Losing £185 on Mark Allen in the snooker when he lost to Ali Carter on Thurs/Fri? can’t remember now. But in all not a terrible weekend and something we can build on in September.

I will have to cut down my stakes on the golf and, now there’s more football around, that’s probably going to be achievable. Might have a small additional bet on the golf tonight as there are quite a few in contention – could be a good idea to lay one of the front runners at a certain point. Oh and Andy Murray is still in the US, although I think I can write that £30 off!

Wedding was good at the weekend, never seen a groom blub so much. I just pray that I don’t do that in 2010. The wedding fund is making progress…

Out of a hole

Yesterday wasn’t one of my greatest betting days ever but then equally it wasn’t the worse. My main bet Mark Williams to bt Mark Allen, risking £175, was 4-0 to Mark Allen at the interval. I’d also had an acca which included Williams and a few others that were trailing at the time. I’d lost £60 earlier on the Higgins game so I was potentially set to lose about £270 which wasn’t good.

I saw Man City were playing and understood that they should see off their weaker rivals so backed them at about 2.56 at h/t for £150 to win about £250. Any 45 minutes later and City still hadn’t scored and hadn’t looked like scoring. Then, with virtually the last action of the match City sent in a cross which Midgetland (team was spelt something like that) managed to head into their own net. This skinny punter was more than happy. Admittedly this was a case of chasing my losses and is something you should never do when gambling. However, occasionally if you’re a betting man you get drawn in and you hunt for a way to win things back. I got £200 back on this one.

When I checked the Williams score again I was surprised and excited to see that he’d got back to 4-3. If it went 4-4 i’d be looking to get out and secure a profit for the day. Alas Williams missed a good opportunity and I took a loss of about £80 for a stressful afternoon’s work.

Today I went off to the hospital for the entire morning to have a general check-up surrounding the IV antibiotics i’m currently on. They want me to stay on them for another week so i’m therefore signed off for another week. Could probably work if it wasn’t for the fact that i have them three times a day and it knocks the stuffing out of you. Could do with another snooker tournament to watch next week now!

Not sure i’m betting on the snooker today, may just follow the golf and think about my football bets for tomorrow. Got a wedding to go to over the weekend so my updates may be a little sporadic. Good luck if you’re having a punt.

Thursday and more sport

Blog titles are quite difficult things to come up with so i’ve excelled myself today. Yesterday wasn’t a bad day. I was primarily waiting on my acca coming in with William Hill. I needed a victory from Mark Selby in the afternoon – he won 5-1, very comfortably. Then in the evening I was hoping for the Chinese sensation Ding Junhui to prevail, as you’d expect he would, against the dour Mark Davis. Well life is never that easy and Davis proved an awkward customer as did the World Snooker livescores which are having a habit of going askew during the matches that i’m betting on. I decided to lay some of Ding in case the match did go tits up so in the end risked about £80 to have a £185 profit on a Davis win (the acca stood to net me about £320- the £80, if that makes sense). Davis, like his namesake, was clinical however winning 5-4 and I had to settle for the smaller pot. Would have liked to have dented William Hill’s purse ever so slightly but there you go!

Also made £100 on the Notts Forest match backing them at 3.5 and laying them off at 1.58 after they scored. Easy work if you can get it. Unfortunately Forest went on to lose but once they get their strikers back fit and well I really think they’ll put up a decent run in the Championship and my handicap bet will come into its own.

Today is a mix of golf, snooker and tennis. Tennis – I have £30 on Murray to win the title..you never know!

Golf bets as follows

Gary Orr	95	£10.00	£940.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Paul McGinley	30	£15.00	£435.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Thomas Levet	110	£20.00	£2,180.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Jose Manuel Lara	241.4	£10.00	£2,404.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Hennie Otto	170	£7.00	£1,183.00
Ref: Bet matched:
		£62.00

Reduced both my stakes and selections for this one. Orr seems to have started well as has Havret, a player who I haven’t backed but usually do. Decided to leave him out as he hasn’t started a tournament for quite a few weeks so thought he’d be a little rusty, obviously not!

In the US Golf

Angel Cabrera	90	£10.00	£890.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Ben Curtis	70	£10.00	£690.00
Ref: Bet matched:
Andres Romero	65	£20.00	£1,280.00
Ref: Bet matched:
		£40.00

Might add Kim to these selections as i’ve backed him for weeks now and would be gutted if he turned in winning performance.

In the snooker I like Mark Williams at even money to turn over Mark Allen, had £175 on this and think the Welshman is returning to some sort of form. Also think Allen can get a little overawed by the bigger occasions playing in front of his home crowd against a decent player. We’ll see.

Had a four-fold of Williams, Day, Lee and Maguire (£40 to win £200) to round things off. Good luck if you’re having a punt.