Serious Sports Bettors

[pbampj]

I know some of you here do this for a living, while some use this as a second source of income...

I'm curious to know how some of you got to where you are now in terms of betting on sports.

Did you initially invest alot of money into it? Or did you start off with a much smaller bankroll and worked your way up?

Did you take huge risks along the way? Possibly going all-in on a single bet? Maybe hit a crazy parlay with a huge payout? Or just straight up flat bets?

I wanna hear your story..

 

[cincy_]

I lost TENS OF THOUSANDS. It took me a few years, but I did. It hurt my marriage, it made me feet like sh!t, had to fess up to the old man ... yada yada yada

Then I took a break for 3 years.

Now I am back, a lot smarter and a lot richer and I rarely lose - well, not over a month, that is. The problem is that I have not won back even 1/5th of what I lost, but I am not looking to win it back, so it's all good. I just make a few plays, enjoy the games and relax. Now that it isn't serious, I am winning. Back when I was dead serious and needed to win, I lost. Go figure.

Let's not make this thing GLORIOUS. Gambling isn't fun if you need to win money. Its only fun if you make it fun. As soon as the outcome of a game is VITALLY IMPORTANT, it sucks. A game could be important because you need to pay someone back, or you need to win a Monday Night Football game to even things up with your man for that week, or you need to put back some of the money you took from your wife's account, or you need to pay off the CC before your wife sees it.

As soon as you're playing for stakes other than just dollars, you're in trouble.

 

[tatehill2000]

PBJ,,,

My Story is similar,,,,, and I would imagine 99% here will have a SIMILAR BEGINNING to the "HOBBY",, I lost about 10 thous also,,,,I had some HUGE runs in NBA in the past,,, and Lost it all back in Foots,,, I ALWAYS chased,,, I Took CHALK on Favs almost every play,,,, I Payed for services(3 dif times) then I realized they were all Scams,,,, there are several Legit services out there,,,, and its nice to get a second opinion,,, I Did use some info from a FOOTS service this year,,, More for entertainment than anything,,, but the info was Awesome,,

the last 2 years I made some Personal breakthroughs with capping,,and I am breaking even,,,and profiting some,,

1. NEVER BET with your HEART,,
2. NEVER BET OUTSIDE OF YOUR BR,,
3. ALWAYS HAVE SEVERAL OUTS to get best line,,,
4. NOTHING IS A LOCK,,,,

I consider myself to still be in the Infancy of my capping,,, but I am happy with my personal progress,,,

good luck
tater

 

[cincy_]

I know people would like to believe that one can make a lot of money gambling. While that is true for some, the chances of someone losing money is very high - especially if you don't have the experience.

By experience, I don't mean picking winners. Anyone can pick winners. It means being able to take an 0-5 day and not placing a bet for 3 days if there is nothing to bet on. It means the ability to deal with the emotional toll that losing can take on you. It means being able to value money.

 

[THE SHRINK]

Some good posts already and if I may chime in a tad on what Cincy alluded to:

Just as with bookmakers, a gambler must have the PERSONALITY to endure VOLATILE changes in his bankroll...

If you don't, then this is not the hobby or vocation for you...

I also believe it is important to be HONEST with your family about it. If you feel the need to LIE, then that will eventually come back and BITE you in the ASS...

THE SHRINK

 

[sherman]

I lost TENS OF THOUSANDS. It took me a few years, but I did. It hurt my marriage, it made me feet like sh!t, had to fess up to the old man ... yada yada yada

Then I took a break for 3 years.

Now I am back, a lot smarter and a lot richer and I rarely lose - well, not over a month, that is. The problem is that I have not won back even 1/5th of what I lost, but I am not looking to win it back, so it's all good. I just make a few plays, enjoy the games and relax. Now that it isn't serious, I am winning. Back when I was dead serious and needed to win, I lost. Go figure.

Let's not make this thing GLORIOUS. Gambling isn't fun if you need to win money. Its only fun if you make it fun. As soon as the outcome of a game is VITALLY IMPORTANT, it sucks. A game could be important because you need to pay someone back, or you need to win a Monday Night Football game to even things up with your man for that week, or you need to put back some of the money you took from your wife's account, or you need to pay off the CC before your wife sees it.

As soon as you're playing for stakes other than just dollars, you're in trouble.

good post....

 

[assassin]

Started in High School when a friend and I made up our own hockey cards, making enough money to smoke.

Tried again with a different partner in college (frat guy) but he couldn't come up with any action so we dropped it.

A few years out of school, bet $100 a game with a local. Bets started climbing a little, but never more than $250 (mostly TV games). 1 weekend I went like 0-4 on early Staurday games at $100 each, then 1-3 on the 3:30 games at $200 each, then lost 250 on a sturday night game. Brutal sunday as well, was down 2 dimes going into Monday night and bet it all on the Bengals / Oilers and got back to even. That stopped me betting for a good ten years.

When my grandfather passed away he left each grandkid $2500 to use in a "fun" way (it was originally going to be $50 grand each in a trust we couldn't touch until age 30, but my uncle bitched and moaned and got him to change it). That 2500 was my original bankroll for offshore. I started back as a $5 a game player and have been increasing my wagers ever since, usually a nickel now. I have learned a lot, and contiue to learn every day. I have won a nice sum and have taken some off the table in the last few months.

 

[sherman]

Started in High School when a friend and I made up our own hockey cards, making enough money to smoke.

Tried again with a different partner in college (frat guy) but he couldn't come up with any action so we dropped it.

A few years out of school, bet $100 a game with a local. Bets started climbing a little, but never more than $250 (mostly TV games). 1 weekend I went like 0-4 on early Staurday games at $100 each, then 1-3 on the 3:30 games at $200 each, then lost 250 on a sturday night game. Brutal sunday as well, was down 2 dimes going into Monday night and bet it all on the Bengals / Oilers and got back to even. That stopped me betting for a good ten years.

When my grandfather passed away he left each grandkid $2500 to use in a "fun" way (it was originally going to be $50 grand each in a trust we couldn't touch until age 30, but my uncle bitched and moaned and got him to change it). That 2500 was my original bankroll for offshore. I started back as a $5 a game player and have been increasing my wagers ever since, usually a nickel now. I have learned a lot, and contiue to learn every day. I have won a nice sum and have taken some off the table in the last few months.

sounds like your rolling!

 

[Woody0]

I built up a nice bankroll from online casinos. More difficult now than 2 or 3 years ago but still possible.

 

[Fishhead]

Some good posts already and if I may chime in a tad on what Cincy alluded to:

Just as with bookmakers, a gambler must have the PERSONALITY to endure VOLATILE changes in his bankroll...

If you don't, then this is not the hobby or vocation for you...

I also believe it is important to be HONEST with your family about it. If you feel the need to LIE, then that will eventually come back and BITE you in the ASS...

THE SHRINK

Quite frankly, one of the best posts all-time at the RX, by THE SHRINK or otherwise!

Instant classic!

---FISH---
Gambler/RX Mod

 

[pbampj]

wow, really awesome posts everyone

thanks for putting in your 2 cents!

 

[SmallDaddy]

Just make sure your bank is bigh enough at all times. Never depend on next week's wins to put food on the table the week after

 

[assassin]

sounds like your rolling!

It's been quite a ride. I have cut back my play in exchange for exercising more (1 hour/night on the treadmill in the hotel) and more family time (2 boys) on the weekend. I have also really enjoyed posting, my free trip to vegas 2 years ago where I met Dante and Balls of Blue (and his woman), and the CS people at the sportsbook I correspond with.

I would actually have liked to have become a SME on the idustry, but the firm has "prohibitins" on this line of business.

 

[daringly]

I was an insurance lawyer with no dependents. 5 years ago, a friend of mine suggested I tried playing Blackjack (he made 300k in a short period of time, and then lost it all). My first response was "Bullshit! You can't win gambling". I read a couple books on card counting, and wrote a blackjack simulator to see if it really worked. I was stunned that it did, so I set out to do it.

I began playing Blackjack, and made about 10k in 2 years of counting. From a $ perspective, it was a waste of time. BUT, I learned a lot which carried over to sports - especially risk management.

3 years ago, a friend of mine told me that you could make money betting on sports. I said "Bullshit", and told him to prove it to me. He had a PhD in stats, so he was able to do that. Amazed at the revalation, I started studying sports - NFL, and Arena Football (it seemed like a logical progression, since I understood football, and Arena started one week after NFL ended back then).

I did well at NFL and Arena, and started attacking Baseball. I had a lot of help from a baseball genius - Don Peszynski. We worked together to develop a baseball model, which plays a matchup 100k times to set a moneyline. I was spending 3 hours a day updating statistics, until I found a programmer who developed software to scrape all the player data each day (he also scraped tons of other data for us - I think any team needs a dedicated scraper/programmer). We did well by making our plays before the lineup was released (our model picked a lot of plays in common with a syndicate, but we beat their price by playing before the definitive lineup was listed).

I (and my group) was never at risk of losing anywhere near our bankroll on any single play. We had plenty of times when we put 20%+ of our bank on a football game, but that has become progressively harder to do.