Pick 6 players - structuring tickets

[Force of One]

I was curious to hear how the more serious Pick 6 players on here structure their tickets:

Do you use a A-B-C/Primary-Secondary approach or do you tend to the one big "caveman" tickets? Is there a reason you favor one approach over the other?

Also, do you tend to play solely by yourself or more as some sort of team/syndicate with other handicappers? If taking the team approach, how do you decide which picks get in and which don't? Is it one decision maker? Do you have specialists among the different types of races who handle those legs? Or do you use other methods?

[markgoldie]

Pick 6's are essentially the greatest mirage bets ever devised. They entice players who would never dream of betting a 100-1 shot to win into playing a giimick whose odds of hitting are substantially higher than that. This is accomplished by the fact that you handicap one race at a time and so the overall odds of the proposition become obscured.

When you see carryovers, the average player sees opportunity, while they should be seeing hundreds of thousands being lost by average suckers like themselves. Some pundits like to say that these gimmicks are the only opportunity for making a "life-altering" score. They fail to mention that incrementally, they are making life a bit more miserable for thousands of players who donate to these things regularly.

A-B-C versus caveman: Unless you have the vast bankroll necessary to play in multiple denominations, the A-B-C approach makes little sense. Why? First of all, if you're not playing multiple denominations, you are essentially playing A-B, not A-B-C because what's the difference between a B and C selection? None. And so all you are really doing is vastly lowering your odds for a large score. As soon as two B's run in the sequence, you're dead. Worse, your A selections will almost always be playing into the most overplayed and underlaid portion of the pool- the "logical" contenders.

Syndicate versus single play: Now you're getting somewhere. By far the best strategy is taking a small portion of a large play. Wait for large carryovers and play wide caveman as part of a group. Also, it helps to have a specialist in maiden and turf races. One additional specialist can be very helpful as well. This is the player who specializes in negative handicapping- that is, a capper who can identify vulnerable favorites. When such a specialist pinpoints a vulnerable fav in the sequence, the group should not be afraid to eliminate the horse from the ticket all together. Use the money to add an additional "shot" horse in the sequence. Why? Because every short-priced horse who is not in the sequence narrows the competitive pool drastically. In other words, the absence from the sequence of this horse is worth far more to you than its inclusion. This might sound like suicide. However, (A) If the share price is reasonable, it's doable, and (B) You're gambling anyway. There is no way to "lock down" these things and so it's still an ROI proposition. You're still going to lose the bet most of the time; you can hit and lose money; and you can hit and make a small amount. Therefore, unless the upside is always as big as possible, the long-term prospects for the endeavor are poor.