Are we still having fun anymore?

[pktruckdriver]

Well there was a day when I loved going to the track or OTB anywhere and anytime. You remember how I met some of you guys at various tracks across this country and most it was a fun time, you got to see a passionate , misguided fool who enjoyed horse racing immensely, for that I have no doubt.

But lately I have gotten to where it seems the fun is gone, the enjoyment of it, and I am wondering if this is normal, for everyday handicapper's , for which I have tried ( and failed miserably ) to become winning player, maybe I tried too much, and of course losing does take away the fun , doesn't it.

Now this is not pity post mind you, oh no, please let me make that clear, just a post about bringing the fun back again, and I am sure others have had this situation, as there are way too many of us out there for them not to, manage to bring the enjoyment back, and I am not talking about a winning streak either, as that helps , but this is not about that now, it is about surroundings and the life that goes on around it, something last year I lost sight of in the worst way, and hopefully this year I can make amends for that mistake, and would love to hear how others have done this too.

I will make a few more posts here on ways this year I will start by making this season at Saratoga one I will remember forever, as I may not have too many more opportunities like this and to miss the 2nd time around would be really foolish.

[offtrack]

This past year I believe you tried to turn your avocation into your vocation.

Most who try this find it changes the race track experience for the worse.

It's normal.

I also hope to have a summer season to remember, but my plan involves garbage bags full of empty drink cans. This year bigger bags!

Luck to you

[JustRalph]

had a great time at the Belmont. In spite of weather etc. Good company and a new place to visit.

[Bruddah]

You tried to turn pro without the knowledge, experience, patience, or money to back your action. All of which led to burn out and poverty. Start with accumulating the above resources and maybe you can play full time.

Remember, playing full time does not make you a pro. No more than giving you a wrench makes you a mechanic. I have been playing the horses since 1965 and I would never consider myself as a professional. I do make money at my hobby and I do enjoy my play.

You have tasted what it takes to play full time and lose. You need to consider that your expectations are not realistic. Only an honest assesment within will determine if you want to go down the same path again or change.

Best of Luck.

[grant miller]

I started in 1988 and have been chasing my first winning day since then! Im not a big bettor (2-5$) bets I love going to finger lakes & tioga harness live. The challenge of picking a winner never gets old! Ive won a little and had bad beats to (go for wand in the breeders cup) but ,I get thrills like lisas boobie trap, &see you at peelers,to keep me a fan for life!

[therussmeister]

I'm a full time pro and I really like it and would not want any other career, but I like it compared to other forms of work, not other forms of recreation.

[GaryG]

I have been a full time player since the 70s, at the track until the mid 90s. During all of those years at the races 5 days a week I never once was bored. A few losing streaks tightened things up at home, but they always turned around. Since I am in no way a computer geek (that is an understatement) I was wary about online betting, but settled into it eventually. Over the last 2-3 years I have scaled my play back to the point where it is just a hobby. We are ok financially and my wife does not get around very well. Also, I just don't have the energy and drive of years past. I often wonder how things would have worked out if I had continued to play live.

Patrick, I think you should do what you enjoy. If playing the horses for important money is not enjoyable then to hell with it. Life is too short.

[thaskalos]

Hi Patrick,

I have been an everyday player for the last 7 years...and was a regular - though not everyday - participant in this game for the 20 years before that.

I have read your posts with great interest - and have even offered you some advice in the past - because your struggle to become a winning player reminds me of what I went through, while learning how to play this game.

I will offer you one more peace of advice, with the hope that you will take it to heart...and that it might have a positive affect on the rest of your gambling life.

It is NOT enough to try to make positive changes in our GAME...we should also endeavor to make positive changes in OURSELVES.

This game comes equipped with so many psychological pitfalls...that only the players with great "internal strength" can hope to profit - or even survive - in the long run.

You often refer to the next "big score that the game OWES you"...or the next "winning streak that will turn your life around"...or the next "Saratoga meet that you will remember forever"...

There is no such thing as a winning streak (just like there is no such thing as a losing streak)...and the next Saratoga meet will be as memorable as all the previous ones have been.

There is only Patrick and his "game"...against the most formidable opponent known in the gambling world. An opponent who easily defeats about 98% of his competition...or, to be more accurate, lets them defeat THEMSELVES.

Do you have what it takes to be one of the 2%?

Are you willing to take a good look at yourself...and make the necessary changes - inner AND outer - to get there?

This game is neither our friend nor our foe; it's a mirror...and in it, we see ourselves as we REALLY are...

[pktruckdriver]

Originally Posted by thaskalos

Hi Patrick,

I have been an everyday player for the last 7 years...and was a regular - though not everyday - participant in this game for the 20 years before that.

I have read your posts with great interest - and have even offered you some advice in the past - because your struggle to become a winning player reminds me of what I went through, while learning how to play this game.

I will offer you one more peace of advice, with the hope that you will take it to heart...and that it might have a positive affect on the rest of your gambling life.

It is NOT enough to try to make positive changes in our GAME...we should also endeavor to make positive changes in OURSELVES.

This game comes equipped with so many psychological pitfalls...that only the players with great "internal strength" can hope to profit - or even survive - in the long run.

You often refer to the next "big score that the game OWES you"...or the next "winning streak that will turn your life around"...or the next "Saratoga meet that you will remember forever"...

There is no such thing as a winning streak (just like there is no such thing as a losing streak)...and the next Saratoga meet will be as memorable as all the previous ones have been.

There is only Patrick and his "game"...against the most formitable opponent known in the gambling world. An opponent who easily defeats about 98% of his competition...or, to be more accurate, lets them defeat THEMSELVES.

Do you have what it takes to be one of the 2%?

Are you willing to take a good look at yourself...and make the necessary changes - inner AND outer - to get there?

This game is neither our friend nor our foe; it's a mirror...and in it, we see ourselves as we REALLY are...

You know 2-3 years ago I would cocky enough to say yes, absolutely I could do this, why not others do it, but today the answer is different.

I now know the struggles that it takes and the financial stability and emotional stability needed to win in this game, and when I have so many others distraction currently in play with my life, I was too stubborn to listen to others and tried to be a winner, maybe the Irish in me that refused to take no for an answer, but for the moment I am having to re-evaluate my position, and go back to being the best recreational player I can be, lol, just kidding, but maybe take a year or two away from the everyday attempts at being a winning player.

This board and you yourself have all given enough advice to make me a winner IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW BEST TO USE AND INCORPORATE THAT ADVICE, but I was not able to, it was above me , it was too much for me with all the other things going on around me, but dag nabbitt I did try with all my heart to make it, came close and right now I feel I am close, as other around me suggest, but close will not get it, no sir , no mam, so I must back off and go back to the fun days of horse racing, relaxing at the track making friends and watching them win tons why I win a little now and then .

I have had some great teacher's Dave and Ted to name a few and a great Mentor too, and they gave me their all, more than was necessary and I did learn a lot form them and there forums and programs , 1 was fun and easy to use and the other was tough and unforgiving, but also very damn good too, and the bottom line as to why I could not win was I am unable to mentally, and did not better manage my time that I had to learn with, and laziness too, probably looking for the black box, that just is not there, both programs needed user input to give you the output needed to win, while I am getting better with them I am no where near where I need to be, and will I ever be there, probably not , but as mentioned earlier I am too stubborn to quit, so in time I will be back , but then I hope my time and approach will better that time around.

You guys know what I been thru these past years and if I was to become a winning player it would have been a miracle to say the least , sorry Dave, no offense but halve the classes I took were above my head, yet I kept taking them, maybe someday they will be helpful as I have then saved on video, so for now I go back to having fun, till next years Triple Crown Races, lol

[toussaud]

Originally Posted by pktruckdriver

You know 2-3 years ago I would cocky enough to say yes, absolutely I could do this, why not others do it, but today the answer is different.

I now know the struggles that it takes and the financial stability and emotional stability needed to win in this game, and when I have so many others distraction currently in play with my life, I was too stubborn to listen to others and tried to be a winner, maybe the Irish in me that refused to take no for an answer, but for the moment I am having to re-evaluate my position, and go back to being the best recreational player I can be, lol, just kidding, but maybe take a year or two away from the everyday attempts at being a winning player.

This board and you yourself have all given enough advice to make me a winner IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW BEST TO USE AND INCORPORATE THAT ADVICE, but I was not able to, it was above me , it was too much for me with all the other things going on around me, but dag nabbitt I did try with all my heart to make it, came close and right now I feel I am close, as other around me suggest, but close will not get it, no sir , no mam, so I must back off and go back to the fun days of horse racing, relaxing at the track making friends and watching them win tons why I win a little now and then .

I have had some great teacher's Dave and Ted to name a few and a great Mentor too, and they gave me their all, more than was necessary and I did learn a lot form them and there forums and programs , 1 was fun and easy to use and the other was tough and unforgiving, but also very damn good too, and the bottom line as to why I could not win was I am unable to mentally, and did not better manage my time that I had to learn with, and laziness too, probably looking for the black box, that just is not there, both programs needed user input to give you the output needed to win, while I am getting better with them I am no where near where I need to be, and will I ever be there, probably not , but as mentioned earlier I am too stubborn to quit, so in time I will be back , but then I hope my time and approach will better that time around.

You guys know what I been thru these past years and if I was to become a winning player it would have been a miracle to say the least , sorry Dave, no offense but halve the classes I took were above my head, yet I kept taking them, maybe someday they will be helpful as I have then saved on video, so for now I go back to having fun, till next years Triple Crown Races, lol

the question is not, can you do it, the REAL question is just how bad do you want do it?

From my own personal life experiences I am a stedfast believer that you truly can do anything you want to do in life, but that anything, has a price tag and the question you have to ask yourself is, do you want to pay it or not.

This is no different from "real life" then it is for horse racing.

I just turned 28 yesterday. damn i'm getting old lol. When I was 19 years old, i was a tech at best buy, and this woman came up to me in the tech bay and told me she wanted to buy a computer, to do something very specific; in short, she needed a a computer, that was pretty bare bones, but it had to have a huge amount of hard drive space, and it had to have a bad ass sound card. We ended up getting her a cheap e machine, and I put about half a tarabite of hard drive space in there (this is in 2001, that's a crap load back then) and a 200 dollar creative sound card in there. she ended up paying like a thousand dollars for it. there was nothing there in stock she could have bought, she could have bought a high end PC bnut would have paid 2 grand, whit parts she did not need. then it hit me like a light bulb, a personalization wizard.. i had a mission at that point, at the age of 19, to create a website, that allowed newbie web people to develop a computer, at ANY starting point of the computer, customize it exactly how you want it and it be 100%
guaranteed to work. I actually trade marked that. For instance if you are a horse player and you need a horse plaoyer PC, yo might need a pretty big, or want a pretty big monitor, some decent speakers, but you really don't needa 3 GHz processor and 1 TB of hard drive space, or if you are starting a sound studio, and you don't know what you really need but know you "need a really good sound card and speakers" you can start from there and build the computer around that part. was probably the best idea i ever came up with in my life.

I say all that to say, my business partner and I, who was my age and worked with me as well, we would get off work and go to our "office" which was my garage and we would sit there while writing the wireframes for this system and stuff like that and the new riush of being an entrepreneur, i remember he looked at me one day and said "why doesn't everyone do this" and at the time, i had no real answer to him. I didn't know why either. we were going to be rich, just a matter of months





the next 2 and a half years, would test me, to the point of actually being homeless for 2 months, living out my car and going to the library to work and wash up. In those 2 and a half years, my mother kicked me out the house for not going to college, my dad basically disowned me, we got ripped off by "angel investors and venture capital firms",paid developers to build our website only to run off with our money. I found out I had a pretty high tolerance for adversity because the avg person would have quit by then. I never seriously considered quitting. I did get a part time tech job to put food in my mouth but never quit and the first time i thought i could possibly support myself from my business I walked out the door.

and that's just half of it. I've always been a decent looking guy that was in shape and was very social. The above, actually wasn't as hard to deal with, as was looking in the mirror, being over 200 pounds (in high school i was 140 soak and wet), being ashsmed to go to the movies beucase i had no clothes that looked right so I stayed home and worked and having shoes that talked to me when I walked. My mom bought me a 2001 eclipse when I gureanteed for getting straight A's my entire senior year. when i refused to go to college she took it away and i was driving around in a 92 honda accord that had 300k miles on it and was beat up. "friends" leaving and not coming around anymore...


But, i found out something in those 2 years. I'm a pretty strong willed dude.Both me and my business partner. Once reality set in that we weren't oign to be rich over night, we never, and i can honestly s never, doubted that the business was not going to take off at some point. when that point was we did not know, but we honestly believed that if we stuck it out things would turn around. instead of crying about how hard things were, we found different angles, different ways to do things until we found things that worked. and lo and beyond about, late February / early march 2004 things started turning around. by june we had went from our apartment, to a 900 sq foot building, to a 3000 sq foot building. In july, we literary had to stop taking orders because we couldn't get them out fast enough, and by august, our merchant account called us sand told us basically look.. you are making too much money. you signed up with a 20k merchant account. we bumped it to 50k then 80k. in august we processed about 220k in revenue.

And yes the family "came back around and was so proud of me" and al hat hoopla, and i upgraded the personal life, but that by that point, wasn't the point. the point was that i did it, we did it.



Those 2 and a half years, i ate, slept and dreamed about that business. that business was my life. I had no personal life at all from 19 to 21. woke up at 5-6am, went to bed at 10-12pm, and just about all that time, minus an hour to wind down i spent on that business. i wanted it so bad i could taste it. I was going to succeed, come hell or high water, and i will be damned if high water did not come.

IN an odd way, those 2 and a half years, were the best times of my life looking back on it, as wired as it sounds. Those 2 years laid the foundation to the person I am today.

getting back to horse racing, a person can turn a profit at the track. the question that has to be asked is just how much time, sacrifice, money, and overall resources need to be put in to make that happen. To some people it's just not worth it and they are just fine with going to the track on weekends and having "fun" or trying to get lucky and nyou know what, there is nothing wrong with that. there should not be a negative stigmatism to a guy who says you know what, i have a job, i have a wife/long term girlfriend, i like playing the horses but i don't like it to the point where i am willing to devote so much time it could screw up the rest of my life. To some people, it is worth it. that's a decision only you can make.

as stated earlier, i have always been in shape, i went through an amateur bodybuilder phase in my life, and then i found out lol, i really did not want to be an amateur bodybuilder. I eat healthier than probably 95% of the population does, but I mean, they take it to a whole new level. I can't eat baked chicken,salad and brown rice for 7 days a week for 6-7 months. i can't nor will i eat that strict. I like my rum as well and I'm not spending more money on supplements than I spend on my phone and cable bill per month. it's just not that serious to me.

[mannyberrios]

Thank you for that post, Mr. T

[pktruckdriver]

Well Mr T

That was a wonderful post, and you should be commended for your resolve. it seems we both have living in shelters in common, always a place I would like to open 1 day if I could afford to, each shelter according to the people that it took in, that way the help necessary for the right people would be there, and hopefully the few needing a helping hand to get back on their feet will take it, and the others we know will not., but at least they can be cared for for awhile

For me getting back on my feet took not giving up, working hard long hours, and for little pay, but pay it was, as I am not a well educated man, but then I am no imbecile either, thou my actions have seemed pretty idiotic over the years, yet I did them and failed miserably on most of them except the one most important, providing for myself, finding a way to survive at the poverty line , never getting too far from it, but at least never quitting.

Using what is available to me I found work and found a place to live and saved up for a car and yada yada yada, but the struggles have gotten too much, and 1 year later , a year from being out of the shelter, I look at myself and see improvement yes, but I also see a more humbled man, and a man who needs a change, and like you I do not ever want to give up becoming a winning player, but damn it man , I need to start being a winner in my life sometime , I am pushing 50 and feel 70 and act like a 10 yr old, and sad part is my mind may be at a 10 year old level and I been reaching too far , let me try see if I can explain.

We all know my story... oops sorry , and friend just called and I must go now... tomorrow I'll explain, till then enjoy horse racing , please

[Saratoga_Mike]

Patrick,

It's this simple: once you start to play professionally it turns into work and lots of it. It isn't going to be "fun." Why not just play as a hobby again and get back the fun part? And just an idea, but have you looked into the soon-to-open AMD plant? Working there has to be easier than driving a cab in Saratoga. On that front, I couldn't believe how many cabs were in Saratoga this weekend. It was nothing like that 10 yrs ago. It seems like cab fleet growth has easily outstripped population growth over that timeframe. Good luck to you.

[iceknight]

To the original thread starter, you just cannot give up - but if you feel you are not having fun, it might be worth taking a break from the actual wagering and cut back on looking at many races online. Instead, focus on some other activity you like for sometime - get a job in that field or offer services as free lancer.

After sometime, come back with a fresh mind. As for saying that some videos flew above your head - practice and persistence will make you understand things well. Good luck!

Also, just saying my kudos to ya, Mr T. I am a newbie here and am curious about your computer customization business - are you willing to share the name of that company?

[Saratoga_Mike]

[QUOTE=iceknight]

Also, just saying my kudos to ya, Mr T. I am a newbie here and am curious about your computer customization business - are you willing to share the name of that company?[/QUOTE]

Dell.