General Money Management Discussion

[pandy]

Good plan and I agree, start small. If you can't win making $2 bets, you can't win making $200 bets. Start small and if you win you can go up a level, if you keep winning, you can gradually increase your unit.

[GameTheory]

Originally Posted by pandy

Start small and if you win you can go up a level, if you keep winning, you can gradually increase your unit.

According to all the commercials I see on television, you can increase your unit by taking a simple capsule...

[nobeyerspls]

To Bill and Pandy and others, this is not about gaining confidence in your handicapping and then betting more. Nor is it about a choice between flat betting or exotics. Assuming you are confident with your ability to pick horses, you can make flat bets and take advantage of the leverage gained through exotics.
Stated simply, the goal is to bet a little to win a lot. Does that mean bet $2 to win $40. No, 20-1 is not aggressive enough. A well constructed pick3 with a longshot in the sequence should return more that 100-1. Then again the true upside is greater. You want to bet $20 to win $10,000.

[pandy]

Good point but although the Pick 3, superfecta, etc., do offer leverage, they are not easy to hit. For example, I was hitting trifectas consistently in both harness and thoroughbreds earlier in the year, but recently I just haven't been able to get the right horses underneath. But, I still showed a profit each month because I was also betting to win and/or win and place, and hit some exactas. And when I saw that my tri's weren't hitting I cut back on those bets. If I had just bet the trifectas and Pick 3's I would be down for this period. True, maybe I would get it all back with a few big hits down the road, but I personally don't like the extreme ups and downs of super exotic wagering only. My point is, if you are a good enough handicapper to show a profit in exactas and with win bets, you will suffer far fewer losing days and bad streaks than those who bet super exotics only.

[The Judge]

most of us have made over a hundred bets and have a feeling for how we are doing. Some people are working and can re-new their bankroll every two weeks.

Most well known handicappers now say that you must have the odd big days in order to beat the game, this denotes some sort of exotic wagers.

[SMOO]

One thing I would stay away from is Show betting. The breakage added to the takeout is a killer to overcome.

[nobeyerspls]

With exotic wagering there are more downs than ups. You have to become conditioned to tossing losing tickets and having more losing days than winning ones.
I use a simple excel file to track how I'm doing, amount wagered for the day, amount collected, and the computer does the math. I keep a running total for each month and then start over. When I'm doing well I lose two out of three days but the winning days easily overcome the losses. I make sure that losing days appear in red. May was very good but you could use sunglasses to look at June's result because the page had quite a bit of red.
I'm not sure why there are stretches of down days because I am consistent with the way I handicap and the amount I bet.

[nobeyerspls]

Originally Posted by The Judge

most of us have made over a hundred bets and have a feeling for how we are doing. Some people are working and can re-new their bankroll every two weeks.

Most well known handicappers now say that you must have the odd big days in order to beat the game, this denotes some sort of exotic wagers.

You need more than a feeling, you need very good records. Without that we easily remember the big scores and forget the losses. Most handicappers have never handicapped themselves. It's time consumming but it really helps. Just keep track of the types of bets you make within race categories across the tracks you play. I learned that I am very good with maidens, strong on turf, and better with fillies sprinting than with males. Lousy with open claimers. As to the tracks, Churchill, Gulfstream, Fairgrounds, Woodbine, and the New York tracks except for Fingerlakes have been good. Fort Erie is my local track in the summer but value plays are limited. If I had to play Laurel or Arlington I couldn't afford busfare to the poorhouse.
One last thing, if this is working you don't have to renew yout bankroll. The track turns into a "free bank" with small deposits and large withdrawals.

[pandy]

Steve Crist basically said that in his Exotic betting book, and I certainly think a lot of players play that way, but it's not for everyone.