How to stop chasing losses and gain dicipline

so u made 3300$ profit in 12 days and chased because u lost 50$


W T F

dc

Exactly aueng ... this is insanely stupid.

I do believe that the mood I was in played a big part in this stupid decision.  Because of the heat and the traffic and I must learn no to let outside factors influence my betting.  Do prevent that, I will delete the iPhone app and change my password to something hard to remember.

My results when I've placed bets from my phone are far worse than I do it from my computer - so I will stop making bets from the phone.

But obviously I need more drastic measures if I'm gonna behave like this.

get rid of betfair on ur phone ?
set a stake limit so u cant make a big crazy bet ?
set deposit limits ?

i dont know , cant say i ever put 1000 on anything

I am not sure blocking software or limiting the account is really an answer.

Because it is you that can unblock and unlimit them anyway. Going out for a walk or distractions of a positive nature are always good though.

Try to go through all the bets you have made over the month and write down an honest paragraph to yourself on each one, describing your emotional state of being at the time you placed it and the genuine reason for placing the bet.

You will probably find most of the lost money was when this emotional state/genuine reason was out of sync with what you know deep down is right for you for a long-term strategy.

Once you have done that, re-calculate what you would have won/lost based on having done this process prior to actually making those bets and having filtered them down to when you were mentally aligned.

If the figures look good, then actually do this process in future before placing a bet and if it doesnt stand up to scrutiny on those two levels (mental and emotional), dont place it.

Any bet placed while in a state of fear, worry, resentment, perception of bad luck etc etc is a bad bet, regardless if it wins or not. You have to have your mindset down if you want to make consistent progress and actually enjoy the experience because lets face it, if you are not enjoying it, why even do it in the first place.

It is probably the main reason why so many people lose it is very easy to chase especially if you feel aggrieved about a bet you put time and effort into and it goes west through a bit of bad luck. You simply have to have a max stake regardless of your edge if your prone to chase and it should be 5% of your bank in my opinion then you'll always be able to fight another day.

Funkymonkey with some excellent suggestions,

You need to treat each bet individually and set the stake appropriately without reference to what has happened previously.  If you find yourself in a state of mind where you can't do this, don't bet!

Thank you all, and especially Funkymonkey.

I guess I just need to give me more time and like you say, analyse the mental state I was in when I've placed those bad bets.

The blocking software is of course no permanent solution - but when I lose bets I tend to become pissed at my self very quick then it takes around 20-30 minutes to cool off.  So if I block the site for maybe an hour, I could definetly reduce the number of irrational bets.

But like I say, with the correct amount of discipline, Betfair can be a cashcow and I'm gonna be able to use that in the future.

Another thing that I've done:
I've opened a Moneybookers account.  Until now, I've always withdrawn money to my credit card but I don't want to withdraw to much to my creditcard so by withdrawing money to my Moneybookers account, I will have a smaller bank.  I know this is stupid, but I'm gonna try it anyway :)

Good luck, i had a similar way when i started about a month ago. I turned £500 into £1145 in just over 3 weeks on teams i knew about, my staking plan was all over the shop too and which in all honesty built my bank up to quickly, i felt invincible. I then lost around £75 and on a bet and began the chase. I laid the draw on 3 random football matched that i knew little about just to get my money back. 3 draws on the bounce later and £1145 gone i realised i would of been happy losing just £75. Discipline is definitely the hardest thing for me. It was when i was backing teams (at other bookies) and it still is here now laying teams. Day by day bit by bit, Slow and steady.

who removes my anti-coolhand posts?

nonni - i've been there mate

yep bingo once the big hit comes you'd do anything to get back to the original loss that started the chasing in the first place. soooo true

Any bet placed while in a state of fear, worry, resentment, perception of bad luck etc etc is a bad bet, regardless if it wins or not.

golden words funky

I've just copied and pasted what Funkymonkey said so that when i go to place a silly bet in future i shall read that and hopefully leave the bet alone

yep i myself had to set loss/deposit limits. the good thing is they take 7 days to be increased so even if it is you who controls them by the time the 7 days comes arounds your chasing devil panic has long subsided

Nonni, the answer lies in your staking plan, or rather your non existent staking plan. Personally I can't chase/lose because I bet with 0.2% of my betting bank per point/stake. I usually place one stake as liability, sometimes two. Nothing could be simpler than that, yet so many seem to bet any random amount they feel like, especially when on the chase.

Strict disciplined staking gives a necessary sense of security, and breeds other good practices such as meticulousness and methodicalness (are they real words?) :)

Yeah ...  I should develop some staking plan.  Always work with a certain amount per bet.  I used to do that, but then my lack of discipline took over. 

I know that nobody joins Betfair as a pro.  This is a learning process and I guess it takes years.  I started about 2 yeas ago and I know for sure that I'm better at this now than I was then.  Now I've reached this obstacle and my mission now is to gain more and more discipline, that will also take time - but it's a worthy project.

I've already made more than my monthly salaries from a 500 dollar stake now - so even though I lost this bet today, I'm still in great surplus for the past 2 weeks.  I just gonna have to calm down ... it's not normal to gain 100% return on your stake every day ... so next plan is to calm down and develope some staking plan. 

Thank you all for very good advices - I really appreciate you guys helping me to become better at this :)

My dad, who was a very shrewd and successful gambler on the horses, used to tell me to simply stop gambling when you feel your luck's out. Have a rest for a few days and come back with a fresh outlook.

your opening paragraph tells me you will find it extremely hard to graduate to achieving the discipline required to be successful

Discipline is not something you can switch on or off - it has to be inherent in your psyche and the key element of any successful strategy

You obviously recognise its importance, but your 'ground rules' will not help you achieve it -
your total mindset has to change

Having said that, some rules will improve your impulsion to chase, but until you reach that 100% discipline level, your chance to have a long term winning strategy will not materialise.

A pro wouldn't have made the chasing bets you did nonni.  Even if you don't want to be a pro, I'm sure you want to be the best you can be. My humble advice to you is if you get in the same position again, ask yourself "what would a pro do now".  I'm 100% sure he wouldn't have bet on a game he knew nothing about.  Do you want to be a pro, or be a pro's btich ?

why do you want to win nonni? why is it so important?

for example you refer to betfair that you view it as a cash cow.

which suggests to me, that when you lose it deflates your ego, which already expects to
win, as it regards betfair in some form of contempt. that can be a dangerous situation.

it's ego that controls us and guides our emotions. I'll be interested to hear why exactly you
view betfair as a cash cow, and what method's you've employed that have lead you to that conclusion.

"1.  Changing my Betfair password to something long that I can't remember."

brilliant.

Sometimes you may have a bad loss, but to succeed in the long term you have to be able to accept that it will take time and effort to claw this back. It's essential that you don't try and win back a big loss straight away, you have to grit your teeth, slowly rebuild and make sure you don't make the same mistake again.

Much easier said than done, but when you acquire the mental toughness required you feel like you've achieved something!

Some very good advice on here but the best advice for you would be to pack it in now as your mindset is completely wrong to be successful.

^ the chasing mentality that wont change?

Have a plan would be my main piece of advice.

I would take time off from beting to assess what sports/leagues that you are most profitable on and also try to identify the situations and circumstances where are not profitable.

From there I would limit myself to only betting on those sports/leagues. In addition to that I would aslo begin planning out my bets in advance.

As a rough guess I would say that 80% of my bets are on a Saturday and I usually start planning them from Tuesday onwards, obviously most of those bets aren't made until Saturday. Planning in advance has made a huge difference to me. Every so often I'll deviate from my plan and suprise suprise those are the times I get my fingers burnt (all though it's happening less and lesss)

I must admit I like punting on many markets - some I know a lot and others I simply look at one or two things in order to make a decision .....

A while back someone suggested I bet properly on the market which I know I am good at and very very small bets on the markets I think I am good at ....

Just a suggestion ...

also like others have said ... keep to 0.5% to 3% of your bank (i am trying to retrain myself to do) or even like TrevH suggests at 0.2% ...

ND47's suggestion makes a lot of sense. I do US racing, and there're so many races coming along every few minutes that if you get the chasing mentality there, you can flush your account down the pan in double quick time.

So what I tend to do is to sit down every now and again and look over the races coming up in the next hour or two. If there are any ones that stick out, I make a note of them and come back later to check out the odds. Most, though, I just pass straight over.

If you're betting 'real-time', it's very easy to convince yourself that the race coming up in a couple of minutes contains a brilliant selection - even though, deep down, you know it's a marginal bet at best, and that you shouldn't be playing it if you want to make money in the long term. Somehow, a race coming up in half an hour seems ages away. And it's easy to convince yourself that the upcoming race is the best chance of making money you're going to have in the near future - even though there're probably much better options coming up later in the evening, if only you cast your net wider.

If you're looking over a whole bunch of races, you tend to quickly dismiss the ones that aren't up to scratch. What you're left with are a few very viable propositions spread over the course of an evening. You're picking selections on merit, and not because they're the best of the chances coming up in the next ten or fifteen minutes.

wise words LB. i always used to chase on the very next race. standard.

i.e. Maunsells Duke

Yeah, the majority of us do it. If we can get over it, we have a small chance of being successful.

Lord Bobbbin

If you're looking over a whole bunch of races, you tend to quickly dismiss the ones that aren't up to scratch. What you're left with are a few very viable propositions spread over the course of an evening

And that is how I do it myself for Football... I'll sit down have a look at the fixtures & prices on a Tuesday, I'll weed out the $h1te and take note of the best looking bets and keep them in mind over the week, come Saturday I'll make the final descision.

I guess Football is easier as you know who will be playing next Saturday whereas something like racing it is less clear who is racing and what the conditions are like.

A situation I have often fell foul of is betting on fixtures that are in isolation.

Example: A few years ago before I planned my bets I had a good weekend betting on the NFL, the Monday Night fixture wasn't something that had caught my eye but I decided I wanted a bet anyway so I had the weekends profits on the then Superbowl Champion NY Giants away at the useless Cleveland Browns... Obviously the Giants lost!!!

At that point the penny dropped for me, there was no way I would have had that bet had it of been lumped in with all the Sunday fixtures, I'd made a snap descision that Monday Night and payed for it.

The above illustrates a point I also believe in which is chasing your wins can be just as destructive as chasing your losses, but rarely gets a mention.

Get some black tape and cover your balance up for 1 month
.
Use a maximum liability of 5% of your total bank

there is no need to constantly check your balance

The edge will come good after many ups n downs .

Whenever you are about to do something and you feel you lack discipline, imagine this guy speaking to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9RCpXMiLTA

Remember last year from June - aug
I risked a total of £32,400 --- ( laying a total of 324 horses for £100 a time )
My total profit was about  £2,700

Roughly a 7% profit

My balance was covered for the full month with black tape -- give it a go .

nonni, i empathise with your problem but i am not as bad as you. i win £1k a month on the horses and lose £500 on cricket and £500 on the football. I am now unemployed and the shock has given me the discipline just to bet on the horses.

Your problem it seems is highlighted straight away by the phrase you started your post
with "chasing losses"

Its the rhetoric of a gambler, gamblers don't plan to make a profit over the long run they plot to make a profit in the very short term and this is the difference between a pro and a bad gambler, the lack of long term planning, indecently its also the difference between a good business and one that ticks over or goes belly up, planning for the long game.

Also you cant plan or plot any profit unless you have an edge via a system of some description that has been proven extensively to enable a profit margin, then you need a sensible betting system and discipline above all else.

Mug gamblers agenda and plotting technique

1....get any cash disposable income or not!
2....admit you have no system so find something short to back say an under-priced favorite looks good.

3....convince yourself blindly that you can pull a profit margin out of thin air.

4....place a chunk of your wad on to a fancied bet and count your chickens before they've hatched.

5....watch the bet lose as its odds on it will and over-realize you failed and made a loss so make it
look so much a problem as you really know you are unlikely to make a profit.

6....continue through steps 3-5 until you are aware that a huge chunk is missing from your bank due to a plotted but failed large stakes plan with no clarity to procedure or discipline at all.

7 start plotting to repair your bank with even bigger stakes.

8....finally get completely down and frustrated and blow whats left.

pro gamblers agenda and betting technique


1....research market moments and/or stats or form to find theoretical edges that make profit in the long run.

2....accept that you may make a profit but not a huge one and create a staking plan that eliminates as much as possible the damage that will be caused by long losing runs

3.....start the system off and adhere to the rules with discipline.

4.....take no notice of the last few results as its early days just do your job of placing bets or use automation to eliminate focusing on individual events too closely.

5.....review after a fair amount of time to check your progress and make a report.

It can be seen that one type of gambler plans to win and the other fails to plan so is at the mercy of bad luck and misjudgment, no prizes for guessing which one will be in profit 6 months down the line

I suppose one of the things to remember is that it's gambling. you can lose. if we wanted free money we might as well use a cash machine. everytime you place a bet the first thing you should consider is how losing is going to affect you. but we can all tilt and bet too much. anyone who denies that they tilt from time to time, isn't telling the truth.

I've had a bit more success on here lately as i'm not trying to be a bit more patient and slowly build my account. one of the rules I use is that i'm only going to bet on something if I have an opinion on it. sounds simple but it's amazing how many pointless bets you cut out that way, if you only bet if you feel like you have some sort of angle/edge on that event. betting for the sake of betting is just losing in my view. and stick to what you are good at.

basically you have to be ruthless and cut out the kinks and the leaks.

bff, instead of using the term ''pro gambler'' I think it
would more correct if you referred to such punters as
''serious gamblers''. Because your living doesn't rely on
you being a successful punter, doesn't mean you don't take
it seriously and also make it pay.

'Profitable gambler' might be better then?  No doubt many of the losers take it very seriously [:p]

I prefer 'Unemployed'.

I was referring to bettors who win money, but not enough
to live on. Retired people who bet seriously to supplement
their income are usually aware of the pitfalls that less
experienced punters fall into.

I prefer 'retired' it makes my car insurance cheaper [smiley:crazy]

Take the emotion out of it .