Biggest Hard Luck stories

I have several...here's one I blogged about a while ago (c&p'd so I don't have to write it out all over again)...

I used to frequent the Westcliff Sporting Club in Southend and more often than not a group of us from work would go there but on occasion I would go there on my own if I had nothing else to do and I felt I could stomach the drive from my home in Ipswich.

The Westcliff was a casino situated right on the main esplanade / sea front, call it what you will.  It didn’t take that long to get to Southend, maybe 45 minutes or so, but upon arrival at the end of the street that the casino was situated on you could count on it taking you another 20 minutes just to drive the last mile if it was a Friday night.  The reason for this was that the whole street, both sides of the road, would be crammed full of boy racers driving up and down the road at irritatingly slow speeds all trying to outpose each other.  Police presence was high and arrests or altercations were inevitable so you had to be mentally prepared for that last mile.

On one such occasion I finally arrived at the casino and parked up outside.  I’d had reasonable success in this place overall and buoyed by this fact I had brought with me just over a grand with my plan being to double it and walk out.  I exchanged the bulk of the cash for two £500 plastic bricks and headed off to a roulette table that was close to the room reserved for the big boys to play poker in.

I exchanged some cash for chips and had just started to feel my way into things when there was a fair old commotion coming from the table next to mine. I looked over and saw a throng of people but none were betting, they were all watching the one guy who seemingly had the table to himself. I picked up my chips and went across to the table to see what the fuss was all about.

The guy playing had about £35k in front of him and was liberally seeding the table with £100 chips so when he won he won a fair amount but then again when he lost he lost a fair amount, it was all relative. Anyway I decided that the time for me to bet ‘properly’ had arrived so I watched the wheel spins for a few minutes and then, following the point where the croupier swept up the other guy’s losing chips, I placed a £500 brick on the middle 12 numbers.

As I said, I’d been watching the spins for a good few minutes before I placed my bet, but now my money was down the croupier changed her spin. Instead of the ball whizzing round the wheel at warp speed she released it in such a manner that it barely got round one revolution before it headed inwards on it’s way to it’s final resting place – the zero. So my 2/1 bet was a loser and even though I was pissed off I tried not to let it show and decided not to dive back in but watch the action for a bit before I bet again.

The next spin and she was back to her original style, ball rocketing around the wheel etc. When I was ready to go again I waited for the table to be cleared of chips and as the other guy was spreading his £100 chips about I placed my last brick on the middle 12. Once again the croupier changed her spin style and reverted back to the lazy slow release. A few agonizing seconds passed before the ball tinkled it’s way over the little pockets containing the numbers. I waited for the noise to stop, signalling that the ball had found it’s final resting place, before I looked over to see where it had landed. I don’t know what the odds are but that cruel bitch put the ball into the zero – AGAIN !

I turned on my heel and walked out of the casino, got in my car, and drove home, almost killing myself when, after zoning out thinking about my losses and how the croupier could be so callous, I misread the road markings on the A12 (a notoriously **** road at the time) and hit a kerb at the entrance to a slip road. I was heading for the back of a parked luxury coach but somehow I managed to steer the car past it before I screeched to a halt inches away from ending up in a ditch.

I don’t know if there’s a moral to that story but there is one thing that I took away from it and that is never ever place your chips on the table until the wheel is in motion. I rarely visit casinos these days though we have a massive one about an hour’s drive from where I live. The last time I went there I looked around the tables and the table minimums and maximums see to it that there’s only a lucky few who will walk out of there with more money than they came in with.

Plechy, this probably doesn't contribute to your story but it's my views when I see the expression 'hard luck' come into play.

It's funny....I recently started personally writing from the 'psychological' side of betting, trying to sort things out after, if you include my days as a promoter who booked shows and 'didn't win' until the show had broken even then went into profit, 3 decades.

I've had some sobering moments but the more I wrote, the more I saw why it happened. 

But I've never put things down to 'hard luck' or a 'hard luck story' when I took a hit.  Perhaps that's because, as mentioned, booking shows even after researching that failed to happen.  No 'bankers' in rock'n'roll

(We did one of the first Oasis shows in North America.  You would think this would be a banker....In Jan, 1998, they were to play an arena gig that we were promoting.  16,000 seats.....break-even 13,500 at average $30/ticket.  We had sold 7,000 seats.  You can do the math on the hit we were to take....then came the Ice Storm in Quebec and the gig was cancelled.  We were saved. *luck?)

So when it comes to betting on sports, perhaps it's because win or lose, back or lay or any combination, the effort is made to research a bet thus if it goes south, I can usually see why.

And, that said, any times I am hit with a loss, it usually came down to not taking the full time to research the event.

And, that said, any times I am hit with a loss, it usually came down to not taking the full time to research the event.

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Agreed, in that usually when I've lost significantly, when I actually stop and analyse it there was some bit of poor or sloppy work I contributed to the process.

That said, I suppose there are real black swan events that you could plausibly say it should have been okay not to factor into your thinking. Some examples that spring to mind which it might be worth seeking stories about:

That 2006 test match that Pakistan lost by forfeit.
The race where the first horse to fall went on to win.
Various tennis matches ad nauseam.

But even these ultimately come down to money management. If you get in a position where an extremely unlikely turn of events can wipe you out rather than just put a hefty dent in you, it's still ultimately your fault.

Investor will be able to give you chapter and verse about football matches he's taken a hit on when something pretty unbelievable happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gscay1-yRNo

I'd backed Rodriguez at 33s and again at 10-12s after the semi finals.  It would have been my biggest ever win in athletics and one of my biggest ever wins period.

Many years ago I used to go to a chess club, I enjoyed the competition but I wasnt a very good player.
I often played a friendly Polish guy who was about my strength at chess.
He said one evening in idle chat he was a member of The Castle casino in Blackpool (a short drive from Blackburn).
I asked if I could go with him and make me a member which he agreed to.
He was a gambler in the true sence where I was small fry and played for fun.

On returning to the casino as a member on my own several weeks later,one side of the casinos wall had been flattened!
I asked inside what on earth had happened to the building.
I was told a furious punter who had lost a fortune returned to the casino in the middle of the night with a bulldozer and took out his revenge,it wasnt my friend.

A year or so later I read my friend hanged himself,due to huge losses which he couldnt live with after getting hooked on online gaming roulette.

My son who is a manager of a bookies once said" there is no such thing as luck" and I tend to agree.
I have found out over the years the only way to win at gambling is to have an edge.

The only sure fire way to win is by arbing (all be it small sums) winning regardless of the outcome.

Its not really about luck at all in my view.
One of my favourite sayings on gambling is "if it can happen it eventually will happen"

it depends how you bet iprefertolay.

If you win the lottery, Euro Millions or the pools its all about luck.  As it happens I was bought a book for Xmas called "Luck" by the cricketer Ed Smith, which I really should start reading again.

Luck is arguably the most important element in life.

CLYDEBANK: Can you remember how much your stakes came to, with all the different bets combined?

Plechy It's more difficult to remember the stakes than the winnings since there were a lot of bets in a lot of different places.  It's hard to recall although I'm pretty sure the vast majority of cash was between 10/1 and 12/1 after the semi final.  She was 50/1 in a place or two at one point but I was either too slow or just unable to get that.

I've posted this before re my "bad luck".

CH 4 ran a competition on Derby day ( 10 June 2000) and the prize was £50,000 if out of 5 named races you could get 13 placed out of 15 selections ( 3 selections per race).

Over first 3 races had 8 points out of 9 with only the Derby and another race to go.

I was against the fav Beat Hollow as just believed Sinndar would win so opted for Sinndar and Sakee together with a rank outsider Zyz trained by Barry Hills at 100-1SP.

Sinndar won with Sakee 2nd .......but the fav grabbed 3rd....AGHHHHHHHHHH...my bias against it not winning was costly on that race.


Nevertheless now had 10 points from 12 with last race to go. Now needed 1st 2nd and 3rd to share in £50,000 prize!

It was a 5 F sprint at Epsom in 4.35 race.......so get first 3 home in a sprint is extremely difficult, but I was confident about 2 of them,my doubt was choosing either the fav ( the fav and had strong form for such a sprint......but I thought the draw might give it some problems so opted for Vita Spericolata).

The race started.......and the fav got off to a slow start, whereas all 3 of my selections were all going well, especially the one with Peslier on it who seemed to be riding an excellently timed race.

I had 1st 2nd and 3rd with about 50 yards to the finish.........and the fav was boxed in and needed a phenomenal finish to figure in the 3.

This is where the LUCK came into race......suddenly a gap opened up for Fallon on fav with roughly 50 yards to go..........and it took off and had a blistering finish to win the race.......with my 3 following it home. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Fallon's strength in riding that one home was superb and it was the best horse in the race......but it was all a bit ironic that the horse's name was Astonished....which I was !


Nobody won the prize, as far as I know, but my stupidly in ignoring KF on such a good horse in last race and opting for a horse that had less class was daft!

12 points from 15 .....just missing prize by 1 point!

2 favourites not being included in selections.......especially Beat Hollow as opposed to a 100-1 shot was especially stupid.....that was definitely my fault!

Astonished was lucky to get that gap to get into places/win......and still believe that a combination of bad luck and stupidity cost me dearly that day .......AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

DFC: How on earth did you react in the immediate post-race aftermath? How did you 'get over it'?

Had already kicked myself over choosing a 100-1 shot against Derby fav......so was blaming myself for being stupid on that race....the winner was "easy" to select as was the 2nd ......and probably my thinking was that the fav would run a good race...but when could not catch winner or Sakee it would fade to 4th ....allowing an outsider to grab 3rd.....Just never happened!

Realistically I knew that it was very very unlikely I could get all 3 in last race....5 Fs sprints being chaotic type races where hard to guess the places. So was prepared to not win prize....but it was so very close on that last race

Just let off a few expletives at KF for being so bl oo  dy good in the finish!!!!

I think the ones who put up the £50,000 prize that day must have thought nobody would win it .....but I suspect there were a number of hard luck stories that day .....and I would not be the only one with 12 points!

Can't remember such a prize being put up after that day( maybe they did after changing troosers a few times )

Time for kip...

GL with book.

OK, here's another one, my worst tale of woe to date. It was back in 2002 and I was working as a software system test analyst in Amersham. I'd joined Betfair probably 6 months to a year prior and I was still wondering what all the fuss was about as I found I could lose money on Betfair just as easily as I could by going to the local bookies (I hadn't yet grasped the concept of laying and trading).

I used to frequent the local Joke's shop in town for my punterering but when I returned home at the weekend I much preferred L@ddies or Hills (I lived in Ipswich). I used to grab the fixed odds footy coupons on occasion and many a time I would put a punt on. I had limited success, there was always one that let me down.

Upon perusing the coupon one midweek I noticed that there was a section that had handicap betting on it. The away team was given 1 goal start and the prices reflected that handicap. Most of the prices for the draw were priced around 3/1 with some where there was a strong favourite playing at home the draw price was even bigger at 4/1, 9/2. Many many games result in just one goal separating the two teams,with the home side usually prevailing 1-0, 2-1, etc so I thought that this might just be a good earner if I did a bit of homework.

It's a long time ago so most of this story comes from memory although I still have the original fixed odds coupon plus the multiple matrix that I had worked out on paper...I just don't have them to hand in front of me to refer to.  I can't rightly remember how many matches I picked but the figure 13 wants to come forward for some reason.

I elected to pick a number of games (13?) from this particular section of the coupon and back the draw (taking the away goal handicap into account). I decided to back 4 folds and above up to 8 or 9 folds and to a 5p unit stake the bet was going to cost me around £1200 as I recall (there were a LOT of permutations). I think it was around midday on the Friday and I picked up the phone and called Hills to place my bet (from my desk in Amersham). The guy on the phone said they couldn't accept the bet as the lowest unit stake for a phone bet (regardless of the final cost to the punter) was 10p and I would have to visit a shop to get my (5p) unit stake bet on.

I had two options, increase my stake to 10p and thereby increase my outlay to nigh on 2.5k or go to a local shop. The local shop was a Jokes as I recall which was up the road about 5 mins walk. I can't rightly remember if the coupon I used was specific to Hills or not but I have a feeling that it was which meant I would have had to get Jokes' coupon and then start from scratch (different games etc).

I remember a couple of days prior to all of this I put a detailed message up on one of the betting forums I frequented and asked for opinions on my proposed bet, ie a load of 4 folds and upwards using the handicap draw section of the coupon. I had several responses but the most detailed one advised me that it wasn't a wise bet to place and went into reasons why.

I didn't go to Jokes on the Friday and I didn't phone Hills back to increase my stake. I went home for the weekend (I lived in Ipswich at the time) and I watched the scores come rolling in on Saturday evening and it made sickening viewing. I think there were two or three more matches to be played on the Sunday with Celtic playing at home being the standout one as they were odds on favourites to beat their opposition which they did...by one goal (I think it finished 3-2). By the time all of the weekend results were in I think I had 9 or 10 results in my favour. Had I placed the bet to a 10p unit stake on the phone instead of bottling it I would have picked up somewhere in the region of £42k.

I actually contacted Hills and got them to send me the year to date's previous coupons so I could check to see if what I had just missed out on was commonplace, ie a large number of matches in the handicap draw section of the coupon finishing with the home team winning but just the 1 goal. My 'week that never was' was the only one that had a significant enough number of home teams winning by just one goal to have made a decent profit from taking the approach I considered.

Clydebank, surely you can have found a.n.other to have got that bet on ?

I once messed up bad when laying Tiger Woods to be the third round winner in the US Masters or Open cant recall exactly.
It was late in UK and had been drinking heavily that eve.
Woods was around  seven or eight shots behind the leader.
I went to bed forgetting I had unmatched bets still on.
The following day I checked my account to my horror it dawned on me,yes Woods did win,cost me hundreds

MY UNCLE WAS IN THE BOOKIES AND THE HORSE HE BACKED FELL AT THE LAST FENCE WHILE IN THE LEAD 10 LENTHS CLEAR .THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN THE NEXT RACE ,HE THEN WENT HOME AND HE TOLD HIS WIFE ,SHE SAID ITS NOT ALL BAD NEWS ,A MAN FROM  GERMANY PHONED UP AND SAID YOUVE BEEN AWARDED THE CONTRACT TO RE POINT THE BERLIN WALL ,THEY PULLED IT DOWN A WEEK BEFORE HE WAS DUE TO SET WORK ON IT

iprefertolay: I backed Bayern Munich tonight at 1.12 to win.
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At what stage did you back Bayern at such a short price?

You weren't the only one feeling pain at the end, though. I just needed a Bayern win to complete a 7-fold acca which would have returned £390 for my £10 stake.

The other teams were all in home and hosed, comfortable victors on the night: Wolves, Leicester, Leyton Orient and Rotherham all to win AWAY; Atletico Madrid, Brentford and then Bayern to win at home.

OK, so Bayern didn't need to beat Arsenal tonight, having taken a two-goal lead from the first leg. But, as you say, when Germans are awarded a penalty. At home. In the dying seconds.

Ah, what do we expect...

Bloody Thomas Muller.

Petrus,

This might make you feel a bit better over your Placepot miss..

The dividend would not have been £2200 had the last race not been reduced to one place.

With two places and the favourite second, the divi would definitely have been reduced...

2005 USA Grand Prix.

I leave bets up laying outsiders to place in the top 3 and top 8 and go out.  I get back home just as the race is starting the warm up lap and check to see what bets have been taken and see all of them have, very unusual. I soon found out the reason why.

All of the cars start on the grid and pull off for the warm up lap then one by one all but six pull off into the pits, two Ferraris and four of the outsiders I have layed. It was a protest about the tyres.

Bets must be void I think, No say Betfair the race starts on the warm up lap.  So for the next two hours I watch these four cars drive around, all of them finishing in the points.

I complain to Betfair but unlike some bookies they do not void bets.  The loss was only about £3/400 but the injustice of it really wound me up for a few days.....until I fell asleep while trading a horse race and the horse I had layed won before I had a chance to back it....turning a profit into another few hundred down the drain.