Chasing losses - is there any way I can stop doing it?

when you have a loser then if you have another bet do so at lower odds until you have a winner

Aye sounds like sense that, do what mart does just back winners. Piece of pess this game.

15 years on here and you have to ask this question!

As most on here have done the same (whether or not they like to admit it), the successful ones discipline themselves rigourously. It often feels similar to a bad beat in poker that puts you tilt. Had I backed Captain Scoobie last night I certainly would have been "on tilt".

What I started doing was identifying my potential betting opportunities the night before and sticking to them. However, as I am a punter that looks for "value", a lot of the time I have a shortlist of 3 or 4 horses for a race and will only decide whether or not to back them minutes before the off depending on their price. I also like to see the horses pre-race (sweating up, coltish, pulling hard on the way to the start). Nevertheless, I may have identified 10 races that I am interested in but once the 10th race has gone then I am finished. This usually works though I do still "lose it" now and again, especially if I have backed a horse that I think "should" have won but didn't.

When I do "lose it" I now automatically start looking at the next day's racing because there is nearly always a horse (or horses) running the next day that are more worthy of a bet than those that are left of the current day. Given there are around 12,000+ races per year, there is always another day and this is what I am telling myself as I contemplate "chasing losses".

phil you're no different to the other 98% of gamblers...thats the natural instinct.

Surprised you are still going with Mentality.

Compile an excel spreadsheet with a daily/monthly target.
Within that target allow for three losing days which will still achieve the monthly target you are aiming for
In this way,you know you will get 3 losing days and you will not go on tilt when you lose.
Just carry on betting /laying as before.
Works for me.

it might be the natural instinct but for the majority it's an instinct that is best controlled, as it tends to end in tears...if i f00k up (mainly a layer), i tend to analyse what went wrong in as much detail as poss, to see if there is any lesson i can learn (or to satisfy myself that it was just one of those things/circs/bad luck...whatever). Doing this is a step back from actually betting, even if only for a short while, and has the side effect of taking the emotion out of the situation. Nowadays, i'm nearly always on an 'even keel' after a loss...if not, i'll throw myself into some work for the rest of the day instead of risk punting.

Is being aware of it not half the battle? I was seething about a stewards decision the other night and did lose on two more races that followed but I knew in my head I was annoyed and I limited the situation.

we all do it

Phil_magroin = Willie Shafter.

Very hard to stop but until you do you will find it too difficult to win in the long run as a big loss negates all the previous good work.

It might be best to try and establish the true cause of why you chase. It sounds obvious but the reason is that you have lost MONEY and want to get it back immediately to stay on track. It is particularly painful if you set yourself a daily target which I suspect you do as you appear to stop betting for the day after a winner.

Try to imagine you are betting points or chips as this may make managing a loss easier. Successful poker players don't see their chips as cash as they would be far too scared and defensive if they did. Count your money at the end of the game not on a hand by hand basis.

Finally check whether your bets are profitable on a level stakes basis as if they aren't you are probably not a winner and are likely to fail

Hope that helps

We don't all do it, but it's taken me 30 plus years to control it and not chase. This and coping with the horrendous losing runs that occur is in my opinion what separates the winners from the losers.

only gamble with what you are comfortable losing
then theres no need to chase
for me anyway
gl

As soon as you feel the need to chase, switch every thing off and go for a walk.

You are then more likely to start the next day with more in the bank and a better mental state.

It could be an age thing. As a youngster I would chase my losses with the inevitable happening. For the last 35+ years I've accepted losing on any given day knowing that there is always tomorrow to recoup losses.

It helps if you don't need the money from gambling, i.e. you enjoy a bet and losing doesn't affect you in any way.

Choose one horse for afternoon and go max,repeat in evening.

chasing was the making of koo....


kick on ...

i seen koo with wife n kids last week at thirsk..

Decide what you are going to back and at what price

Place your bets in the morning

Check the results in the evening after racing

did he still have holey elbows, warwick?

When the money runs out don't put more in.
It's not a straight forward game. There are lots of variations.
Sometimes it's down to the month, or the weather, or the stable.
Think about how much you can really afford and what difference a loss (or win) would make.
Usually the loss wins (sensible people) that game because one would only play again and again with a win.

"Brian • May 4, 2017 3:56 PM BST
As soon as you feel the need to chase, switch every thing off and go for a walk."

I go in the garden and potter.
My wife knows I've lost if I go in the garden or veg plot at 5 o'clock.

I'd have prob been retiring about now if I'd never felt the 'chase' urge across my betting career - the fact that I am nowhere near able to retire reminds me how much that has cost me over the years. Huge dents in my potential funds have gone missing at sporadic points in time.

I wish I had an easy answer, and some good suggestions above, but ultimately there isn't a full and final answer. Gamblers have an instinct to gamble, and never more so than when chasing IMO.

When someone has a good answer (the ultimate one) I'd like to know too please.

Phil: if this is a genuine cry for help then please use this strategy and NEVER deviate

Do your homework in the morning and pick the race or races you intend having an investment on and the maximum amount you can afford to lose. If, and (hopefully) when, you find yourself in front then withdraw half your winnings and bet with the remaining half, adding half of any subsequent winnings to the amount already withdrawn, obviously sticking to your morning race selections.

NEVER be tempted to throw in an extra race that your morning analysis had excluded.

Be Lucky but above all be cautious!

The problem I have found with strategies to stop chasing is that they wor****il you chase again. I've got gradually better over my lifetime (used to be on tilt after a quid loss), so it's something that can be developed and worked upon. But, even in my good years of profits there have been holes left by 'those' days.
The real key is not a general or specific strategy, but how to keep to that strategy IMO.

lol, the moderated bit above said 'wor****il'  - bleedin moderation!

work until!!

Chasing ultimately comes from an inability to accept losses(sharp or consecutive) There's no great shame in running into that battle. The shame comes from a repetition of a move the brain has learned is wrong(even if the move wins now and again) The fact that it does succeed now and again only fuels future urges to repeat the process. But let's be clear, once your brain understands that chasing losses isn't the answer to recapturing losses(which it will do after numerous attempts) if you can't control your actions from then on, you have essentially came to an acceptance that your nonsensical, irrational urges OWN YOU.

ProSniper: absolutely spot on, trouble is normally it's a very expensive apprenticeship before the lights come on!

Fist full throttle through the laptop screen, Klitchko style.
By the time you take it to the repair shop and have it fixed the urge to chase
has gone.

Agreed, essex. Paying the price with a few banks is probably what most have to do before the game is truly understood. But after that, there's simply NO EXCUSES. We either put those pathetic urges in their place, or we remain their slave.

Problem is, regardless of whether you chase or don't chase it still doesn't stop you having horrendous losing runs that go on and on and on and on and on...............

There is a guaranteed way of avoiding the chase on any given afternoon: make your bets at lunchtime and then go out and do something else. Watch the video only after live racing has ended for the day. Then it's physically impossible to chase. That's possibly the only true answer. Most of the above answers are very sensible but if you can't do it you can't do it. Make it impossible.

Good reply. Ought to try & get into this habit myself even though I don't chase as watching racing can be such a time waster.

You probably want to win far too much . Remember that the worlds best punters  dont win any more than 8-10% on total risk !

How many gamblers / punters would be happy with an £8 profit for every £100 risked ?

I would say very few !!

That's true and how many realise what horrendous losing runs you can encounter even if you have a 30% strike rate. I should of put watching racing can be such a depressing waste of time.

sparrow    04 May 17 11:58 
15 years on here and you have to ask this question!


Quite !
OP - get a grip.

My suggestion is that you stick to betting on systems that over time YOU have proved to yourself give a decent ROI.
Unless you're either well informed or very lucky if you bet on form/gut instinct you will lose in the long term.

Thanks guys

You have to learn how to lose in order to win, thankfully very few are able to do this

I'm amazed that Facts was caught in the net

Saying 'get a grip ' is not being ' caught in a net ' hth.

big aitch has caught him as well now.

That makes twice he's been caught on the same thread.

Win the war, not the battle.

who was it recently wanted to win £30 a day

ended up betting £250 to win £30 profit

"The art of a right decision "

Written by a master mathematician Thomas Brusee

Know the odds and simple you win as there is no other answer .

Losing sequence is part of the winning sequence .Fact.

Get the correct odds not what is offered in the market of what ever event you are betting on .
Example
betting odds 2/1+2=1=3
event stats =1.5+1.5+3

Find those and you win.

Back or lay.

=true odds against offered odds.
Its clearly explained on Thomas Brusee article . google it.

Odds algorithm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odds_algorithm

lay odds on keep button.your own odds

You're right about the long losing sequence, I'll give you that.

When I have a winner I am the best punter in the world and almost never have another bet that day,

why does that make you the best punter in the world? makes you one of the worst imo. a good punter would surely feel that they'd need to keep betting and strike when the iron is hot. you ride these good runs as you never know when they'll dry up, plus you'll be betting with more confidence.

odds  stay away from maidens  why   you have know idea what they are or how good they are
sprinters ...thats 5,6 ,7 furlongs ..if they miss the break they are beat. best bets are one mile two plus hope that helps

theonlyway
Just read the Wiki link and now got headache

The timeout button can be useful if you need a day or two to cool down.

Charlie they took down the original article published by F T Brusse .I dont know why but the solution is as stated .
Yes we all lose but if one knows your true strike rate not the odds offered well you win and therefore there is no chasing.
You might have to wait for your winning but you will win.

The sequence and the true odds in any event are the key .There is a math formulae for it.

red and black roulette evens both ways,setting 1.5 isn't,laying.so a 1.5 win is a loss a 1.5 loss is a 1.95 gain comm paid.on clear favs

In roulette they have a number called 0 so the odds are not even .

All chasing means to most people is that they run out of funds a lot earlier than they normally would.

Or the impatience to wait.

think that a lot of punters blame their losing on chasing/a lack of discipline when it's unclear that they actually had an edge in the first place

how can you win if you don't have an edge? yes chasing will ensure you might well do bets that you wouldn't have done normally. But that doesn't mean that you had an edge at all.

It's my belief that at least 90 percent of punters don't have an edge over the bookies in the first place. And why should they? Everything is in the bookies favour. The odds are in their favour, and they employ people to work around the clock to compile the odds. It's extremely hard to win. On betfair the odds might be somewhat better, but you still have to pay 5 percent.

It seems to me more likely that you'll go on tilt and chase if you weren't beating the odds to begin with. Why bother to spend hours trying to work out these races if this approach wasn't working anyway? just do a lot of crazy bets, what's the difference, you're going to lose in the long run.

Only if you've completely confident in your approach and that you're on to a long term winner will you cut out chasing imo.

The other problem is now because of internet betting- in the past you'd have had to trudge down the bookies at least, but now it's 24/7, increasing the likelihood that you're going to have that wobbly moment- I would suggest the original poster that maybe he should self exclude from internet betting and just bet down the bookies. If he doesn't trust himself.

I cant lose its impossible read my post.

I like you chase when losing. It's impossible to stop that first urge because it's part of who you are ( personality ).

Jeremiah 13:23

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

That was written almost 3000 yrs ago.

Basically a person cannot change who they are..... If you stop one thing another part of your personality will want or crave something else.  It's who we are....

But if you accept this part of your personality you can challenge this inner demon.

Take an ex alcoholic who's been dry for 20 yrs... He's separated alcohol from his life clearly which is great. Now take that very same person - alcoholic to a room full of drink and leave them alone in there with no one to watch them....

The only thing that stops that person from touching a drop... There WILL has to be greater than their own personality / inner demon urges...

If that makes sense. Addictions , personalites are who we are and cannot be changed or will never ever go away because it's who we are.

Well

lewisham ranger,s post is correct .And to be honest have lost doing exactly what he stated .
Quickly turned that around and the use of a simple but proven advantage has paid enormous dividends.
Otherwise would have been gone a long time ago .
It comes directly down to as already stated the true odds not what is offered.


gl

Project management .

One of the enforced criteria is the use of experts .Thus F T Brusse.

So when the Government wants to restrict FOBT's from £100 to £2, is it because they don't understand the true odds they are getting, or because people are betting beyond there means ie, they have £100 in there pocket and bet it all on black or is it because they lose and chase there losses?

Facts, that was a clever use of words, just noticed it.


feel my groin-----get a grip

atteq 1.5 in run lost told you

election day 1.5 lay lost matched.

fail to see what your posts have to do with chasing, deadhead

another dead thread whats losses.

if i could take back all the days id been ahead and got greedy, thrown away the profit and chased, resulting in me losing my whole bank, i reckon id be almost rich, discipline is the key and if i had it id be succcessful

If you know what you're doing then what's wrong with chasing?

The problem is your selections not your temperament.