Err...can we start April again, please?

Last night, I was irked. You may have been able to tell. Tonight, I'm back to the calm, dispassionate chap I usually am. But there have been some cracking comments left on last night's post.

If I could have summed up the one, singular most important point of the post in a matter of a few words, it would have been as Andy stated:

" I admit i would be pissed off if that tipster hadn't been profitable after one year. But do you know who i would blame? ME!! Because i chose to be with that service based on my research."

This is the absolute essence of what I was trying to say last night. People need to accept some responsibility for their own actions.

I have had a dreadful week's punting. Sure, results have been good, but my personal performance levels as a focused punter have fallen dramatically. If I was a footballer, I'm not sure I'd be even making the bench on Saturday, never mind starting the match. I missed a couple of Football Investor/Strike Zone bets, had to accept odds much shorter than recommended on The Football Analyst tip, and yesterday I missed the second Chasemaster selection by being distracted at work (it was during my lunch break, I must add), which should have provided an additional return. My routine has changed since last Sunday. With the extra daylight available, I have started spending more time with the kids in the evening as I did last summer, going out on the bikes, building stick houses in the woods, and generally chilling (Alan will be pleased!). The knock on effect though is that my time is being squeezed a little more than it was, and this week I have failed to adjust. I'm giving myself a hard time about it, and I'm working on changing my routine so that these problems are solved. In other words, MY performance has been substandard, and must be improved.

When things aren't going well, self-analysis is the place to start. Personally I see a failure of people to take responsibility for themselves and their actions as a failure of modern society. Too often now it seems to be a case of something going wrong and people automatically asking themselves who can they blame? This is why so many schools no longer run sports teams - little Jonny gets injured in a perfectly 'normal' sporting accident, parents sue the school. Disclaimers and a huge level of form-filling and other bureaucratic nonsense gets in the way of people actually doing things and achieving things. The paperwork is necessary so that those who do show a bit of initiative don't expose themselves to spurious legal action. And we see it in people who purport to take their gambling seriously but who don't set up sufficiently sized banks, who overstake, who jump on board the latest bandwagon without doing due diligence because 'claimed' results are excellent. And when things don't work out as they hoped, they immediately look for a scapegoat... It's not my fault. I didn't do anything wrong. It was all his fault, that guy who spends hours working on something that has a solid edge against the bookie and lets people benefit from his work for free. No, not him? Then it must be the other guy, you know, the one who has had a few losers recently. What's that you say? No, I don't care that he had four extremely profitable seasons before these couple of bad months. Telling you, it's all his fault and none of it is mine...

Look, I would never criticise anyone for dropping a service after a period of poor performance. I might think that personally speaking, I might have given it a bit longer, but I think most people stop following a service because they think it is the right thing to do. Fine. But you don't have to hurl personal abuse at the tipster whilst you do it. Just move on.



Rich of The Lonesome Punter blog wrote:

"These anonymous abusive comments need to be taken with a pinch of salt by the tipping/blogging community they are written by people unable to mentally cope with the odd loser and with banks staked badly, no doubt Mr Anonymous has blown his last £20 on a free bet seen it lose and then felt it necessary to vent his anger at the person who outlined the tip. It’s particularly rife on somewhere like Facebook where by a lot of blog links or tipping services can be seen and you see comment and comment criticising the writer with personal abuse. As you say it’s not on but these idiots won’t change unless they change their mindset, next week they’ll part with some of their wages, perhaps see a winner but continue to slate every loser that arrives."

Exactly.



Kodagira said:

"There isn't much we can do about problematic people, they're all around us. You just have to let them take a sniff, no reactions, and they'll be on their way to look for someone else to provoke."

He's right. These people shouldn't cause any consternation - they should be treated with the disdain their behaviour deserves.

As an explanation as to why I posted what I did last night, it was because I want this blog to be an accurate reflection of what it is like running a gambling portfolio. 95% of the time, posts revolve around the actual mechanics of gambling, ie. looking at what tasks are important, how to try to do them well, and generally what is involved when participating in this sort of enterprise. This is because 95% of the time, I think you need to be analytical and composed, thinking seriously about what you're doing. But every now and then something stirs the emotions. It's natural when doing something that let's face it, can at times be pretty pressured stuff. Certainly challenging. Occasionally I think it's good to show that emotion, particularly if it is over something you feel strongly about.


Finally, Mike at the SBC dropped in...

"I think its fair to say that if we demand high standards of professionalism from our tipsters, they should expect the same back from the rest of us."

Yep. What's that saying about treating others as you would wish them to treat you...?


Right, I'll leave this now. People must be thinking that my hobby horse needs to chuck me off it's back. The soap box needs to be stuck back under the bed to slowly gather dust until something else comes along that twangs at the nerves.



Today's Action

Not the start to April I'd hoped for. Six racing services in action, one found a winner and a profit. The others didn't.

The successful service was Northern Monkey, who like yesterday, identified one betting opportunity that paid dividends (Nadeen - Musselburgh - 11/2). Good tipping from a service that has run into a bit of form.

As for the others...PJA NH found a couple to place but five others that didn't, ProBandit played in two races without reward, Chasemaster had two horses in the one race and neither placed, On The Nose gave a couple which didn't produce, and Winning Racing Tips had one that didn't reach the frame either.

One of those days.

Northern Monkey: Staked 0.75pts, +2.578pts.
On The Nose: Staked 1.5pts, -1.5pts.
Winning Racing Tips: Staked 0.8pts, -0.8pts.
ProBandit: Staked 1.25pts, -1.25pts.
Chasemaster: Staked 1.25pts, -1.25pts.
PJA NH: Staked 5pts, -3.84pts.
Total financial loss on the racing of £228.36.


Friday 1st April: Staked £318, -£228.36.
Week to date: Staked £898, -£22.14.
Month to date: Staked 318, -£228.36, roi -71.81%.


Looking forward to tomorrow. The kids have got a friend's birthday party to attend so I'm off with a mate to Doncaster for the Lincoln. Should be good, but what state I'll be in to put up much of a post tomorrow, I just don't know.