Community spirit.

You know, after last night's post, I've received a few emails and comments asking if I'm ok. Well folks, I'm fine, but I do very much appreciate the support. It makes me feel we're kind of a community in here, and I have to profess it was with that in mind that I wrote the post.

I know that many others follow the same tipsters as I do. My portfolio is essentially made up of very popular services. Thinking logically therefore, I'd have thought a fair few readers have been experiencing this latest losing run for themselves. With this in mind, I wanted to write an open and honest post on what thoughts I've been having, ultimately in the hope that it might strike a chord with some and be something that can be related to. I'm also aware that this blog is a strong advocate of patience and perspective when it comes to gambling, but that it is sometimes very hard to cling on to those beliefs - I've no allusions to grandeur here, but it's a bit like Christ in the desert being goaded and tempted by the devil to fall off his moral perch.

But chaps. We shall stay strong! As a once great leader said, "If you're going through hell, keep going". He also said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts". Admittedly, I'm stopping short of fighting on the beaches, landing grounds, fields, streets or hills. Can't be doing with any of that malarkey.

Anyway, you take my point. I didn't want the post to give the impression that suddenly, we were in the midst of a crisis of a hole out of which it is going to be impossible to clamber. I know that my portfolio has sound foundations and that I run it properly. But, I also think that the day you become complacent is the day you start upon an inevitable decline that as time goes on, becomes harder and harder to reverse, and this short (hopefully), sharp (definitely) shock will serve to ensure that complacency doesn't begin to take hold. With that being the case, I fully anticipate that I will emerge from this slump a wiser and better gambler, and that with just a couple of very minor tweaks, the portfolio too will benefit.

It's a tricky game, "investment" gambling. I do wonder if you ever get it fully licked, no matter how experienced you become. I have a feeling that if you ever get to the point where you think that you do indeed have it mastered, it's very likely to rear around like a rabid cobra on speed and bite you on the arse before you have time to even blink.


Now, I did mention yesterday that I was cutting a service free. That service is Service X, a cracking little football tipster who specialises in the South and Central American markets. I've done nothing but make good money since starting with them in the summer, but increasingly so, I have found getting anywhere near advised prices an impossible task. My strategy of watching markets for prices to rebound paid off for a while, but it is noticeable that they are failing to rebound on an increasingly regular basis now. I would also suggest that the tipster's account with Pinnacle and SBO is now very much marked, as the initial prices disappear faster than that rabid, hyped up snake I was talking about can sink it's fangs into some poor soul's backside.

It's a shame, a real shame, and if I was gambling for a living and could ensure I could react to emails as soon as they were sent, I'd be on it like a flash. But I'm not, and I can't. The irony, eh? The only dedicated football service to at least break even this month so far...and I'm ditching it.

Yesterday's Betting

A bit better. Two football bets, one from The Football Analyst Euro System E3-E7 and one from Sportyy, and both won! At decent odds! Well I never did.

A good winner from On The Nose too (Arkose - Kempton - 11/2) and another in what has been a fine start to this season's tipping from The Value Bettor (Loose Chip - Kempton - 5/1).