No.6 - Usain or Paula Punting?

Like a punting Rocky Balboa I am back in the game, I have dusted myself off from a previously bad betting weekend - stared lady luck in the face and given her a big fat snog. She kissed back.

With a good weekends punting behind me I have that dangerous confident feeling that I can pull this off. Losing is not good for enthusiasm; it really is a lot easier to sing when you’re winning. Hence the particular upbeat vibe to this post.

The reason I have started winning again is because I have stopped betting, I have merely started following. In a moment of rational reflection I decided that the reason the betting industry exists and thrives is because every punter thinks that they are an expert. When only a tiny percent of people actually make money from gambling, so it is folly for me to strut in and think I know something more than the bog standard Billy big time down the bookies.

From now on I am going to be a follower of the well advised. I have decided to let my intuition go for the main and go with those with stats, insight and more stats. I need to follow people who scribe their visions into ‘Red and Black’ Golden notebooks and not people who scribble them on shopping receipts and bear mats. Tis folly to not make the use of such tried and tested resources.

The problem with following good tipsters though is that you have to back every call, you can’t just pick and choose you have to make a commitment. So for the next few weeks, I will up my stakes and stick to the Cornerman’s musings. I will then pad this out with some off the cuff intuition stuff. Quick call Dr. Dre I think I just made a rhyme.

The corner handicaps for the weekend games come out on a Friday. So I will from now on write my bets up on a Friday night for the weekend. Then review the woe or glory on the Wednesday or Tuesday after. Those who know me know the chances of me consistently doing this are quite slim – to put it in horse racing terms about as likely as a 3 legged donkey winning a respectable race with 4 legged competitors. But I will have a good go at sticking to the plan. I am now using twitter as well so if you want a quick update you can follow the Speculative Punt on there. I will not be a 3-legged donkey.

So what happened this weekend just gone? I got on the blower to the Cornerman who gave me two bets he fancied. These were…

1. Blackburn vs Stoke – Blackburn -1 Corners on the handicap with WillHill @1.85

Result – Blackburn 9 v. Stoke 2 (won 8-2 convincing) £10 @ 1.85 = £18.50

2. Man City vs Hull – Man City -3 Corners on the handicap with WillHill @ 1.66

Result – Man City 8 v. Hull 2 (won 5-2 convincing) £10 @ 1.66 = £ 16.67

3. £5 Double – On the two results with WillHill @ 3.08 = £15.4

So armed with swagger and the confidence of an ever slightly growing pot. I tip toed into the Tuesday night football with a little bit of blind ooh look at me I won £25 on Saturday betting. I had a treble on Man Utd vs. Tottenham, Carlisle vs. Hartlepool and Bristol Rovers vs. Exeter.

£5 @ 6.29 = £36.45

This was not completely blind punting although when asked to name a single player for Carlisle, Hartlepool, Bristol Rovers or Exeter I did struggle quite a lot in fact I failed, David erm. Paul ah. Daniel aye. Grant aye don’t have a clue. But I do have my principles, home team advantage is always a big help in accumulators I find, I don’t like putting away teams in my accas. Don’t get too greedy, a treble is a good amount that extra 1.2 Arsenal at home will catch you out. I do have other principles as well, like….No I do, I just can’t think of them right this second.

So all in all things are looking good I am back up to £130 with 91.334% left to go.

This approach though is definitely that of a marathon and not a sprint, I want to have the balls of a Usain Bolt punter but seem to have the gonads of a good old Paula Radcliffe punter. A fine woman that she is, its just this approach is going to take me 3 hours to get there and not 9 seconds. I think my Bank manager would have liked me to have been there already – but he can wait. Keep the faith Clive at the bank we will get there.

Meanwhile if anybody has any good tips, insights, ideas on any punting markets anywhere in the world. Do get in touch, share the love and post them at the bottom in the comments section.

I will be back on Friday with the next weekends speculations.

Cheers, Paula.