No.10 - The Punting Continues

Hello betting I am back to continue where we left off, out of the betting darkness and back in the game. About 10 months a go I started a challenge to turn £50 into £1,500 to pay off my student overdraft with a little bit of luck and some kind tips along the way i got up to a respectable £130 and then foolishly stopped. For the last 8 months i have been in the betting wilderness the £130 has of course been spent and the overdraft is back at full capacity. But fear not Mr. Nationwide bank manager, this is not a bad thing. This is an opportunity to start again. I imagine most financial advisers would not recommend gambling your way out of debt, but it does feel very trendy and it could work.

So with this new lease of betting life we are up and running again. Blog posts will this time be a bit shorter and snappier, I will put them up on Friday with bets for the weekend and a summary of the weeks other flourishes. The line of hope will track the betting progress - it currently shows that I am consistently inconsistent!

I will also attempt to send out all bets that I place on twitter, but I can't guarantee this one as I still haven't really worked out why we have twitter in our lives.

So with all that said let's have a go with the first weekend of bets. I'll try and give some insight but sometimes you just really fancy a result and it needs no more explanation - therefore be wary of the ones with the shorter explanations they are the ones where the heart is talking.

Newcastle vs. Blackpool - Over 2.5 goals @ 1.70 Bet365
Why - All Blackpool games this season have featured over 2.5 goals. Newcastle have only had one game at home this season where they romped Villa 6-0 I can see them really attacking this game and going all out to take 3pts here. Blackpool also play open attacking football so i think we can expect goals here.

QPR at home to Boro @ 2.05 Bet365
Why - Boro have got off to a horrid start and I can't see them traveling well to London.

Cardiff at home to Hull @ 1.57 Bet365 -
Why - Cardiff are looking very strong this season, whilst Hull have struggled.

Acca @ 5.47 Bet365

Let me warn you though these are not tips, I would not want to position myself as a tipster, if you wish to wade into the murky gambling waters with me then please do so, I will hold your hand!

No.9 - Good Old Barry Benjani and Betting Links.

You may notice that the header is green this week, and I am starting the blog with the line of hope. Usually i reserve this disappointing feature till the end of the blog but things are looking up. I just need things to look up a bit more consistently, as a gloomy pattern seems to be emerging - if I carry on like this I will be on blog title No.684 - 'Still not past £130 but bought a new zimmer'. If this pattern is indeed a pattern by which i mean a regular manner of performance I could be in for a bleak weekend. But fear not surely there is a good punt out there that I could have another 64p on.

But why a good week this week. We'll my Saudi Arabian Premiership betting actually went well, I posted two teams last week that I thought were wrongly priced and the little beauties came in. £7 @ 4.60 = £32.20

In fact I have a new favorite Saudi Arabian player Mohammed AlSahlawi who plays upfront for Al Nasr, he chirped up with two goals in the game I picked out last week and then the winner in their next game away from home @5.50. When typing his name in google I found a lovely link to his facebook page so if you want to zombie poke Mr. AlSahlawi go ahead. Thank him from me for his goal scoring prowess.

I am not sure if this middle eastern gambling is something I could keep up, but whilst snow bums the living daylights out of England it provides an alternative means of betting.

I have found the best way to play these obscure leagues is to look for matches where you have a top three team taking on a team at the foot of the table. If they are playing away from home you can get really good value at about 2.00 for a match that is the equivalent to a Hull vs. Man Utd. If you fancy a go let us know your selections in the comments box at the bottom - to find the bets use bet365 rest of the world football and for league data http://uk.soccerway.com/.

I will have a look around and post any bets that i find.

My next bet of the week was £30 on Man City -1 goal @2.10 at home to Blackburn. This was one of those gut feeling full pot bets, so i put just £30 on because I haven't got the minerals for a full pot splooge. Scared of the full pot. Monsieur Tevez was on rampant form, and even Benjani looked half decent. I'm not sure if Mr. Robinho is a man of sincere reflection but i'd ask myself a few questions if Barry Benjani was starting before me. I'd then probably go out and buy a rolex, house or small country to get over it. But I would then sit in my Ferrari on Isle de Robinho probably checking the time again thinking wow this Man City thing didn't really work out that well. But take nothing away from Billy Benjani I thought he played really well and they won 4-1 and that was the important thing. I think away at Everton this weekend Man City could be a good bet to trade on @2.50 I might even have a Berty Benjani first goalscorer bet. Any one who puts Robinho on the bench has my backing.

I know that the season of goodwill is behind us, but kindness should not be seasonal. With that said i have pulled together all the good betting, blog and sports sites that I have found online and put them in one easy place for you to have a look at. I hope they help.

Bets for the weekend will be uploaded tomorrow. All the best for the weekend.

Steve Palmer - This is a brilliant betting diary in the Racing Post. Real man punting.

Cheeky Punt - Another great betting blog, using a point system for tips.

Bet365 - They have all the around the world markets, also good for watching horse racing you only have to bet £1 to be able to watch the race online.

Uk.Soccerway.com - This website has all the league and team data. They also have a head to head function for comparisons of team history and form for every game.

Sky Player TV - The best site of them all is Sky Player TV - finding this is like finding a tenner in a pair of jeans. It is a beautiful thing. Basically if you have SkyTV of know somebody who does ask them to lend you their Sky viewing card number and you are away. Free SkyTV on your laptop as i write this i'm casually streaming Barcelona vs. Sevilla in the background. Yeah in the background not even watching it, it's that casual.

Footytube.com - This site is cracking if you want to catch the highlights of pretty much any game. Little clips of all the goals you will ever need.

William Hill Radio - Great racing radio with the legend himself Lord Budden. I sometimes find myself listening not for the words but for the sound of his voice.

If you have any good links please send them in and we can add them to the list.

No.8- Snow stops play, but the punting continues

December is a month devoid of logic - that is all I can conclude from the last 4 weeks. My betting discipline and performance has been dragged through the mud recently with me at the end of the rope towing like a mug. I can’t even remember all the silly little punts from the last month all I do know is that I am most certainly down. Not down and out but down.

December is just so hard, the fiendish month of joy, celebration and goodwill means that you are so chilled out and happy that you don’t mind a naive speculative punt here and there. Tis after all the season of goodwill and bookies need to eat. As football teams cram in fixture after fixture, new players come in, team sheets change, and results contort from what one expected it becomes a very tough old month to work out. Even the Cornerman struggled so I was always going to be doomed.

A problem with going home for Christmas is the insatiable betting appetite of my friends - they do love a punt. From the top floor of our old school you can see Wetherby racecourse, I think this may have subconsciously tricked us all into thinking that we are racing gurus. We are not – or at least I am certainly not. It was pretty doom and gloom on the horses for everybody involved until one mate Luke, turned a near on 50 horse loosing streak into a handsome £1,500 with a lucky 15. Whilst another friend (we shall call him Martin as that is his name) somehow picked an obscure and ignored winner that romped home at 12-1, with the nous, conviction and cunning of a horse racing guru (note he didn’t go to our school).

But I did have a little bit of luck with thanks to ‘Lord Budden’ of William Hill Radio. He seems pretty consistent from what I have found, I am sure betting experts would argue otherwise but I have found him brilliant. Tipping up Wanchai Whisper and Athawab at Kempton on the 30th of December. I translated his posh musings as a forecast and had a cheeky £1 that paid £50. Even if you don’t like his tips and insights his voice is very nice as well. It's like being told how to bet by a king. But I will not make horse racing bets a habit, I think I may have said this several times. But new year new start and all that. Although Cheltenham is coming up and I have already put on an EW Ante Post lucky 15 that again was tipped up on William Hill Radio.

Alaivan – Triumph Hurdle

Diamond Harry - World Hurdle

Forpaddydeplasterer – Champion Chase

Starluck – Champion Hurdle

At over 12,000/1 I am not holding my breath in fact i intend on forgetting i put the bet on. But it provides a cheap interest for a fine competition that will no doubt lure me into more horse racing punting again in March. Ignore me when i do.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." Dean Martin said. You happy now Dean. Yes Dean, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is not delightful as living in a flat i face a few health and safety hurdles.

As we are all quite now aware it has been cold and snowy recently which has been causing havoc with life as we know it. There is a great article on London's dramatic reaction to snow on the Daily Mash - you can click on the link here to have a look. Whilst the UK bends over for a good snow seeing to it seems football fixtures across the country have been cancelled as a result. How do we bet now. I fancied Man Uinted at 3.1 to finally put Man City to the test but alas it was not to be.

But thankfully I have the answer. There is no snow in Saudi Arabia at the moment, in fact it is a quite pleasant 25 degrees in parts of Jeddah.

On Monday whilst seeing what betting delights Bet365 had to offer I found a new market in the shape of the Qatar Stars Cup. Bet365 really do love an obscure league, do not be surprised if you see yourself on their one weekend priced up to score anytime in your Sunday league fixture. But yes, I did have too much time on my hands that evening. Using a cracking website uk.soccerway.com I managed to find a good little bet on Al Garrafa SC (away) to beat Al Ahli @1.66. uk.soccerway.com provides easy to use stats, results and data on almost every football team and league in the world, it really is very good have a gander. I found out that in the reverse fixture in early December Al Garrafa SC won 0-4. Al Garrafa are also second in the Qatar stars league and you could back them @1.66 to win with bet365 which I thought seemed like good value. It was, as they romped home 0-5.

This one little win was enough for me to have another look at some obscure middle eastern football bets. I may have a found a cheeky little double for Wednesday afternoon.

I fancy Al Wahda Mecca to win away at Najran @2.10. AWM have won their last two away games, and are 4^th in the league. Whilst Najran are bottom of the table without a win in their last 6. @2.10 this looks like good value.

I will then double this up with Al Nasr Riyad @2.20 to beat Al Quadisiya. AQ have only won once in their last 11 games and that was against bottom of the league Najran. ANR beat top of the league in their last game so 2.20 again looks like a great value away bet.

These games kick off today so be quick if you want to get involved I think 75p could be enough to shift the market, so pile in and fill your boots. Actually don’t pile in, I know nothing about Saudi football but if the stats are right these do look like good little bets.

A bit of snow and this is what it has come to.

But what about that target of £1500 - the line of hope has taken a bit of a battering to be honest. Christmas was a bad out of character betting month, next year i will avoid it and go to Saudi Arabia for my holidays.

From now on, so you can quickly see the state of the weeks punting I will change the colour of the Speculative Punt title to show if it has been a good or bad

week. Green is good, Red is bad. Note that it is currently Red.

But 2010 is a New Year, new start, new mentality, new discipline, new middle eastern footballing leagues and new New Year resolution. There is nothing better than the unquestionable needs of a wanting child to make you make a change. I have therefore made 2010 the year of the marathon – my dedication to this quest has been galvanized by the downloading of a 16 week training scheme that now sits proudly on my wall. I'm utterly determined to complete this so warning now, you may be approached for a kind token of sponsorship in the near future. But for the now just keep your eye on that Saudi Premier league.

Happy New Year and Happy Punting.

I will put my bets for the weekend and updates during the week on Twitter, and in the bets box at the top of the page.

No.7 - You are never alone in a bookies

A friend bet me that I couldn’t get the words ‘vestibule’ and ‘horticultural’ into my blog this week. Well that is that bet taken care of.

This betting week was a week of mixed punting emotions. Like all betting weeks it seems. Last week I decided I was going to only wade into the betting waters with the expert’s -thems who know best. Well it turns out experts are not that easy to find, especially when everybody with a name loosely associated to a sport becomes an expert when a journalist gets in front of them.

It’s how you interpret the expert that seems to be the trick.

On Friday night I went to the Prize Fighter boxing which was live on Sky Sports. Unable to watch a sporting event without some kind of small monetary attachment I looked for some ‘expert’ guidance online. I ended up having £5 EW on David Barnes at 7.0 thanks to some good vibes on the Sky Sports website and the Cheeky Punt blog.

I was in fact very optimistic. This optimism was ratified when David Barnes came out to the song "Tonight’s going to be a good night" By the Black Eyed Peas. I thought this suggested David must have some good feelings about the up and coming evening. But my optimism fell a victim to some very false advertising and hype. ‘Tonight’s going to be an all right, take it or leave it, happy to show up night” would have been more apt.

Instead the impressive pocket sized power puncher Gavin Rees romped home, much to a very merry Mr. Calzaghe's delight. I thought about backing him at 2.5 after the first fight but thought it too short. There is no such thing as too short I’m sure Mr. Rees would have informed me.

I didn’t have a drink Friday night, as the stewards feared we would all get rowdy and bottle the boxers if we took our drinks ringside. I did inform them that I had no intention of bottling a man whose job it is to fight other men. And that even if I did for some crazed reason launch an out of character air strike I doubted a plastic bottle would do much harm or in fact actually reach the ring.

Mr. Steward was not one for negotiation or humour. But I must thank him as I woke up Saturday morning with no kebab on my chin, no sewer mouth, no regrets, no rash late night cash receipts and a general positive outlook on the day ahead. “Today was going to be a good day”.

I rang the Cornerman for his bet of the day. I was having one bet and that was it. Thankfully he came through with a handsome 5 pointer.

Bet: Arsenal vs. Stoke – Arsenal -2 corners on the handicap with WillHill @ 1.66 and Arsenal -3 @ 2.1.

The reasoning was that Stoke take some breaking down. So with Arsenal pushing we were hoping for some Gooner corner action and we got it.

Result: Arsenal 10 vs. Stoke 2

£30 @ 1.66 -2 Corners = £50

£10 @ 2.10 -3 Corners = £21

I left this bet to sit, I couldn’t trade on it so just let it be and went to meet a mate to get some drinks, watch some footy and eat. For these are the ingredients for the perfect Saturday. The other ingredient is having a bet but that box had been ticked.

The said mate was running late. There is only so much time you can spend pretending you are doing something important on your phone before people in pubs just assume you are sat on your own. There was no assuming needed - I was sat on my own.

So I headed to Williams house. If you are comfortable in a bookies you are never far from friends, blue pens and opportunity. I made a mate in an old bald man who when asked which horse he had backed just said “Number 7, I don’t know the horse, I just always back number 7” We didn’t feel we had to take our relationship any further than that but I could tell he enjoyed our little chat. Number 7 lost, and the next race was a 5 horse race so my mate left. I had a time passing £1 EW here and there but nothing worth writing home about.

The mate turned up and then 12 hours later I woke up in another friends house the other side of London. This was the feeling usually reserved for Saturday mornings. Sunday was a water logged pitch, broken floodlight non-event of a day.

So £20 up for the weekend was not that bad. But bad things were around the corner, Leeds playing at home to Kettering in the FA cup replay. This is my number one rule that I always break.

“The if you support that team you should just be happy that they win, therefore do not bet in anyway shape or form on the event.”

I ignored this and had

£9 double on Leeds -1 goal against Kettering and Millwall -1 goal against Staines Town @ 2.69.

If you watched the Leeds game you will know how unlucky I was, going 1-0 up early doors I thought it was nailed on. Leeds then assaulted the Kettering goal with shot after shot, missing all 6,000 attempts. Leeds won 5-1 in the end, which would have been fine, but they decided to cram all these goals into the last few minutes of extra time rendering my bet dead. Millwall did the deed winning 4-0.

Leeds I wish you all the best but our betting days together are over. Until the next time.

So a small £10 up for the week and 90.6666% to go. But I am getting there just need to crank up the discipline and dig out them experts. I’m getting good vibes for this weekend though it needs to be an all pot, nerve jangling weekend. But its OK because in the spirit of lyrical optimism from Will.i.am, Apd.de.ap, Taboo and Fergie of the aforementioned Black Eyed Peas. Ive got a feeling...

Bets for the weekend will be uploaded on here on Friday night or Saturday morning. In the 'Weekend Punt' box at the top of the page. You can also follow them on twitter.

If your having a bet this weekend or have a tip you can put it in the comments section and share the love.

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.

No.5 - Double Darren Disaster

I have sadly realised that I had more money when I was born than I do now as a fully employed human being. Because at least when I was born to the world I had nothing – now I have minus. My last few weeks punting have not helped, I had such a disastrous weekend the week before last that I booked in a little weekend off scrupulous punting and headed to Manchester for some fine dining (kebab) and social frolicking (Fallowfield).

As I type this I am sat in first class train dining on my way to Leeds. This is not behaviour of a man with little dinero. But the train was rammed reservations went out the window and Kings Cross became a melee of luggage, prams and nob heads. So I skulked into the restaurant, which apparently doesn’t cost you any extra, you just have to get some food. Well I maybe just about to become the first man to make a bread roll and a Stella last about two hours. I could buy the lamb chops as well but then I could also feed the population of the Isle of Wight for the princely sum.

So back to punting. My big bet the week before last was in the Chelsea Manchester United game. I backed United to get the most cards and Darren Fletcher to get booked anytime at 3/1. Now if you watched that game you will understand my disappointment.

Darren Fletcher was like a crazed Yorkshire terrier scurrying around and nipping at ankles and occasionally booting them for good measure. How he did not get booked I do not know, I have never wanted a man to get booked more in my life. My only logical confusion for his card less game is that he is in fact having an affair with Martin Atkinson. Yes you heard it hear first.

To rub salt in the wound (whatever that means but I think it fits here) the booking points was a draw, a simple yellow to Darren would have made everything OK and my bread roll that I have nearly finished could actually be accompanied with the appropriate bowl of soup.

Other Great British pounds were lost on over 2.5 goals in the Tottenham Sunderland game, where another Darren let me down missing a penalty.

Curse all you Darren’s I say, except Darren Anderton though as I always felt sorry for him with his injuries and large horse like head. In short I found myself chasing my tail punting to make up for punting. My pot took a bit of a hit; I am back down to £80. Or £30 up from the initial £50. Half full or half empty?

I have a confession though I did put some bets on xfactor before it started. Serious punters I apologise I realise this is selling out and shameful but its not like Sir Patrick Moore reading his star sign. I had a frugal squirrel balled £2 bet on John and Edward at 100/1. They are now trading at about 16’s and I am now their biggest fan – who dare say they can’t sing they are merely misheard.

But real world punting resumes this weekend I fancy an over 2.5 goals double in the Burnley vs. Aston Villa game and the Sunderland vs. Arsenal game you can get this at about 2.96 on bet365. I think I will go all out with this on Betfair and trade if I get a bit nervous.

The result of this will determine if I have a punt on Sunday in the Stoke game. It may also determine if I eat next week.

No.4 - Stoke and the Peruvian Primera Division

One of my lowest punting moments is a tale of risk, bravery and hunger. It is not so much a tale, but more a short story. A Mills and Boon not a Chaucer. I was 3 days away from my student loan coming through and had only 60 fine shiny silver British pence to my sorry name. I was by no means Dickensian poor the rats of industrial Manchester did not nibble on my street ravaged toes as I slept between a set of big red Biffas. No I had a roof over my head and stealth like sly access to flatmates food so I was not without a paddle.

But I was in a rather bad way. Pride prevented me from calling the cornerman, so I did what all wise, wanting, believers would do and headed to the nearest fruit machine. Now I realise this was not the most sensible thing to do but the thought of upgrading a packet of ramen noodles to maybe a microwave lasagne was a chalice worth punting for. The thought of losing the 60p only occurred to me afterwards. But those 3 spins were worth it. Imagine if I’d pulled it off.

That’s how I feel about this betting quest – I may not reach the top of the hill but I will definitely enjoy the walk.

The weekend just gone was a quiet punting affair as I was moving flats in London town and could not commit the time to do it properly as I was busy unpacking cables I did not know I even packed and hanging up clothes I know I will never wear. What a thankless task unpacking is. But I had one bet to brighten the day backing the Sensible Sturdy Stoke at home to the Wobbly Wavering Wolves. That was my only bet, placing £20 at evens. I nipped quickly into a nearby coffee shop with my laptop at 3.30pm to see how I was getting on. At 1-0 up I stuck with the order of blog no.3 ‘rules and discipline’ and laid the bet off. £15 if Stoke win even if anything else.

The woman behind the counter looked at me as if I had done a wee in her dishwasher, I didn’t have time to buy a drink I just wanted a little piece of internet. Its only wifi after all you can’t steal wifi especially if it’s floating around flaunting itself in front of you. I offered to give it back to her when I left, which I thought was funny at the time. She didn’t. If anybody accuses you of stealing their wifi just accuse them of allowing their wifi to trespass.

Jody Craddock ruined the Stoke punt for me somehow managing to wangle a draw for Wolves at the Britannia. Please though I don’t blame him he was just doing his job but it did inconvenience me somewhat. But I laid off so simply broke even. Stoke have been somewhat of a banker of late, and I think 2.62 away at Hull next weekend looks very good. But maybe I’m being blinded by Pulis vision, that Tony is on his way to joining my list of other great Tones. Along with Tony Dorigo, Tony Hart and Tony Adams. Due to artistic differences Tony Blair, Tony the Tiger, Tony and Guy, and Toni Braxton will not this year be shortlisted.

Stoke did really bail me out the week before last. I was playboy punting thinking I was Billy Big Time as I had won a few little pounds, the problem of a healthy punting pot is that it arms you with a false sense of confidence.

But fortunately I spied Stoke away at Tottenham trading at 8.4 on Betfair and put a speculative £5 on it. I wasn’t sure that they would win but I thought they would put up a good fight plus it was great value. Excitedly and luckily they popped up with the winner with 5 minutes to go. Happy lucky days. You see the good thing about a healthy punting pot is that it arms you with a false sense of confidence.

So after the last two weeks trading I was another £20 up. Which is not a lot, but I got very close to being down so I’m quite happy. I now have 91.3333333% to go.

But I am back doing it properly now, I am all moved in and have spent this evening wandering the streets of London to buy an aerial for my set top box so I have uninterrupted access to Midweek Champions league and Saturday Sir Stelling (I’m not sure if it is illegal to call someone a Sir when they are not – but he is very good).

Not only is it Champions league, FA Cup and Haye vs Valuev at the weekend. There are also some tasty fixtures in the Peruvian Primera Division on Wednesday. Oh yes.

I have been having a look at placing my first global obscure punt and I believe I have found a very nice little double at bet365. Chalaco FC at home to Allanza Atletico at 1.8 is a great bet – I think. Chalaco FC have slumped down the league with three away defeats in a row but they return to the Miguel Grau stadium this week where they have a good record. Home form seems to be a massive advantage in the Peru Primera Division, as Chalaco showed impressively beating 2^nd in the league Huancayo 5-1 when last at home. With league top scorer Richard Maria Estigarribia in fine form i think them Chalcao lads will take some beating as they look to change their luck.

I would double this with Huancayo at home to Coronel Bolognesi at 1.6. Huancayo beat the Italian warlords 7-0 in this fixture last year, the Bolognesi lads did manage a 2-0 win at home against Huancayo this year but I think the home advantage will be enough for Huancayo to win. To check out global football leagues and stats have a look at soccerway.com.

Wednesday 4th of November, Double:- Chalaco and Huancayo @ 2.88 with bet365

I quite like this Peruvian don’t know what your doing punting, it is all part of the debt slaying journey, more part of the journey than the debt slaying bit. But I’ve got that optimistic 60p feeling,I just hope I don’t go hungry this time.