Back after a bankroll induced break

[JBmadera]

Hi All - back from (another) bankroll disaster. Things were going so well, esp when Tour came out. I have my first 5 figure score (a tri at hollywood park, unbelievable), and I still managed to go bust.

I get mad at myself as I should know this, been working in the business intelligence software space for years, it's not how much data one has, rather it's how one understands and acts on the data that is key.

Basically between, Tour, KMS, Robot and Maxvel models I ended up with too many plays, too many large p3's, p4's and tri's.

Anyway looking forward to developing a methodology for distilling down data and tying that to a % of bankroll wagering format.

[mandol7]

Been there done that more than once.
fall 7 times; rise 8; life begins from now.
Good Luck!

[km]

My rule of thumb to avoid meltdown after a score of $2000 or more =

Spend half the money on impulsive merchandise purchases immediately.

The temptation to leverage the score is overwheliming and often results in losing the whole thing back - and this cycle repeats as you have found out. This happened to me over and over as well. But I discovered the joy of spending at Costco and Best Buy with half my winnings and have lots of neat stuff to show for horse racing success including my bed, laptops. big screen, etc.

[JBmadera]

thanks guys. Certainly peeling off a few "bens" for the wife would have gone a long way to solving my problem.....:)

I love HTR and as long as I have betting capital I'm in!

[njcurveball]

Welcome back JB!

Experience is the best teacher. We get "addicted" to winning races after a score and start spreading to feed that addiction.

Many of us can tell stories about a huge score with a small bankroll. My brother and I once turned $20 in quarters (from quarters under the rug) into $2,000 at Batavia on the way home from the Bowling Nationals.

You have no regrets when you lose that small money. You have clarity and you make "big score" decisions. My record for a Superfecta is something like $292 for 80 cents. No reason not to put in longshots when you play pocket change.

After the big score, Ken is right. Some of the money has to be spent. That takes away the "lose it all back" fear. And you have to temper your "Uncle Moneybags" mentality of winning every race.

Dance with "what brung ya". That was my advice to Spike in another thread. No reason to add more factors (even pretty new ones) when you are winning. Combining too many factors just spoils profit.

50 race segments are my suggestion from experience. If anything is profitable you need to have confidence to test it over 50 races. If it is losing, many will give up or over bet the early choices and not be around for the long haul.

Bankroll / 50 is a good starting place for any spot play system. Exotics may require even less than 2% of bankroll depending on their win percentage.

welcome back!
Jim

[SPIKE]

I agree with KM. I allways rewarded myself with a Monday shopping trip. It got to the point where I didnt win to win, it was to go SHOPPIN.

[ClockerQ]

After my last big score, I bought in on a 2 yr old in training. :) After blowing winnings time and time again when I was a kid, I decided decades ago to take a portion of my winnings and buy something tangible. I just scored a nice amount of cash through another source, and I'm going out and getting myself a new set of golf clubs. Reward yourself when you win. You deserve it.

[JBmadera]

Thanks Jim, guys! did the horse ownership thing for a time, now THAT darn nearly drove me into complete financial ruin...:), but wow we did love having the horses. Going to implement Jim's plan and give it a go.

I just counted up my signers for this year (36), need to keep them hidden from the wife or all heck would break loose. Pre HTR I might have 4-5 signers in a good year. I think the pressure of having so many $$$ in the ADW acct messed with my head. I need to be strict about withdrawing funds and spending a portion of the winnings like ya'll recommend.

thanks again to everyone for their suggestions/support!

gl today

[classhandicapper]

It's amazing how people are wired so differently.

One of my biggest problems is that if I'm going well, I so can't stand the thought of giving some of it back and risking losing I get ultra conservative. I find the feeling of winning so rewarding, I don't want it to end. On the flip side, if I'm losing, I so hate that feeling, I work twice as hard and get really aggressive trying to get back the losses and the good feelings again.

I'm sure I cost myself a lot of money by being afraid to lose at exactly the point that my confidence is high, I'm seeing clearly, getting good results etc...

[tomcat]

Each time I hit a signer, I take it home, spend it on something, give some to my wife.
Then start over. If I have too much money, I get careless.

With a small amount of capital it is interesting how conservative and careful you are with
each wager.