Adam Saint – Gambling Man!

I’ve spent the last couple of hours looking through tonight’s card at Belle Vue which gets underway at 7.20 this evening. It is a 14 race card and all races will be ran over 470m with the exception of race 6 which will be 590. Here are my picks:

19.20: Trap 1 – Veryhardwork
19.35: Trap 6 – Kersal Harry
19.50: Trap 2 – Slaneyside Fizz
20.05: Trap 3 – Rathgar Princess
20.35: Trap 5 – Ronnoco Rory
21.05: Trap 2 – Imogens Hope
22.20: Trap 2 – Tober Beauty

The following have been picked on recent form, and the traps that they will begin in appear to be the dog’s preffered start. All bets have been placed at SP via Blue Square. If I had to put money on one of the above, it would be Imogens Hope. He has hit form as of late (21222) and usually performs well out of traps 1 & 2.

Tonight’s racing comes from Kempton and Hamilton. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to study the cards properly as I’ve been at work today, and nobody had a newspaper! So I’ve decided to take some tips from Kop66 on the daily punt. If it all goes well I have him to thank. All each-way bets by the way. Okay here goes:

Hamilton. Going: Good to firm.

6.40 – Finsbury @ 4/1
7.40 – Nightjar @ 15/2
8.10 – Lochiel @ 12/1

Kempton. Going: Standard.

6.50 – One Hit Wonder @ 12/1
8.50 – Gilded Age @ 4/1

So there are the picks and some decent prices there! Again thanks to Kop66. I will probably have a dabble at the greyhound racing tomorrow night, and I will have a look at the cards if it kills me!

I’ll give a run down of my bets from yesterday later in the post. Before that though I want to talk about a betting record I found on expertbettingadvice.co.uk. It’s a very simple one to use, and really for people who don’t want anything too advanced.

The first sheet has two parts. Firstly, it has a general summary of your bets. A “total stakes” box and a “total wins” box. That’s pretty much self explanatory, enter the amount of bets you have placed, and the amount of wins you have got from your bets. This will then automatically work out your strike rate in %. The second part of the first sheet is for level stakes. Just enter you total investment, then your total amount you have made (or lost). It will then calculate your total profit or loss in £. It will also give you a profit or loss percentage on your total investment.

There is then a second sheet. This is just a simple log of all of your bets. You just fill in the details of your bet, like odds, stake, selection etc. then it will do the rest. It’s a great little spreadsheet and the whole thing can be adapted to different sports with ease. I think I will probably start using it myself. The file itself is only about 100kb when unzipped, here’s the link – http://www.expertbettingadvice.co.uk/spreadsheets/basicbettingrecord.zip

Right earlier I said I’d give you the run down of the selections I made yesterday, so lets get down to it. Here is the Serie A picks:

AC Milan @ 7/4 To Win – Win
Juventus @ 4/11 To Win – Win
Reggina @ 6/5 To Win – Loss
Udinese @ 4/5 To Win – Win

Reggina could unfortunately only manage a draw which prevented me from getting a clean sweep. For me the most satisfying bet was AC Milan at 7/4, it’s not often you get odds on them like that so I made the most of it! I then had five bets in the Spanish La Liga:

Espanyol @ 4/5 To Win – Win
Sevilla @ 10/11 To Win – Win
Real Madrid @ 16/5 To Win – Loss
Racing Santander @ 21/10 To Win – Loss
Real Betis @ 5/6 To Win – Loss

Not as much success here! Really with the Real Madrid bet I took it as the odds looked appealing. They took the lead in the game and I thought I was on to a winner, I guess it wasn’t to be. Racing and Betis could only manage draws, which unfortunately saw Betis relegated. Overall I ended in profit which is the main thing. I’m quite happy with the wins I got, just a shame that 3 of the 4 losses where because of draws. Oh well that’s football!

It’s been a fairly steady weekend as the title suggests. Not much football to have a go on, although managed to stick a few quid on the Italian Serie A and La Liga games. The bets will be at the bottom of this post.

I’ve just backed two horses at Bath today. I’ve gone with Tricky Trev at 13/2 each way. He had a decent run back in January at Wolverhampton. Insiders seem to be expecting a big run from him today. Also ran well over 6f last time was Misaro. I’ve decided to go with a single at 11/4, he may well prove to be hard to catch if he takes the lead early on.

Now back to the football, for Serie A i’ve gone with the following:

AC Milan @ 7/4 To Win
Juventus @ 4/11 To Win
Reggina @ 6/5 To Win
Udinese @ 4/5 To Win

And for La Liga:

Espanyol @ 4/5 To Win
Sevilla @ 10/11 To Win
Real Madrid @ 16/5 To Win
Racing Santander @ 21/10 To Win
Real Betis @ 5/6 To Win

Wish me luck and good luck to everyone out there!

Well this is the first time I’ve had  a blog before. I’m Adam Saint and basically I’m going to use this blog as a diary, for myself and others, keeping track of my progress in betting. It’s very much a work in progress at the moment, but I hope in the coming weeks and months I can turn this into something worth reading! I will also try and get some links up here of places on the net that are good for punters, and put up some tips and resources for the masses out there!

Before I begin, I’m under no illusion of what I’m doing. I’m very much a realist, and realise that for 99% of gamblers you’re not going to be able to make a full time living out of it. You see people all the time who have had dreams of taking the bookies to the cleaners on a daily basis and making their fortune. In reality, it dosen’t work like that. I use betting as one of lifes pleasures, an escape from the stresses of life. But with bookies profits increasing every year, someone is getting their arse kicked, and its us, the betting public.

So please, if you’re going to bet, keep your feet firmly on the ground and don’t get carried away with it! Remember when you’re winning its a great feeling, but if you’re losing it can be painful.