The Gambler

Saturday.

The "Wind up Lorna" campaign seems to be taking off bigtime. She is joined by "BRIAN" and James. Between the three of them they have failed to come up with an alternative "economic strategy". I suspect lack of "brain cells" may have something to with this lack of "alternative solutions". Public School may be very good, but if there is nothing to work with, there is little point in trying to educate it.

"Lorna" is a bit obsessed with my "hatred" of public schoolboys. Half my mates went to public school, and I like them as much as the ones who did not.

Interesting to read the front page of "The Guardian" today. "Government to nationalise failing private schools. The "credit crunch" has had some unexpected consequences. Middle class families removing their children from the "public school" system, letting them join their local comprehensive. Obviously causing problems for the public schools as they have less punters to charge. Cash flow problem. Probably terminal. Also causes problem for "state system" which is probably stretched enough already without the likes of Andrew "Bert" Black turning up at "Grange Hill" with his sprogs, claiming that a downturn in the world economy, a string of losing bets, and falling profits following the introduction of the "Betfair Premium Charge" have forced him to think the unthinkable. Darling "I may have to sell the horses, and cancel  "The Sunday Telegraph" ".

Well I was going to talk about yesterday, but it was so long ago, I cannot remember.

Today. Serena won 1st set 6-0. I did mean to tip her up a few weeks ago but I never got around to it. My boy Stenson seems to be going OK in Dubai. Shame I was too lazy to put a bet on. Karlsson may turn out to be the main challenger, but he is 4 shots behind at the moment.. These swedes are amazing when it comes to golf. They also quite often go off at value odds as they are not US or British, GET ON.

Not sure what to do with the rest of the day. Probably try and think of a few new ways to wind up Lorna and her cohorts. Eagerly anticipating their combined solutions to the worlds economic problems. Lets go and play in the woods with Davie, Gideon, Billy and "Uncle Ken". We can have some more magic mushrooms. That diet coke that gideon likes. Something will turn up, and don't forget the straws.

Bye for now. Comments as always appreciated.

Friday.

This morning went down town. Met few buddies and did some shopping.

Yesterday a bit of a blur. Probably the same as most days.

Got a bit of a result from my telephone company who are offering me 400 quid for taking my phone away finally.

Today's big news is "Wind Up Lorna". She has accused me of being "naive and childish". Moi?

She reckons "Cameron and Osborne" are capable of rescuing the Worlds Economy". Not quite sure how, but no doubt Lorna will explain in her own time, or not? I love these people who criticise Gordon Brown for example, but when you ask for an alternative solution, all you hear is a deathly silence. Come on Lorna. Let me have it, or is that fence you are sitting on, too difficult to get off. Can I ring your mummy and ask her to come and help you to get down, or do you just want to go home and cry on your own?

Another Day.

I will update later.

Busy....busy...busy.

Good to see that my previous post got a bit of political debate going on, as there is more to life than gambling.

More later. Comments as always welcome. :-).

Chasing the Dragon.

Watched a bit of Prime Ministers Question Time at lunchtime. Let me cut to the chase. I thought Cameron was pathetic.

For political reasons he seems to like to pretend that the current economic problems in this country are down to mismanagement by the Goverment. So he is just playing politics. So what. So what. The current economic problems in this country are part of a global recession. By pretending otherwise is failing to address the problem, and whatever solutions you come with, will make the problem worse rather than better.

We have a global recession. We need global solutions. Brown and the Uk recognise this. Obama and the US recognise this. The rest of the world recognise this. Cameron and his cronies prefer to play high school politics. Me and Georgy would be much better at ruining the country than you Gordy, wouldn't we georgy. Oh yes Davy, is it playtime yet, I''m getting bored. Can we go and play in the woods and pick some of those magic mushrooms like we had yesterday. This politics stuff gets boring after about ten minutes. Can we go out and play Davy, can we? Georgy and Davy skipped out into the sunshine with their new friends Billy and that nice old man Mister Clarke. Come on boys, I will buy you some sweeties, and then we can all go and play in the woods.

Meanwhile Mister Brown and the rest of the grown ups got on with running the country.

Wodins Day.

Good Morning.

Doctors. Business meeting. Lunch, Mrs G. Home early. Did a few jobs. Post. Beer. Jobs. Dinner. TV. Bed.

In the morning I finished my article for The Secret Betting Club. More details later.

Last night. United Spurs and Villa won. Would have been a nice little treble. In the Championship my local team Reading beat leaders Wolves 1-0. Good result. Hopefully Reading will be going up again this year.

Today no plans at the moment. Pretty miserable day weather-wise. May have a bath, and go for a short walk.

Jobs to do this afternoon. Good Football on tonight. West Ham v Hull City on TV, not the best choice. Hopefully Chelsea can get three points at home to 'Boro and Wigan can beat Liverpool.

Nadal just beat Simon 3-0. I would like Verdasco to win outright. I might have a bet but I doubt it.

Talking about betting I might also have a bet on Henrik Stenson with the bookies. 8/1 with Ladbrokes. A pretty pathetic 9.2 on BF. After commission you are better off backing with the bookies. The world turned upside down. If the bookies started a system where you could sell your bet back they might actually make a few quid.

Bye for now.

Tuesday.

Just a quick post. Yesterday busy morning. Dosed off for an hour at lunchtime. Posted a few letters followed by early evening beer. Spag Bog for tea.

Watched 24. Went to bed.

Up early this morning. Completed second part of my article. Cannot reprint at the moment as we have to decide how to publish it. Should keep me out of trouble. One day sooner or later, I am going to have to write it all down and get it all off my chest once and for all.

Today. Docs at 10.30am. Foggy and Frosty out there at the moment. Lunchtime beer a possibility, but not essential. This afternoon few jobs to do. Mrs G. in London today. Expected home today about 4 or 5pm. We will have to sit down and sort out a few things.

Nowt on TV tonight. Some football I believe. Portsmouth v Villa. Nothing to get too excited about, although a win for Villa might be interesting.

Over in the tennis, looks like The Joker retired hurt against Roddick. Apparently exhausted by the heat. The conditions in the Australian Open do seem to be getting more intense year by year, and something to keep an eye on if you are netting/trading in-running. Watch out for retirements especially in daytime games. Odds can switch dramatically if one player collapses into a heap of molten lava, and these sudden odds movements can seriously damage your health/wealth and happiness Keep it Green. Bye for now.

An article.

I've been asked to write an article about sports betting/trading in general mainly on Betfair, and my experiences in particular.

I thought the best way to get this rolling would be to write a post on some of the questions that have been raised and then go away and expand/edit as I see fit. Here goes.

We're looking for an article on betfair trading.

How you got into it?

I met a buddy in a pub in Clapham Junction. He had a friend who had just got into the newly opened Betting Exchanges. He persuaded me to have a go. when I got home I opened an account with Flutter and then proceeded to lose a few quid. I was hooked.

I was working as an IT Consultant at the time, so was just basically playing around at the evenings and at the weekends. Around Easter time I quit my contract as it was doing my head in. Working with morons can seriously damage your health. I decided to take the summer off on gardening leave. I still carried on playing on Flutter, but about this time probably opened an account with Betfair as well. I played across the two exchanges with some success. Probably losing on Betfair, but winning on Flutter.

At some point Betfair took over Flutter, and by that point I was probably using Betfair more than Flutter, as it was clear that Flutter was dying on it's feet.

At that point we moved to London. Once we had settled in. Sky TV and improved broadband service, I started playing more at Betfair. Later that year six Betfair users including myself had a meeting with Betfair. Andrew "Bert" Black, MIck Stone, Mark Davies. We briefly met Ed Wray and Davidd Yu, and were given a grand tour of BF Towers. Very interesting. In the pub afterwards I was chatting to one of the other users TT. When he told me how much he had been winning, I realised I had been messing around. I checked my P and L. I was 7K down from day one on BF. Over the next two months I turned this 7K loss into a 20K profit.

Next Year Mrs G did an MSc in Entrepreneurship, and started up her own business..I made enough money from Betfair to pay the bills and some. Happy Days.

How did you do?

Well about a year later we moved out to the sticks, and I carried on playing on Betfair, usually quite successfully with the occasional blip probably inspired by one too many lagers. I won every year and it all worked very well. 2008 started off well, and then one night I lost the plot. Rang BF. Shut my account as I have always thought if you are not making money on BF you are just wasting your time. As in one night I had probably cleared out two months profits, I thought it was probably time for a break. I was offered two options. A short break to calm down, or self-exclusion for six months. I chose the latter as I was not in a good mood. Six months later I rang BF and asked to re-open my account. I had to fill in various forms, confirm stuff in writing and wait for a reply, Eventually I was told "no". Whether this was because they had earmarked me as a problem gambler, or they just did not want my trade, I never really found out. I was not that bothered and have not really pursued the matter, until now. Having been asked to write this article I realise I want to stay in touch with what is happening on Betfair and the betting exchanges. I would like to re-open my BF account just to stay in touch.

I have no wish to go back to full-time sports trading. Having done it for 7 or 8 years ,I think I was close to burn-out. It was getting boring. I was fed up of staying up all night, sleeping all day, and watching sport till it came out of every orifice. I thought it might be nice to spend a bit more time with Mrs. G, other than she saying good morning and me saying good night.

As the year moved on I started to get into other things. 2009 has continued along similar lines. I am reducing my beer intake which is a good thing. This is one of the other unfortunate side effects of full time sports trading. When you are watching cricket at 3am in the morning, it is too easy to crack a beer, rather than make a cup of tea and a cheese sandwich. The 3am beer is probably followed by a 4 am beer, and by the time it is ready for bed, you have to use the lift rather than the stairs. Collipso colapso.

So life has moved on. It sounds like I will be working part-time for my wife's company from here on in, and I have a couple of other things I want to get into over the next couple of months. Excercise is also on the agenda. If the weather stays nice I may go for a stroll this afternoon.

So that brings us just about up to date. Without Betfair I can not be bothered having a bet. BETDAQ is Ok but it is mainly horse racing, and I am mainly into sports trading. So no BF no betting. Hardly the profile of a "problem gambler" but there you go. If BF don't want me I have other fish to fry, and no doubt at some point some other company will come along, steal a piece of their action, and that might suit my needs at some point in the future. For now though it's no betting, no trading, oh what a shame.

Bye for now. That is the end of the beginning. I will post later with the answers to a few of the other questions I have been asked to cover in my sports trading article.

 

Monday 26th January 2008.

Murray out of Australian Open. Verdasco won in 5 sets. I only watched the 5th set and Verdasco deserved to win it. Whether Murray was 100% fit, we shall find out later. Bet fortunes were won and lost on Betfair on this one. In a way I was glad not to be part of it.. Who needs that much excitement on Monday morning. I suspect I would have won a little or lost a small fortune. Oh well there will be another day for Murray. Disappointing nonetheless.

Cricket on at the moment. SA v OZ. SA doing it quite easily at the moment. Let us hope it gets a bit closer, and we have a bit more Monday morning entertainment.

Yesterday got up late. Brunch at lunchtime. Spent most of day watching sport, getting organised, and doing a few jobs. Lamb for tea, and then TV. Early night and up early this morning to watch a bit of sport. Beer free day yesterday which is good. So that's it for now. Will be back shortly. Bye for now. Have a good day. :-).

Sunday 25th January 2008.

Friday panned out pretty much as expected.

Saturday Murray beat Melzer fairly easy, and looks like he could win Austarlian Open. Just reading in "The Observer" that Murray has been feeling ill, so maybe hold your bets. He will have to beat Nadal on the semi-final as well, so he will have to be 100% fit.

At the moment watching a bit of rugby. All the FA Cup is on Setanta. How weird is that? I cancelled mine ages ago as I was sick of getting no pictures.

Rest of yesterday. went to lunch with some friends. Very pleasant. Came home for coffee. Caught some football results. United and Chelsea both won. Then we watch John Adams. I think I fell asleep before the end. We watch a bit more TV and then had an early night.

This morning I was very lazy not getting out of bed till lunchtime. Starting to do a few jobs. Watching a bit of rugby as I said, and just about to make some bacon sandwiches.

Rest of day looks like getting organised and doing some jobs. Not much sport on, and weather looks pretty miserable.

Had a couple of beers with lunch yesterday, but back on the waggon today. Catch you all later.

Blog of the day:- http://www.bertsblog.co.uk/

Another quick update.

Yesterday was a bit of waste of space. Did not wake up till lunchtime. My new beer free regime is playing havoc with my sleep regime. It will settle down after a couple more days.

My buddy turned up for a quick chat. Mrs G. was home reasonably early, so we had an early dinner. Vegetarian Moussaka for tea. Did a bit of planning. Then watched some Tv.

This morning. Feeling more lively. Have been watching a bit of sport. Tennis/Golf/Cricket. A good time of year for sports traders. Lots of sport on in the mornings from the Southern Hemisphere.

Time for a bit of lunch shortly. Bath followed by walk maybe depending on the weather.

Rugby on tonight. Dinner Turkey en croute. Then watch Trial and Retribution on TV, followed by early.

Tomorrow out for lunch with friends. Probably get up early to watch Murray play Melzer at 8.30am.

Not sure what we will do for Sunday, as weather looks pretty lousy. Looks like a day for staying in and doing jobs.

Have a good weekend. Bye for now.