Lack of discipline is the biggest factor for a losing sport bettor…

I started handicapping horse racing and sporting events when I was about 12 years old..In fact I was sent home from my 8th grade english class for having a racing form tucked inside my english text book…This came about as a result of a very close relationship to an Uncle who was a professional gambler, and a very successful one at that. He made millions in his lifetime just betting on horses and sporting events…

The relationship actually came about one Sunday afternoon when I was just 11 years old…it was a family picnic at one of the local Cleveland state parks…My dad had 11 brothers and sisters and being of a good catholic upbringing, they all had many children..I have no idea how many cousins I have…

For the most part, my family was very conservative blue collar types, with one exception…If you looked at the parking lot of the picnic area you saw all black and gray and dark green Plymouth and Chevy coupes…About half way through the day, I noticed a car entering our picnic parking area, and wow what a car…A fire engine red Cadillac convertible with a gorgeous sexy looking blonde in the passenger seat and my Uncle Ralph in his pink shirt and white blazer, white shoes a fedora hat and a cigar in his hand…

Looking around the picnic grounds at the very common dress of the rest of the family, I immediately made up my mind that he was my favorite Uncle and that I want to be like him…As it turns out, he being the blacksheep in the older generation of the family, and me already being recognized as the blacksheep in the younger group, we hit if off famously.

He started taking me to the race track with him on Saturday afternoons and days when I didn’t have school…He started teaching me how to read a racing form and how to analyze the stats of the football and baseball matchups. He designed a statistical / probability chart while serving some time in prison for getting into a brawl while in the Navy with a bunch of Marines..although there were many involved on both sides, my Uncle was singled out as one who through a chair that hit and killed one of the marines…He spent 5 years for involuntary manslaughter which was unjust seeing as it was a brawl with many people involved…While serving his time he asked his mother to get him some books to read, as it turns out she went to a Goodwill type of store where they were selling used books for pennies…She took a whole shelf of books, put them in a box and sent it off…As it turns out, these were a complete set of text books on mathematical statistics relating to the laws of probability…

He studied these books for 4 years and with the use of the daily paper that the prisoners were allowed each day, he started applying what he was learning by designing a statistical record keeping system for horses, baseball and football games…When he was released, he took his mustering out money which amounted to just over $2000.00 and he started hitting the racetrack using his newly found betting system. To make a long story short, he became a very wealthy man and his box of notepads with his betting formulas were locked away forever…until he was diagnosed with cancer and he turned over the entire system to me. ……

Discpline the Key…No matter how good a handicapper you are, you will never be a winner without Good Discipline..that was his most famous saying to me. He drummed it into my head day after day…I saw evidence that he practiced what he preached as he would sit at the racetrack, not only through a one day race card, but sometimes 2 or 3 days and never make a bet….”Everything has to be 100% right” he used to say…”I am not in this for the fun…it’s all about making money…” And so I was inbred with the most important aspect to being a winning handicapper…

Good discipline means not chasing bad money with good money, in other words take your losing days and move forward in a sensible and intelligent manner…Don’t start doubling up your bets to get even or finding an excuse to make a bet because you need to be in action…There is an ole horseplayer saying..”Geez, I hope I break even today because I really need the money”.

Set your sights on making money, not being in action. Don’t be making bets on a game because it is your favorite team, or because it is on TV, or because you neighbor’s sister’s son has a friend who has a brother who is the waterboy on a particular team…You laugh, maybe that is an extreme example, but I have over the 40 years of handicapping heard some stories that are not far removed from this type of rationale to make a bet. My Uncle was also quite a poker player and one of his famous sayings was “If you never pass up or throw away a winner, you will never be one”..There are times you have to throw away those pocket aces…

In lieu of sounding braggardly or egotistical, I have had great success in my career and would put myself against anyone when it comes to making money betting sports. Picking winners is just a small part of being a winner, good money management and discipline are the final determining factors…

There will be a lot more coming in future blogs…

This is taken in part from a soon to be published book called “Turtles Can’t Dance”

www.tonydiamondsports.com