The subject of money management is often not a welcome one to people who bet on horse racing, but it may be the single most important factor in your success. Good money management will get you through times of bad handicapping better than good handicapping will get you through times of poor money management. It is not one of the essentials to success, it is the essential factor.
Though it is important, how you distribute your bankroll over your wagers doesn't have to be complicated. As long as you keep the first rule in mind, which is that you must protect your bankroll. Without it, obviously, you're out of business. So minimizing losses and capitalizing on wins seems to be the order of the day, but just how do you go about doing that?
Progressive betting schemes are based on two very different criteria. In the first progressive scheme, wager amounts are increased as you lose. The phrase, "The law of averages," is often bandied about as if such a law actually existed. Betting more just because you lost your last bet is a recipe for disaster. On the other hand, betting in increments of your total bankroll, sometimes called, "Kelly Betting," does make some sense.
For instance, you start with a bankroll of $1,000 that you divide into ten days which you figure will get you through the longest, meanest losing streak possible. Your daily allowance is $100 and have 10 possible bets (this, of course, will depend on the odds at post time). Therefore, your betting units are $10 per wager. That is 1% of your total bankroll.
Let's say you are very fortunate and hit a nice winner on the first bet and now have a total of $180. You have 9 possible bets left. You divide 9 into $180 and find that your betting unit is now $20. For the rest of the day, unless your bankroll is increased, you will wager no more than $20 on any one race. This keeps it simple and you work on a day to day basis.
Another variation, of course is to add the winning amount to your entire bankroll. You had $1,000 to start with and had allocated $100 of it as your daily bank. That gives you ten days of play. After hitting that big winner, however, you now have a total for the day of $180, but your entire bankroll is $1,080. If you wish to increase your bets, but in a more conservative fashion, then you may still take one tenth of your entire bankroll as your daily allowance.
That means that you actually have $108 for the day. You can divide that over the remaining 9 possible wagers. Admittedly, it is a modest increase, but on the other hand, it will increase any future wins. The most you will possibly lose for the day is $100, but now you have a greater chance of profiting off any more wins.
Regressive betting would work in the opposite fashion. Let's say that you originally set your wager limits or units to $10. Lady Luck doesn't smile on you and you wind up with $80 after two wagers. At this point you may decide to go with a regressive scheme and reduce your wagers. One method is to add the $80 to your total bankroll of $900 and you wind up with $980. Dividing that into wagers based on a percentage of your entire bankroll would look like this...
$980 / 1% = 9.80. That would mean your base bet is now $9.80, but since you can't make a bet for that amount you may round it down to $9. That is a slight decrease but if you keep working like this it means that in theory, you will never go broke, though you will reach a point where you no longer have enough to make a minimum bet.
My personal favorite is the daily scheme and I like progressively increasing bets up until my last two wagers of the day. Yes, you will go home broke on occasions, but you'll also have some very good days. Just remember, betting on horse races is gambling and therefore, very risky. You could lose everything that you start with. It happens quite often. Therefore, never risk money that you cannot afford to lose.
No comments:
Post a Comment