Part 4: Dealing with Losses and Tailing Bettors

How to Become a Winning Sports Bettor

Part 4: Dealing with Losses and Tailing Bettors

Dealing with Losses

Learning how to deal with losing is the single-most important factor in deciding whether you make money or lose money when betting sports. Staying focused on the next game (instead of the last game) and not worrying about a bad day (or even a bad week) is what separates 55% bettors without discipline who lose and 58% bettors with discipline who win every single year. Some gamblers who lose one big game hate losing so bad that it pisses them off, and they end up doubling down or betting 2 or 3 games without much time to study and cap the games like they should. Keeping your cool will save you more money than anything else you can do while betting; inversely, losing your head while betting will lose you a whole bunch of money in the long- or short-term. You have to stay driven, level-headed, and mechanical (think Kobe Bryant in the 4th quarter of a playoff game) before and after you place your bets. No matter if I am 2-8 over my last 10 or 8-2 over my last 10, I still place my bets the exact same way.

If you are having problems dealing with a particular loss, then shut your TV and laptop off and take a 5 minute walk outside. Quit worrying about that day and try to think of the big picture. Thinking of betting as a marathon instead of a quick sprint also tends to help beginners cope with losing on some level. Do not ever place another bet (unless you have done the research) until you calm down and have gotten that anger out of your system. If you are using sound bankroll management principles, then one loss (or even 10 losses) isn’t going to hurt you very badly anyways.

Tailing Others on Twitter

I have known a lot of people who sit back and tail certain bettors and never make plays for themselves. They often do not get the best number available and often only take their favorite bets from a handful of bettors. I often find that they are somewhat successful but eventually get tired of following and want to make their own picks; they often find they are not equipped to make their own picks since they never really learned the skill-sets that are needed to make money long-term.

My advice if you are going to tail people is: 1) pick 4-5 of your favorite bettors (who give their picks out on the cheap or for FREE) and log their bets for 4-6 months to make sure they are giving out legitimate plays on twitter 2) get to know them on twitter and have conversations with them (most free cappers on twitter love to converse with anyone who has interest in betting) 3) place every bet they place if you can get the number within a ½ point 4) Try to learn why they make the picks they do; never let them do all of the work for you. This is one of the best ways to learn a lot about sports betting while making money and not having to make any picks yourself.

Next – Part 5: Difficult Bets, Best of Numbers, and Key Numbers

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