Paulie’s Gambling Education Guide, pt. 1: Habits of a Profitable Bettor

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Set A Bankroll

• Determining a set amount as a bankroll is a great first step into gambling with the intention of profit. There are many ways you can define a bankroll:

  • A “total” bankroll number

  • 1 bankroll for each sport you bet (what a large number of professional gamblers do)

  • A monthly or weekly bankroll which is a set amount a person will bet for that timeframe (what is easiest for a lot of beginning bettors).

Build A Bankroll Slowly

• Most gamblers will tell you of a few times where they have gone on massive bad luck streaks that really hurt their bankroll. In order to sustain the inevitable swings, we need to play within our means. One of the biggest faults I see with novice bettors is betting too much on a single game. Building your bankroll slow and steady may not be sexy at first but can be very profitable in the long run.

• Example:

  • Let’s look at John who has a total bankroll of $1,000 to bet on golf.

  • His average bet size 1/100th of his bankroll. On a normal week, he may have $200-$300 spread out amongst various bets.

  • By following the bets and information from me (@golfmanpaulie) he experiences a similar ROI of around 12% with a fairly consistent return.

  • If he averages that 12% each week for the whole year, his golf bankroll has grown from $1,000 to over $2,500 after just one year.

Have Access To Multiple Books

• Having access to more than one book is paramount to success. Having multiple books allows you to shop around a bit for the best line. You will often see slight differences in lines as books are trying to balance the exact money that is being bet at that book.

• In a realm where the edges are very slim, gaining an extra half point or less juice is a great bonus to our bottom line.

Surround Yourself With Knowledge

• Knowledge is king. Being able to rely on information from certain sources is key as there are only a fixed number of hours in the day.

• A great example of this is following the beat reporters in NBA as they often have the best knowledge when it comes to injuries, rotations and other miscellaneous items that can potentially give us great value.

Define And Follow Your Process

• If you are taking gambling seriously, you need to determine a fixed process on how you will place bets. You shouldn’t be just randomly making bets.

• Example:

  • A bettor spends 4 hours every Friday digging in and researching all things NFL so he can make his wagers. The process at first can be as simple as this but will grow more in-depth as you grow as a bettor.

  • This bettor then follows his bankroll strategy accordingly.

• Go through the same process each and every time you are thinking about betting a certain sport. Repeating this process every time allows you to grow as a bettor and analyze where you can improve.

Unbiased Thoughts

• As a bettor you need to throw any opinions or feelings on teams out the window.

• You need to objectively determine if there is value in a certain game. Far too often I see people make an over abundance of wagers on their favorite teams.

Don’t Chase/Tilt

• One of the other biggest flaws in the typical gambler’s process is chasing games or tilt-betting large amounts to try and win back losses.

  • Sure that might work once, but in the end this will cause massive hits to your bankroll.

  • Sometimes the best thing you can do is to just step back and take the rest of the night or the next day off in order to not tilt and sit back and reflect on what happened.

Don’t Bet Just To Bet

• I see so many people who just decide to bet because a game is on TV and they need to have some action. This can be a huge pitfall to your bankroll.

Track Your Results

• As a professional gambler, I do extremely detailed tracking of results.

  • The exact detail varies by sport and how much expertise you have in a given field. This topic will be one of the main points of focus of Part II, which will be released next week.

Refine Your Process

• You need to be looking at your results and seeing if adjustments need to be made to the way you make bets or the amount of your bets. More info on this topic will be covered in Part II next week.

Next Week’s Topic: How to Track Your Results and Refine Your Process to Maximize Profits