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 I usually tap this column out with some serious enthusiasm but this week the fingers are moving a bit slower than usual. The reason quite simply was my worst weekend of sports betting ever and it is fair to say that when people talk of the brilliant Masters victory of Charl Schwartzel in future years, a shiver will go down my spine as I recall how it all went wrong in the second week of April 2011.
To backtrack a bit I was a bundle of excitement and nerves ahead of the US Masters and my first bets had gone down as early as a month before tee off. I literally lay awake at night thinking of the various permutations I would take and I would gradually doze off picturing a Mickelson v Watney playoff for the Green Jacket.
Sadly neither of those two (or any of my other) golf selections came to the party but by that stage I was frankly a beaten man in any case, thanks to a combination of bad luck, bad calls and greed in week 8 of Super Rugby.
I found myself down after the first two matches having gone for high scoring games and on the balance of play I considered myself unlucky. I left the next couple of games and fired in on my Best Bet which was the Stormers against the Reds. I maximized my exposure by going high on Stormers points and made my first genuine mistake by increasing my stake to try and recoup my early losses.
The previously unbeaten team could only muster 6 points in 80 minutes and by now I was staring down the barrel and any thoughts of a disciplined and controlled approach went out the window. My final flurry was a similar bet on the Lions points and when they went 3-0 ahead after 4 minutes I figured I might just get out of it (trouble). 76 minutes later the final whistle went without them adding another point and I was left to wrestle my demons.
I had fallen into the trap of panicking and trying to make my losses back through increasing my stakes, a move that was to backfire and teach me a lesson I will not soon forget.
It is time to step off the gas for a while and take stock but rest assured I will be back!
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 14th of April 2011.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.
You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za
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