I won’t forget this past weekend in a hurry.

After losing some money backing the Springboks I made excellent profits in the Australia game. All seemed well then when my mates arrived to play poker and it was not long before I was at my bullying best building up a huge chip lead.

I noted the France New Zealand game was close to kick off and craved some more betting action. I opened up two websites to see what the quote was for New Zealand Shirt Numbers (sum total of All Black try scorers jersey numbers) and noted it was 18-21 on site 1.

A quick glance at site 2 and my eyes immediately locked on the same quote of 18-21.

Here is where my problems started. Site 1 is a bookmaker with whom I have a phone in account and site 2 is an online account. Feeling lazy I decided to go the online route and clicked on 21 following the process to buy at the quoted spread.

I needed New Zealand tries and it was clear early on I was going to get them. By half time I was already making a solid profit and when the final whistle sounded I had made 38 units multiplied by my stake which was R150.

The poker continued and I was pretty chirpy as I took yet another chunk of chips from my “bunny” Garth but at around 01h30 my mood changed completely. I refreshed the page of bookmaker 2 and was stunned to see my balance well below what it started at let alone what I thought it should have been.

My worst fears were confirmed as the bet was booked as a loss and I had gone high on France shirt numbers at 21 and not New Zealand. The French had not crossed the try line and my immediate reaction was that the bookie must have made a mistake.

On reflection though I recalled placing the bet in a  hurry without actually double checking the details and I had mistakenly assumed when I saw the same quote on site 2 that it was for the same market.

A big win had become a significant loss and with my mind now in turmoil my poker went on tilt as well and I got little sympathy from my mates as they feasted on my misery. Lesson learnt!

This article first appeared in the Citizen CitiGaming section on Thursday 03 December 2009

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Saturday morning at 07h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet.

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