I made one of my regular appearances on “Betting World with Neil Andrews” last week and Neil knowing how excited I get about Super Rugby asked me what my wife Trish thought about the upcoming rugby marathon. I jokingly replied that our discussions would probably be taking place through attorneys and while that is hopefully stretching it, the fact is that 125 games over 21 weekends is going to see me having to do some serious time management.

It is very easy as a punter to feel the need to bet on each and every game but I have learnt from experience that this scenario seldom has a happy ending. Firstly by betting you are putting yourself under a certain amount of pressure and it is fair to say that as much as I have loved the Super 14 I am often begging for it to end come the playoffs.

Secondly it is very difficult to beat the bookmakers in every match and it is far better to choose your games and your bets selectively. This is coming from someone who has tried on many occasions to bet on 5 consecutive Saturday matches and what tends to happen is you take a bad beat and then lose your composure as you try to chase your losses. By the time the final game has passed you have done your money, are dead tired and can think of doing little else but crying yourself to sleep.

At this point though your family is probably looking for some attention but rather than getting a relaxed fun loving Dad and husband you are grumpy and pretty much snap at anyone who remotely steps out of line. In short you become a pretty painful person to be around and those are Trish’s words and not mine.

My strategy in 2011 is to earmark 3-4 games each weekend where I really have a strong fancy and to try and stick to these, thus taking pressure off myself and freeing up my time. It is easy to say and will no doubt prove harder to do but I am determined to find the best possible punting/family balance.

Managing your time will have benefits both in terms of your bottom line and also your personal life but failure to do this could be disastrous on all fronts……can anyone suggest a good attorney?

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 17^th of February 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”.

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