I was bound to have a bad day… 11 straight days of profit… I couldn’t keep that up. This Thursday night was that bad day. In my $5 unit world, over those 11 straight days of profit, I was up over 5 units; after today’s action concluded, I had given 3 units back. Where did it all go wrong?
First thing… I have to accept the losses; it’s part of it. I can’t pick every game right. Still, I hate losing, and when it’s happening, I try to do something about it… something that I probably shouldn’t do… the chase. You see, it all started so simple. I had identified 4 games I wanted to play. I liked the Phillies, Rangers, Saints, and James Madison. If I had just played those 4 games, at 1 unit each, I lose 2 units, but noooo… I did play the first 3, all losses, and decided to go oppo my James Madison pick that I had thoroughly researched. You see, it was an ESPN game… and the line was skyrocketing… all the money was coming in on James Madison… I thought we’d see some funny business. So I took Marshall in game catching 6.5 pts. If they had scored late, that would have been a back door cover, but nope… that was the story of my evening. I ended up playing a couple prop plays; I won when Seager went deep, but lost when Kamara couldn’t get in the damn end zone. 3 straight runs from inside the 5 for God’s sake!!! Anyways, I came out a little ahead in that deal, but wait, there’s more. All those NHL games on the slate… I had no time to get through all of them, so I chose one with one of my favorite revenge angles… the angle that cost me earlier in the week when I took the Stars over the Golden Knights. Well, it cost me again; this time, it was the Jets that couldn’t beat the undefeated Golden Knights. Note to self: stop betting against Vegas…. haha. But hold on… one more thing. With the 11 day streak in the back of my head, I wanted to give it one more last gasp effort, and wouldn’t you know, my team was the last on the slate. Yes, the Blackhawks in Colorado; OK, cool. I’ll take the big underdog Hawks and Bedard to score a goal AND, and… in game Hawks after the 1st period at +900. If I could win all of those, I’d end up ahead for the 12th straight day. I went to sleep after the Lanche went up 3-0. You see, one lesson I still need to learn better… minimizing the damage!!!
I cost myself an extra unit (thankfully I wasn’t playing full units across the board) F’ing around with games I had no business messing around with; mistake #1. Mistakes #2 and #3 were chasing my losses AND betting with my heart; a nice combo platter that I’ve enjoyed many times over the years… haha. Look, I would have had to take the 1-3 day on the chin; fine. But I went ahead and made it worse by committing cardinal betting sins… I should know better, right? Well, that’s the discipline… I’m not perfect OK?
In this latest letter to myself, I want to talk through this… I want to put it out there, and review it out loud, so that maybe I can learn from it. Still up 2 units over the past 2 weeks. I do have a little work to do to make this the 5th straight week of profit, but October has still been one of my best months; I still have time to mess that up though… Yes, it’s like a CB getting beat one on one… you have to put that play behind you instantly, and get back to it. But maybe, I could have tackled that WR on the 5 yard line instead of letting him score a TD. Yes, I like analogies… Just like I was telling one of my kids in chess class; if you’re going to lose a piece no matter what, get something for it… minimize the damage! OK, got it. Thanks for reading my daily lesson. Now if only I can apply what I already know…
Leave a Reply