Bets and Pieces

By its very nature professional gambling is a mysterious business.

Unsurprisingly, few gamblers are interested in revealing their secret to success. How are they different to the everyday punter and show a profit? Think back to the likes of modern-day pro gambler Patrick Veitch who was reputed to have won £10M in less than ten years. In fact, he had years where he won £2M+.

Something tells me he never bet on the outcome of a photo finish.

Year’s ago, I read Alex Bird’s book Life and Secrets of a Professional Punter published by Queen Anne Press in 1985.

This publication covered his years of gambling from 1946 – 1985.

Bird was a significant figure in the betting ring and very professional. His book details many stories of Grand National ante-post punts and even recounted being visited by the taxman to verify his income was truly from gambling. Bird showed his a ledger of every bet. It was accepted as fact.

However, there has always been one aspect of Alex Bird’s gambling success which just didn’t make any sense to me and made me question his ability to outwit the bookmakers. You may have questioned this ‘fact’ too.

It relates to his profitable strategy of betting on photo-finishes. As a gambler in this modern era, I’ve seem hundreds of photo-finishes on live streaming. The action stops with the horses on the line. It’s a photo-finish but who has won? Even when there is a still of the photo they are often impossible to judge. You only have to watch the betting on the exchanges to see a horse which is odds on to win is often beaten.

So how was it possible for Alex Bird to amazingly bet and win on the outcome of 500 photo finishes in a row?

Something just doesn’t ring true.

Bird must have had a bionic eye akin to the Six Million Dollar Man. Perhaps he was in fact the British version of Steve Austin, Six Million Pound Man. Bird was said to have stood at a certain angle to the finishing line, closed one eye, (said a prayer) and simply found the winner. By all accounts it was a never ending run of winners.

How or why bookmakers would be interesting in taking the bets from someone who simply never lost, I don’t know. I guess that bionic eye put them in some kind of hypnotic trance. Or he dazzled them with a highly polished spoon from Uri Geller’s draw.

Yes, it was a bent spoon.

Perhaps he spread the bets around so no one twigged that his bionic eye could spot the difference between a pixel or two even before pixels had been invented.

I like to think the best of people but how could someone pick the winner of 500 photo-finishes at a crowded racecourse? I doubt anyone would have an 80% strike rate looking at stills today given an hour or so to make a decision let alone at a racecourse with all its distractions.

Well, it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that some people have questioned his success by saying he was actually given the nod before the stewards’ announcement.

I have no idea whether this is true or not.

However, if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I imagine instead of Bird looking at the finishing line, he was more likely looking in a different direction altogether.

Alex Bird died in December 1991.

Gambling is hard work, stressful and psychological tough.

Although, to some extent that is our own making. It’s reason why you need to gamble in a considered manner to make the whole process manageable. One legendary gambler Archie Karas was said to have made $40 million from an original be of $50. It sounds incredible but that’s the story. In an interview on YouTube channel Soft White Underbelly by Mark Laita, Karas said it was like a war zone and he went full throttle to win money by playing pool, poker & blackjack from casinos in Las Vegas.

He said: ‘It was a stressful life and I wouldn’t advise it to anyone.’

Time would see that Karas losEall his money and left with an aneurysm on his brain and lungs damaged by passive smoking which happened back in the day.

It seems that many successful gamblers lose it all.

Gambling is by definition a stressful endeavour. However, your winning method needs to be incorporated an approach that’s more relaxed and beneficial to your mental health. Here are a few suggestions:

• Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose

• Make sure you enjoy what you are doing and how you work

• Don’t try to push too hard wanting to make big money fast

• With skill-base gambling build on the positives

• Never try to defy the stats it is a recipe for disaster

• Don’t make your life all about the gambling

• Exercise and go for a walk

• Listen to what your body and mind is telling you

The reason, you need to find that sweet spot working efficiently but relaxed. If you want to survive you need to get it right. If you get stressed you are unlikely to think at your best and that brings added problems.

You may say: ‘Well how do you bet in a relaxed manner?’

Betting less money may sound like a problem but it is the answer. True, you need to make enough money to cover the cost of living but you need to progress without pressure.

Gambling will always be a gamble but you need to take the stress and volatility out of the equation.

If you can’t do that, you will either lose all the way or win big and lose even bigger.

How much money is your health worth?

Karas said: ‘How much would people pay to live a day longer.’

‘Millions’

The best gamblers in the world are really investors with cutting-edge knowledge and within that approach they incorporate money as well as stress management.

I don’t have a tattoo.

Although I’m not against having one. In fact, getting an ‘everlasting job stopper’ has become even more popular in recent years.

Who doesn’t love a bit of ink?

If you are a gambler or want to take on the persona of a man who loves a bet you may want to get a tattoo or lots of them. I’ve heard they can become addictive. So once I get the bug (or the ink) I’ll probably cover last inch of my body. Head to toe. It’s ideal to cover up an ex girlfriend’s name and look a little more fashionable.

I wonder how much that will cost?

But which gambler tattoos are most popular?

1) Playing Cards: who doesn’t love the classic tattoo of tattoos the ace of spades on an arm, leg or inside of the lip. What about the king of hearts? Winning hand in poker (not two pair).

2) Dice: Snake eye. Yes, that’s two dice with the number one rather than a cobra around your neck. The classic casino dice tattoo. Craps. No, it’s a great idea.

3) Casino Chips: With many eye-catching designs you will look the man about town (Monte Carlo) with those £5K chips on your lower arms, shirt sleeves rolled up and fake Rolex watch setting the scene.

4) Slot Machines: Those three reels with the classic cherries or sevens. How can’t you feel like a winner?

5) Roulette Wheel: As long as your favourite number isn’t 37 you will be a high roller when it comes to choosing your number, black, red or green (if you are going from hero to zero).

6) Poker Symbols: The deck of cards, or full house. Stack of chips on the flop. You can even have a picture of Stu Ungar if you have a penchant for blue-lensed sunglasses.

7) Lucky Number 7: If you ever need a lucky number then it has to be 7. Three sixes just doesn’t do it for me but whatever sinks your ship. Did you know people associated with this number are said to insightful, intuitive, introspective, intellectual and wise. It’s my favourite number.

As a tattoo virgin I’ve been inspired to get some gambling ink. I would suggest you pay more than less for a gifted artist rather than looking at a dog’s dinner for the rest of your life.

I often ask this question: ‘Who inspired you to bet?’

I guess I should start with my own answer to this question. It was my Dad. He loved to have a bet at the weekend and went to the Eastern Festival at Great Yarmouth every September. It always coincided with our family holidays. We stayed at Caister-on-sea in a caravan. It was a lovely time where we all enjoyed ourselves.

Perhaps if Dad hadn’t enjoyed a bet we wouldn’t have been interested in horse racing or gambling. We may never have considered going to Great Yarmouth.

We are an interaction of nature and nurture.

I don’t regret my nurturing to be a gambler. I have freewill to bet or not. However, I am sure there are many people in life who regret being brought up in a gambling environment if they have become addicted to gambling or it damaged or destroyed their life.

Two of my cousins, who we go racing with and venture to the casino, were influenced by their Dad who enjoyed a bet and they had greyhounds which ran at the local track. I’m not sure if they would say gambling was a blessing or a curse. I’m pretty sure it is the former or the lesser of two evils.

My gambling has always been secondary to learning. By that I mean, I have always been interested in the pursuit of knowledge about my given niche of horse racing which is two-year-old thoroughbreds. At least with something skill-based there is reason why you can possibly win rather than fixed odds which, basically, mean the longer you play the more money you lose, such as the lottery, roulette, blackjack & slots.

To this day we still venture to the Eastern Festival at Great Yarmouth. It is a Merry Pilgrimage in memory of my late father.

For me, I was inspired by my Dad.

Who inspired you to bet and what impact did it have on your life?