So how did you do in 2008? Winner/Loser?
 

Did this last year and surprised at the honesty.

For me, I lost over the year, but, since I was able to get an illegal "legal" betting site doing much better. In fact, I've done down right well the last three months.

For the year though, definatelt lost money.

Spyder from SC...I mean Ohio...oh shiat their going to find out...

Horses- loser, bigtime...but learned BIGTIME
Poker- winner..both in cash games and tournaments
Sports- winner, although not as much as I'd like, could never make a living doing so
Eagles- remains to be seen, but have as good a chance as any NFC team to get there.

stressed out to the tee? you betcha

Hope others did just as well, if not better!

Announcing horses: up for 2008, not as much as in 07 though
Betting horses: down for 2008, not as bad as 07 though
Love of horse racing: At an alltime high in 2008 and will be higher in 2009

Sports Gambling: Started hot, finishing on fumes (off season can't get here fast enough)
Horses: Down, could be worse but i set a pretty high standard in 2007 that was darn near impossible to sustain this year.

** what i learned: not betting a race is not a bad thing, horizontal wagers are where the money is.

have a happy and safe new year everyone

-bt-

Never really got going after '08 Tampa, and with some new ventures in ownership, my allotted horsey money was really scaled back quite a bit... Decent Toga, but overall a disappointing 2008 wager-wise.

Learned it truly is a game of involvement and it difficult to go back to tracks that you haven't followed due to (ADW issues) and replicate success....

Excited for '09... It's easy to dwell on the negatives (of which there are many) but the ADW resolution in FL and CA, steroid consistency among the major circuits, and the fact that the industry on many fronts is at least starting to get it (ie. BC's reversal to fund stakes). Take the positives we have gleaned from the economic downturn, LISTEN to the voices of reason that have been there before (Wish John Nerud was President! :) ) an move our game forward...It is an exciting time to be apart of this, and hope 2009 brings growth and success to our game

Horse Ownership - DOWN

Horse Betting - DOWN

Sports Betting - small up

Up. Not enough to buy a new car, but did OK. I mainly bet tri's and do spot wagers on bombers. Highlight of the year, hitting the super in the derby. Did most of my best at Evangeline with horses coming from the Fairgrounds. Looking forward to that coming up.

horses -$813. big losses on derby day and particularly bc drove this. i'm positive 363 days exclusive of the losses on my 2 biggest betting days of the year.

I am a modest bettor, however I never bet maidens of any kind pk3 pk4 pk6
(except the imaginary contests) any 2yr old race or any about distance race
like FG has a lot of,and I can say exactas I manage a small loss however win bets was a small gain, but believe it or not place bets off my twin spires acct management report was the best roi. I was shocked.

Please don't take offense, SD, but....I didn't get most of this....first off, Where do you bet P4/P6's without maiden racesincluded?Are you saying you never bet horizontally unless it is DD without maidens?
How do you eliminate any "about distance races" when virtually all turf courses move the rail (thus affecting distance slightly)after 7-10 racing days? How about when they are taken off and moderately adjusted for the distance? If you bet what you post, (and I am in no way insinuating you don't) you are far from a modest bettor.I agree that Place bets are probably the most successful way to go over the long haul for sure. Thanks for the insight - it's pretty cool to be able to track this and provide data that most of us don't bother with. I learned alot this year doing some of the same. Have a great New Year and look forward to your selections in '09

Late entry for post of the year. 363 days profit and 2 big losing days :tro: :tro:

HNY Elvis, if you read it again i do not bet multi-race bets except on the contests steve puts up for fun. Also I don't believe you have ever seen me post a multi- race bet for real money on this site, as well as 2yr old races, and maiden races, if i ever do it was a huge mistake and i was asleep at the keyboard. so i can pass these races,and as far as the turf races i agreed that the rail can change distance slightly however i still use the times for the standard distances and pass about dis, races, to be honest i'm not a big fan of turf races, and i had a small loss on exactas, i posted wrong will change it.

also i forgot Elvis i don't think you'll find any post where iv'e made a DD bet
if i did i was asleep, hope you are doing well and llove your new avatar

I made a few hundred this year which is good for me. I usually lose 500 to 1000. Maybe that bodes well for the new year. I played exactas almost exclusively. Next year I will continue to do the same, but I do intend to play a few more difficult bets like tris, supers, high fives, etc. on big days like Breeders Cup, KD, etc.

I lost .80 today playing .10 super quick picks

glad you won and sounds like you have a handle on your bets. i usually bet $2 exactas costing 8-16 dollars
and 10-20 wp bets however i pass all the races i mentioned so usually it's 4-6 races per racetrack. i think that is modest betting.

how about that, i seen a dime payoff somewhere that was over 7 grand this year,can't remember which track but you never know.

hey Elvis i just notice you are from florida, i.m in miami till friday got stuck here no load out till then however weather is great down here better than last week when i was home for Xmas

Just got back home from the 2200 mile trek visiting the relatives in VA and WV...I don't know how you guys do it.. :) Glad to be home... If you ever get to Tampa, PM Me or Bigs...get ya hooked up TBD style!

10-4 sounds good , my wife is from huntington wv and i bought my first home in st pete off of 4th st north in 1979. about 3 miles from gandy blvd and derby lane. i went to TBD when george owned it and haven't been back since, guess it's change alot. they still have that big flea mkt down the street from there?

Twin Spires is great in being able to isolate bets and find where your strongest and weakest. The only two tracks I showed a profit at were Santa Anita and Tampa. Lost at all others. These are the numbers post-Saratoga when I opened the account:

All Bets %wins ROI $won/lost
309 19.42% +0.02 +32.50

Pick 3
19 21.05% +1.97 +481.00

W/P
87 28.74 -0.09 -40.70

exacta
86 12.79 -0.32 -202.70

win
62 17.74 -0.35 -98.90

What is interesting is I play exacta's a lot but is about my worst bet. I really thought I did well playing W/P and 28%+ is good but still lost money, but did better than playing just win bets by far. So, it looks like if I take the time to put wagers together, I'd be a lot better off playing pick 3's. It's a bit skewed as I hit one big one but still this information is telling me that's where I do the best.

i agree it helps keep you focus on what your best bets are. i have to place my win and place bets separate or they will show up as win/place on same ticket category the first few months on TS i made this mistake. you got a handle on your wagering and that is the area that will make or break any bettor , good luck to you this year.

This is the first year I KNOW I've made money. I didn't keep as good of track up until this year, but generally figured I'd lost based on my day-to-day.

This year was the best year I've ever had and credit most of it to being more involved at Arlington Park so I was seeing every race, every day, and going much further in depth handicapping races than I ever had before because I had to actually write about them for other people.

That helped immeasurably, and led to two really big pick-4 scores in July and on Million Day. Managed to cash at Keeneland as well, and found out that I'm much better off just spending my money on horizontal bets and getting knocked out than trying to play more races within them. I'd rather make two big bets per day if I like the sequence than make a bunch of smaller ones, and finally got the balls to go in heavier on horses straight in the win pool that I really like.

And then I got murdered to the tune of, well, a ****-ton of money on BC weekend at Santa Anita. I blame the Grey Goose, which is in effect essentially blaming Bob and Barney. And Raven's Pass.

:tro: Degen award :wf

LOL
those two are dangerous!

If the Eagles get past the Vikes this weekend, I love them against the NYG's in the second round...

I had a very up and down year...I'll preface this by saying, one of my New Year's gambling resolutions going into 2008, on the advice of my man Pete in Minnestoa, was to make some plays at lower level tracks.

I was terrible in the early part of 2008, warmed up on Belmont Day, had a mediocre summer, made some decent coin on the last two weeks of Saratoga...but I have been on fire in the fall/winter, I had a great HOL meet, and the last few weeks, in my tribute to Pete, I have dabbled and made coin at PENN NATIONAL!

Hadn't had a chance to go through everything and total it up, but thanks to the 2 big days at Saratoga, and a few other substancial P3/P4's here and there, it was a very good year..

It was fun following you those two days which I remember well!

unfortunately, I'm on the negative end (actually worst year I've ever had). Handicapping slump for about first 1/2 the year (worst run of bad capping I've ever had), then was handicapping well, but chose to play the wrong races or tried for a bit lower $$ ticket and threw out the price that came in..... good year to learn from, so it doesn't happen again.

Although I was positive for both Nov and Dec, so hopefully have a streak going.

2005: :$: (My best year ever).
2006: :D (Not as good as '05, but still + for the year).
2007: :confused: (Came out down a little bit).
2008: :mad: (My worst year ever....deep in the negative).

So the bottom line is.....over the last four years, I'm getting progressively worse each year.
Come to think of it, '05 was the last year without this website....so basically.....I blame all of you for my declining fortunes.

Right, this equipment change has not been good for you.

Time to geld?

That would mean this year should look like this:
2009: :zz:

Horse Ownership - Way way down. Many checks going out, very few coming in.

Horse Betting - UP

Sports Betting - I gave up on this when I found out I could make money horsey betting and had a viciously down year in the late '80's.

Horse ownership..... leads the pack out of the three, part of first winner
Horse wagering..... nowheres near as good in 2007
Sports Betting..... started out very slow, late charge.... late in the season

if you put general sports betting in, was a ton better than just the horses alone, as was positive there (not as much as some other years, but still positive... March Madness was good to me).

Up for the year due to decent tournament performance.