Pick 3,4 ?'s

[wac]

I have come to the board b/c i am sure that there are a lot more people that are better at this then i am so answers are appreciated. My ?'s are:
1) Everytime i play an imaginary ticket with the a,b,c,x format if i win i find that i have spent at least 300-400 dollars and the payoffs on the ones ive gotten(not many) are "only" 1200-1900 which isn't bad but i usually play win/place with some exactas and maybe a tri here and there and the payoffs to my tickets only comes back at 4-1 to 6-1. It just seems like a lot of money to put out to only get back those kind of odds.
2) What is the deepest you will go in a race? this weekend one of the guys on tvg hit the "all" button and got a 3-1 winner. Does it make sense to ever hit the all button?
3)ARe there certain tracks that you like to play more then others for these bets? I look at the payoffs in the drf simulcast and am amazed that some of the payoffs for some tracks with similar winners are a good bit lower then others.
4) What is the budget you have for these bets? I bet maybe 10-20 a race and will go to 50 if its a race that i really like a horse so i guess my handle for a day would be 150-200 maybe more on big days like KD, Sfoster. Im live in lville so feel more comfortable betting at CD.

Any help would be appreciated b/c i really like the tourny feel of the bets and ive read the book by Christ but feel that i dont have the feel for it.Also im bored tonight and would like to get some information as TC season is about to start.