grab some sack..a bettors opinion

[golfer]

Steve, that's a great analogy, except for one point; most of us who can completely relate to what Hooves is saying (ie.. betting "light" when we should be betting heavy)can do so because we are NOT getting the results at the end of the day (week, month..) that we believe we should be. Your analogy is about different ways to get into the Hall of Fame, but, and I'll speak entirely for myself, I need a way to get to the big leagues, first. My wagering approach is not working. The definition of insanity is continually doing the same thing, but expecting different results. I need to change my swing, and I find Hooves' approach to be very interesting. This is why I think this may be the most important thread I've read on DT!

[pmacdaddy]

Do most of you guys track all your wagers?

Personally, I usually keep a "tab" for Saratoga. Other than that I just have a general sense of how I'm doing, or at least how I think I'm doing....

Obviously, really keeping score can't hurt. Do you see it as escential to a productive strategy? What level of detail?

I have been thinking about really documenting my plays starting with BEL.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by pmacdaddy

Do most of you guys track all your wagers?

Personally, I usually keep a "tab" for Saratoga. Other than that I just have a general sense of how I'm doing, or at least how I think I'm doing....

Obviously, really keeping score can't hurt. Do you see it as escential to a productive strategy? What level of detail?

I have been thinking about really documenting my plays starting with BEL.

In my opinion if you aren't keeping track of how you are doing you aren't really serious about it. I use brisbet and Youbet and you can get summaries of your performance. I started putting the data in a spreadsheet each month.
I like to evaluate my performance on different wagers, tris, supers, pk3-4's, and I also found it extremely valuable to review performance at different tracks.

so yeah, in my opinion its important because it lets you know where your strengths and weaknesses are.

If you don't play often the data might not be very good as one or two big hits will skew things. But if you take the long view and look say at a whole year you should see trends.

[pmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

In my opinion if you aren't keeping track of how you are doing you aren't really serious about it. I use brisbet and Youbet and you can get summaries of your performance. I started putting the data in a spreadsheet each month.
I like to evaluate my performance on different wagers, tris, supers, pk3-4's, and I also found it extremely valuable to review performance at different tracks.

so yeah, in my opinion its important because it lets you know where your strengths and weaknesses are.

If you don't play often the data might not be very good as one or two big hits will skew things. But if you take the long view and look say at a whole year you should see trends.

Thanks. Think I am going to start my tracking by segregating two categories, pick4's and all other plays to start. Guess if my sheet has a few identifying columns, I can sort as needed once I get some data in there.

I will be playing NY tracks 95% of the time, so it souldn't be too tough.

Hopefully, it will keep me from throwing money around as well...

[brockguy]

Originally Posted by pmacdaddy

Thanks. Think I am going to start my tracking by segregating two categories, pick4's and all other plays to start. Guess if my sheet has a few identifying columns, I can sort as needed once I get some data in there.

I will be playing NY tracks 95% of the time, so it souldn't be too tough.

Hopefully, it will keep me from throwing money around as well...

I must add that I find when I record bets, I bet smarter. I think a bit more before I bet. you dont want to look back at bets and ask yourself, why oh why did i waste my money on that!

[whodey17]

I think I will chime in a bit, I read the thread so I apologize if I am saying something that has already been said and I just missed the post.

I am an exacta player. If we take the horse in Hooves example (5-1) and we call him the 5 horse and I am playing that horse on top in an exacta I want to make sure that each exacta combo with the 5 on top is paying at double my investment. See example below...

10 horse field and I love the 5 horse at 5-1. It would cost me $18 to key the 5 on top of 9 horses for a $2 exacta key. The minimum exacta combo I want is $36. That is double my investment. If you see a combo that is less than double, then you want to structure your ticket so that the minimum is double your ticket. Or you may want to play that certain combo more times to make up the difference.

And I agree with Hooves that one should unload using that horse in pick 3's, 4's, tri's...etc.etc.

Does this make any sense?