"The Downswings of Property and Poker"

[hatthehole]

great read.

[taximan007]

Echo what others say, riveting stuff

[pleno1]

i think he peaked too early..

[Eso Kral]

i think he peaked too early..

lol if only u knew!!

[Eso Kral]

Thx all for feedback so far, its nice to hear as like others have said previously you never can tell when writing this stuff whether anyone is bothered or will read it.

The one thing that i have learnt over time is that "you should never regret the things you have done only the things you have not" and i am also a believer that all the things that happened to me good and bad have made me the person i am today!!

[Eso Kral]

COMING TO AMERICA

Late spring of 1995 a year after the world cup in America was when i set off for Southern California to hook up with 4 english guys who had set up a soccer coaching company over there and various soccer coaches or school teachers went out for various lengths of time to work the soccer camps staying with the families and then after the Saturday morning "coach the dads" session travelling to a beach or driving across state for a weekend in Vegas all crashing in 1 or 2 rooms.

I left Sarah who was now on the verge of a record deal and my sole objective was to save enough money so that when i came back i could buy a decent engagement ring as back in the uk i couldnt save a bean, so off i left a tearfull Sarah and my Dad for 6 months thinking it would be a nice break and may just sort out this gambling problem i had.

California was amazing as a 22year old, great weather loads of spare time and fun filled weekend oh and the girls digged the english accent but i wasnt there to have fun      It was nice not to think about where to get some cash or what section of the wheel was coming up next etc etc and on our alternate weekend visits to Vegas i didnt do to much damage it was more fun than anything and the hardest decision i had to make was in my final 2 weeks there was being offered the job at a college coaching the girls under 19 soccer team   tough life hey, alas i declined and came back to get engaged with some money in my pocket and a great tan whilst knowing i didnt want to be in fitness but in sales pref in the fitness industry so this would be my next goal..

[Eso Kral]

BACK IN THE UK
Well i got engaged, was still working at the Gym and was busy getting interviews with sports and fitness sales roles and life seemed to be rosy. Sarah was a great girl and if you heard her sing you just stopped and listened whilst turning heads wherever she went and her family loved me and were busy planning this big wedding as she was there little princess i suppose.

Whatever i tried i just could not get a sports company to give me a chance, getting to final interviews on my presentation and personality only to be told yeah your great but have no experience and all i could think was getting into a sales role so when a Brewery (i know hardly a fitness company) offered me the role of regional sales executive selling to the cash and carry businesses in the south of the country. I snap accepted and moved down to Gants Hill where my mum lived and drove up friday nights to spend back in the midlands before driving down first thing monday to start my week.

It was during these next 18months my problem resurfaced as i was on the road and was earning more money plus my credit had improved which meant credit card companies and the bank were happy to give me some play money!! Being in sales on the road once my calls for the day had been done the rest of the day was mine which for me meant leaving really early being at my first call by 8.30am finished all my calls by midday and thenback home sat in a bookies in or around Gants Hill punting away.

I must have dropped 20k in the first year in terms of loans c/cards salary and all this came at a time when i was trying to buy a flat down south in Hornchurch just by the station that was a reposession but fortunately managed to get it through pdq and Sarah moved in.
This meant i had to duck and dive a bit more as she was around and was getting wary of my mood swings and the mounting letters coming in daily.

I would have classed myself as a mug punter basically rocking up to a bookies and having 20-25 bets per day on whatever i fancied and the shops must have loved seeing me like most other punters in there, somedays i would change shops to spread the money around and it was on one of these occasions that i bumped into a character who was only betting dogs at Romford or Crayford and we got chatting. His phone rang every now and again and then up to the counter he went and occasionally he would say back trap 5 here or do 6 5 reversed and i started to win.

So Thursdays and Saturdays became a case of me meeting him and he told me he put bets on for a big punter who cant get on himself and i could follow his bets as long as he got on first ...

[Dubai]

Will know both the putter oner and big punter- pm names pls

[Eso Kral]

Anyone who has ever spent any time in a bookies will probably relate to this next bit as wherever they are the same characters are around
We had in our shop
PEN MAN - an interesting character who obviously didnt care much for the health of the horses as he always did reversed forecasts on the jumps and would stand by the television watching and if a horses was in front of his 2 or splitting them he would jab at the said animal with his parker pen praying for it to fall at the last and when it did obviously the pen had helped!!

THE SHOUTER - waits until the horse or dog he has selected is no more than 5yds from the winning line before shouting "Go on my son" or "Oi Oi call a copper"   you know the type

NEVER BACK A LOSER - probably bets 4 horses in the race and seems to have every winner and then proceeds to show you his winning slip, like i care when i had a £100 on the nag that came second!!

THE LEANER - this guy defies all the balance rules and you will find him directly infront of the telly if its a tight finish he starts to lean sideways until he is basically levitating like David Blaine

Im sure there are many more but these were the first ones that came to mind.

Anyway my dog man was coming up with the goods and on my visits back north i had got a contact at Perry Barr so we shared info and thoughts and landed some good touches and also had a few scams along the way more on the Romford ones later on but at Perry BArr we used to pay the Hare Driver £100 if we were going for a touch and when i say pay it meant we told him the dog we were gong with and he had a free £100 bet to control the speed of the Hare so that if we needed the dog to lead he made sure the hare was not too far infront  and vica versa, but we also had help from other trainers and if anyones ever been to Perry Barr they will know the 3rd bend is basically a car park corner so we would have a youth waiting with a carrier bag of rubbish and we would signal if our dog was not leading off the 2nd to throw it over so the race would be stopped and we got our monies back.
The problem was i just couldnt stop betting on anything else so was still losing overall and1 year later I had got bored of the farming type selling role and wanted to develop new business instead so had got a different job back in Birmingham and despite having some bad credit now was able to secure a non mainstream mortgage at a higher rate and we moved back up North... 

[Eso Kral]

Will know both the putter oner and big punter- pm names pls

pm sent

[EvilPie]

THE LEANER - this guy defies all the balance rules and you will find him directly infront of the telly if its a tight finish he starts to lean sideways until he is basically levitating like David Blaine
 

Simply amazing!!

Unfortunately the internet has denied today's gamblers the privelege of meeting some of these incredible characters.

Great read mate.

[Eso Kral]

THE LEANER - this guy defies all the balance rules and you will find him directly infront of the telly if its a tight finish he starts to lean sideways until he is basically levitating like David Blaine
 

Simply amazing!!

Unfortunately the internet has denied today's gamblers the privelege of meeting some of these incredible characters.

Great read mate.

thx m8

[Dubai]

Was brilliant post always on betfair forums about betting shop characters- am sure someone could dig it out for us

[Dubai]

http://www.smashiton.com/others/Betfair_Great_posts.htm

On right hand side- if someone could copy and paste the good ones

[boldie]

THE BIRD MAN

walks in bookies with best picks sorted in mind , talks to locals , and reads RP , changes all his picks , does his dough and three of his original picks romp home , says to all who will listen i don't believe my luck today , does ex the same next time in..