Diary of a professional punter

[redarmi]

Thats a great tale Red. Did you ever tell your partners that you closed the account?

Quite a few years later.  Funnily enough one of the tales Rex tells in that online autobiography is about how one day he forgot to place a bet we had for a couple of hundred quid at 25-1 and when it won he stood it himself and just never told us.  Got to admire that kind of integrity given he was just an ordinary fella and even the biggest firms try and wiggle out of laying bets for more than a couple of hundred quid these days.

[T_Mar]

Re ideas for diary... would be interested to hear you talking though pricing up an event and consequently how you find your bets (or decide against them) based on the prices you come up with.. i know you given snippets throughout the diary, but for someone like me who is 'price aware' but generally instinctively say "thats overpriced" or "thats too short" without actually doing the maths and knowing how i came to that thought, it would be interesting to see

love the diary btw, keep stories coming

[Karabiner]

I'm sure there was a discussion on here about a disappearing bet a few weeks back but I can't remember who the bookie was.

Funnily enough (well it would have been funny had it been a loser) the same thing happened to me today with Stan James who may have been the bookie that was previously mentioned in a similar context.

I wanted to back a horse in the 4.40 at Southwell today about which they quoted the best price 5/1.

I couldn't remember how much I had in there but when I logged in I found £50 and placed £25ew @ 5/1 which I was delighted to get on as the best price elsewhere was 9/2 which I grabbed to complete my bet. I was happy.

Probably my fault that I never went back to double check that the bet was on which I usually do but I was pretty much gobsmacked when I went back into Stan James after racing to discover my original £50 in the account and no trace of my bet. Not only that but when I spoke to customer-service they said that was even no record of an attempted bet.

Bermudatriangleaments.

[Horneris]

I'm sure there was a discussion on here about a disappearing bet a few weeks back but I can't remember who the bookie was.

I believe it was Rick Trigg a.k.a. Actionman

I believe the company was William Hill, it was an each way (possibly £25EW) bet on Knockara Beau @ odds of 22/1.

I remember so well because it made for enjoyable reading.

[Laxie]

I'm sure there was a discussion on here about a disappearing bet a few weeks back but I can't remember who the bookie was.

I believe it was Rick Trigg a.k.a. Actionman

I believe the company was William Hill, it was an each way (possibly £25EW) bet on Knockara Beau @ odds of 22/1.

I remember so well because it made for enjoyable reading.

He's right.  Only reason I remember it is because I had the same horse on a wee e/w bet, but mine was actually placed.

[redarmi]

Actually occurred to me the other day what it may have been with Hills.  If you are on a moniroted account they refer them to a trader who then normally comes back with an offer which is time and you have like 25 seconds to accept the offer so if that has happened and you haven't accepted it then that might explain it as most firms just give you whatever they are offering although you have to reconfirm then.  I find them quite a strange firm.  My standard offer is £20 e/w or £20 win but today after restricting me on like 6 consecutive bets they then gave me £100 e/w on a 10/1 shot that they were top priced about.  Also had a few first goalscorer bets with them and some they give me to take out £100 and then others I can back to win a monkey.  Very bizarre!!!

[Chompy]

You see the ride Shane Kelly gave Dark Ranger tonight redarmi?

[Girgy85]

You see the ride Shane Kelly gave Dark Ranger tonight redarmi?

what happened?

[tikay]

Good morning.

A week or two ago you wrote......

Been thinking for a while about ways in which I could keep the diary interesting but without it becoming just a constant stream of tips or thoughts on current sporting events and happenings. 

You also mentioned that you have come across a few characters during your gaming journey, & you named, amongst them, Tony Bloom. I'd quite like to learn more about Tony. Keith (Camel) of course will know him very well, & may have even had a little punt on Brighton last season.

I just know him vaguely, firstly from poker, where we shared a few tables back in the day, & later, in a rather more peculiar way. I was in Stockholm in around 2005 for some poker event, & I was collected from the airport by one Martin de Knijff, who was quite a big name in poker in those days. Martin did a job on me (which failed) trying to persuade me to invest in a betting syndicate, which ran for 3 month periods, & bet on football. The entry cost was, I think, £30,000 per quarter.  I declined, but in the interim, he explained quite a bit about how it worked, & that his partner was Tony Bloom. Both of them had Chelsea Season Tickets back then, Corporate jobbies, but I guess they moved on to Brighton later.

So, any Tony Bloom news & stories would be most warmly received. Incidentally, as a poker player, it was my view that he was quite exceptional. The spotty kids, minds & senses numbed from 12 hours every day in their back bedroom staring at a PC, will of course, diss him, as they do everyone unless they are a "hero", but his "cashes to Tourneys played" record must have been as good as anyone.   

TIA.

[Josedinho]

Just wanted to post this somewhere because it annoyed me....
This morning I was on the internet when I say BBC understands Grayson is to become Huddersfield manager. I think I had seen the day before that skybet had tweeted that they had stopped taking bets on the market due to the money coming for grayson. I checked oddschecker and he was available to back at 2/5 with BetVictor.

I had £25 in my account so decided it was worth the risk and put it on Grayson.
6 hours later he is named manager.
Just checked my VC account and the bet was voided.
In their rules for manager markets all bets placed on the day an announcement is made are void.

I couldn't believe they voided it over £10! I didn't exactly have inside info the story was on the BBC website. If they didn't want anymore bets on it they can take the market down. Anyone reckon it's justified and I'm just annoyed at their pettyness? I thought if you're willing to offer a price then day and time you place a bet shouldn't really matter.

[action man]

they are a joke firm full stop

[adnmdv]

tbh it doesn't sound like a completely unreasonable rule, protecting them to some degree from those with inside info + not requiring them to be totally monitoring for announcements. If it isn't made clear on the market page it probably should be, but apart from that, it seems a fair enough rule imo.

[Josedinho]

It isn't mentioned on the market page. Suppose I understand partially but a clause saying any bets placed after the official announcement are void would be sufficient. Regarding inside info I'd say it's pretty rare that a manager and club don't know the day before that the following day there will be an appointment so not sure it protects from inside info.
I got a call from somebody working at a football club saying that she knew X was going to be the next manager as she was the person responsible for telling the players and he didn't get appointed for another 3 days.

Anyway I believe if you grumble when they are bad you need to be fair when they are good. When I spoke to them I said it was unfair, time and date of bet shouldn't matter if you have the market up, it was petty to void it over £10 etc. Customers services said they would pass the comment on to traders, I said pass it on to management, it's them that would be concerned if the lost customers because of things like this.
Got an email this morning saying that the bet would be settled as a winner and have also been given a £25 free bet.

[The Camel]

Good morning.

A week or two ago you wrote......

Been thinking for a while about ways in which I could keep the diary interesting but without it becoming just a constant stream of tips or thoughts on current sporting events and happenings. 

You also mentioned that you have come across a few characters during your gaming journey, & you named, amongst them, Tony Bloom. I'd quite like to learn more about Tony. Keith (Camel) of course will know him very well, & may have even had a little punt on Brighton last season.

I just know him vaguely, firstly from poker, where we shared a few tables back in the day, & later, in a rather more peculiar way. I was in Stockholm in around 2005 for some poker event, & I was collected from the airport by one Martin de Knijff, who was quite a big name in poker in those days. Martin did a job on me (which failed) trying to persuade me to invest in a betting syndicate, which ran for 3 month periods, & bet on football. The entry cost was, I think, £30,000 per quarter.  I declined, but in the interim, he explained quite a bit about how it worked, & that his partner was Tony Bloom. Both of them had Chelsea Season Tickets back then, Corporate jobbies, but I guess they moved on to Brighton later.

So, any Tony Bloom news & stories would be most warmly received. Incidentally, as a poker player, it was my view that he was quite exceptional. The spotty kids, minds & senses numbed from 12 hours every day in their back bedroom staring at a PC, will of course, diss him, as they do everyone unless they are a "hero", but his "cashes to Tourneys played" record must have been as good as anyone.   

TIA.

The worst mistake you have ever made was not investing the 30k.

[TheChipPrince]

Good morning.

A week or two ago you wrote......

Been thinking for a while about ways in which I could keep the diary interesting but without it becoming just a constant stream of tips or thoughts on current sporting events and happenings. 

You also mentioned that you have come across a few characters during your gaming journey, & you named, amongst them, Tony Bloom. I'd quite like to learn more about Tony. Keith (Camel) of course will know him very well, & may have even had a little punt on Brighton last season.

I just know him vaguely, firstly from poker, where we shared a few tables back in the day, & later, in a rather more peculiar way. I was in Stockholm in around 2005 for some poker event, & I was collected from the airport by one Martin de Knijff, who was quite a big name in poker in those days. Martin did a job on me (which failed) trying to persuade me to invest in a betting syndicate, which ran for 3 month periods, & bet on football. The entry cost was, I think, £30,000 per quarter.  I declined, but in the interim, he explained quite a bit about how it worked, & that his partner was Tony Bloom. Both of them had Chelsea Season Tickets back then, Corporate jobbies, but I guess they moved on to Brighton later.

So, any Tony Bloom news & stories would be most warmly received. Incidentally, as a poker player, it was my view that he was quite exceptional. The spotty kids, minds & senses numbed from 12 hours every day in their back bedroom staring at a PC, will of course, diss him, as they do everyone unless they are a "hero", but his "cashes to Tourneys played" record must have been as good as anyone.   

TIA.

The worst mistake you have ever made was not investing the 30k.

What sets Tony apart in him being such a success with the A Handicaps?