Day 80 and beyond: Going, going, gone

It is with mild regret that I have to report the initial challenge is over. On Friday 11 September (what would have been day 83) I deliberately didn’t bet on anything meaning I lost my bet with my brother from day one and also forfeited the bet with Andy from the same day and failed to have a gamble of the day.

The regret is only mild though because the experiment had started to become a chore. That in itself was not necessarily enough to quit, but the fact remained after 80 days I was over £500 in the red and extrapolating this out across a full year could well have meant two grand down the drain.

So, although the psychological barrier of £500 was probably a factor, I was more concerned that I just didn’t have the time to focus on this, or at least to give it enough time so the bets weren’t just wild stabs in the dark. Betting on things quickly paid out sometimes, but more often than not it was a waste of money. The stats speak for themselves.

I bet on 140 seperate things during the 82 days. I won 38 times, drew or voided three times and I still have four bets outstanding. That means I lost 95 of the bets which is a whopping 68%. I actually won over £1500 but as I staked over £2045 of my own money this is the most meaningless of stats.

My biggest win was £183.02 on Day 41 and my biggest loss was £115 on Day 43. That was a rollercoaster week!

So now I’ve ditched the daily dose of drudgery and replaced it with a new challenge:

Can I get back into the black before my 35th birthday on June 21, 2010?

There’s already a glimmer of hope things are turning around as on Day 80 I bet on Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the Shanghai Masters with a tenner on at 7/2. Two days after I quit he won and I was £45 up.

So, as things stand today, 16 September 2009, I am £446.49 in the red and so there’s quite a bit to do, but I only have to bet when I want to and I now have five pending bets outstanding as I’ve gone double or nothing with Tommo that I can’t do this second leg of the challenge.

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Day 73 – Day 79: Deeper and deeper into the red

Day 73: Nada

That’s Spanish for sweet fa and that’s all the much anticipated return to the friendly blackjack tables of Stan James was worth.

I dropped £30.50 quick as a flash and then headed over to the poker tables of ‘Stars where I dumped out another £36 on the tilt. Crap day all in.

Day 74: 1 in 14 million

Quickly tiring of this poor streak I decided to take a long shot and bought two lucky dips at a cost of £2. Neither helped.

Day 75: Murray’s mint?

Let’s hope so. Way back on day 2 I saw a man on telly tip Andy Murray for the US Open so I stuck a tenner on him at 5/2. So far, so good.

Day 76: Jugs full o’ cash

Sophie won Big Brother as predicted last week so I had a good start to the weekend with a £21 winner.

It didn’t last long as I quickly lost £15 on my first try at online roulette and followed it up with £10.50 down on the blackjack.

Day 77: Sharpner

Capping a disappointing run on (well, pretty much any) tables I further proved I’m no Devilfish just because I spent a weekend with a few pros. £31.68 (give or take the odd cent) dropped over two hours across 4 tables. At one stage I won $50 in two hands but this only made me more cocky and I wasted it with some draw hands I shouldn’t have been anywhere near as well as a few badbeats, natch.

Day 78: Stick a pin in a page

At a loss for what to do I plumped for Jim Furyk (cool name!!) to win the Deutsche Bank Championship Golf. He went straight on to shoot a round at two over par 😦

It ain’t over yet but it ain’t pretty.

Day 79: Football Factory

I missed the footie acca this weekend because of the England match so I went as close as I could and backed England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to win their respective matches on Wednesday at a combined price of 12/1.

About as random as it gets!

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Day 66 – Day 72: Home and Away

Another busy week at GOTD Towers…

Day 66: Shoot for the moon…

…because even if you miss you’ll end up amongst the stars. Unless you pick a bunch o’ duds and you crash and burn and pop the promising bubble of the acca. So much for only missing by one as over half of my “certs” failed to deliver. Still as much £4 would have paid out over a grand if they’d all come in I think it was still worth a go.

Hartlepool v Burnley : Burnley @ 5/6 Lost
Hull v Southend : Hull @ 1/2 Won
Portsmouth v Hereford : Portsmouth @ 4/11 Won
QPR v Accrington Stanley : QPR @ 1/3 Won
Southampton v Birmingham : Birmingham @ 10/11 Won
West Ham v Millwall : West Ham @ 2/5 Lost
Reading v Barnsley : Reading @ 8/11 Lost
Blackpool v Wigan : Wigan @ Evens Lost
Tranmere v Bolton : Bolton @ 10/11 Won
Wolves v Swindon : Wolves @ 4/9 Lost
Leeds United v Watford : Leeds United @ 11/10 Lost

Day 67: Two good

Playing tight poker on four tables against a bunch of monkeys for 10c/25c last night and tonight made me a respectable £35 over two evenings. I definitely felt I’d learnt from my poker pro friends from last weekend.

Day 68: My bad

…but it ain’t a foolproof system and I won’t always win. Missed a couple of straight draws and went all in twice when I should have chilled back. Annoyed with myself about that. Couldn’t play too long, had to pack for a weekend break to the Costas.

Day 69: Viva Espana

Set off for Spain with a bet on Dogface (aka page 34 stunna, Sophie) to win Big Brother next week. Either way she’ll end up in Nuts magazine so I can’t really lose. £8 on at 13/8.

Day 70: Football Crazy

Never gonna give you up said Mr Rick Astley and I echo that sentiment with the third in my series of Premiership Accumulators.

Chelsea v Burnley : Chelsea @ 1/6 Won
Stoke v Sunderland : Stoke @ 11/8 Won
Tottenham v Birmingham : Tottenham @ 1/3 Won
Wolves v Hull : Wolves @ 11/10 Lost
Bolton v Liverpool : Liverpool @ 4/7 Won
Blackburn v West Ham : Blackburn @ 5/4 Lost

Boo

Day 71: Great British Hope

Jenson Button was third favourite at 8/1 before qualifying began. On the day of the race he was 14th on the grid. 21 laps later he was having a shower.

Day 72: Nikolai!

Everything about his game tells me I should beat him severely whenever we sit down at the board. Recently I just can’t. Having lost 10-7 in a friendly and then 5-3, 5-3 in two five euro a match games I ruefully wondered if it could be due to the fact we play a different game. I believe he picked up the art of the world’s finest game whilst drunk, playing a drunken Turkish man he’d just beat in an arm-wrestle. They don’t stack more than five counters on a point and for some reason this has stayed with Nikolai. I’ve read a lot of books and none of them mention this rule. From now on, when money changes hands, we play proper.

Back to the Jack tomorrow…

 

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Day 61 – Day 65: Gamblefest

Day 61: All in…

The current self-imposed ban on Blackjack fueled my desire go get better at poker (and it wasn’t the only thing in the last few days) so I hit the tables again and started playing four at once for 25 cent/10 cent blinds. With $15 to start with on each table I was quickly dispatched from one, held steady on two of them and managed to build up a head of steam on the fourth.

I obviously pissed someone off because he kept calling everything I did and so I cleared him out and left $20 up for the night.

Day 62: All out…

My see-saw poker career continued with Day 61’s $20 quickly turning into some American or Russian’s $20. I clearly haven’t learnt anything.

Day 63: V good

Early on Saturday morning I set off to the V Festival in Stafford where I spent the weekend with some the UK’s best online poker players. Naturally I asked for tips wherever I could and the resounding response was “stop playing blackjack”. Oh dear.

Still, as most of them make a living from cards I suppose I should heed the advice.

I cleverly avoided taking a deck of cards with me in case I became embroiled in a game where I’d be clearly out of my depth and so instead I put my faith in my latest hobby…football match accumulators.

I bet on four Premiership games and once again I missed out by won victory as Birmingham failed to beat Portsmouth.

On the music front The Streets were brilliant and I passed on Oasis in favour of MGMT (pictured).

Day 64: Will you still need me, will you still feed me…

Sebastian Vettel to win the European Grand Prix. 5/1. £5 on. No dice. Retired after 23 laps.

Luckily though, our cricketing heroes whipped the Aussies in the final test to lift (a replica of) the Ashes and I won £21 from the bet I accidentally placed whilst trying to gamble on the fourth test…which we lost. Resultio.

I celebrated with a curry.

Then to cap a winning day I wondered if the wise words of my new found poker friends would help me…to win just over £17.

Just have to hang on to that now and maybe its the start of the turnaround.

Day 65: Annualism

Today I learned I may be an annualist from an article (which you may have just clicked on) on the BBC website. Always good to learn a new word. I left them a comment in case anyone sees it, finds the site and challenges me to do something wacky.  My girlfriend has bet me a fiver they don’t publish it.

Tonight I was struggling for further inspiration (it can be a burden for us annualists) and so I had £2 e/w on a Virtual Horse Race on Will Hill.

Never again.

Difficult to know what happened there, both in the lunacy of my decision to play it and the confusion of the race itself. My “horse” came somewhere near the back (apparently) and is now being virtually shot…in Second Life…by someone from the Sims.

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Day 60: Man, you should have done better

Yes they bloody should…

Birmingham v Portsmouth – I had Birmingham at evens. They won.
Hull v Tottenham – I had Tottenham at evens too. They won as well.
Liverpool v Stoke – I had Liverpool at 1/4 and they won
Burnley v Man United…Man U were 3/10 and they were losers. Unbelievable.

One of these is going to pop in one day. Footie accas are the new blackjack!!

However, I did go to a play casino tonight (for a work team bonding session) and playing at least 100 hands…but it was only for play money and they were playing monkey English rules where you couldn’t double unless you had 9, 10 or 11 and you couldn’t split 4s, 5s or 10s (the latter I’d never do, of course).

Even in play games it bugs me when dealers advise against basic strategy.

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Day 54 – 59: when it rains it pours

Day 54: Eye for nothing

Lady P’s horse was second favourite at the off but sadly second last at the post. My £4 e/w no use to no one.

Day 55: Losing the plot

Mel’s bet looked the easiest shoe-in to date with my pick from a wide field. All I had to do was hit one winner. I flew to Poland and forgot to back anything other than two useless tickets in the EuroMillions.

£10 down on Mel. £3 down on Camelot.

Day 56: First day of the season

The premiership kicked off today and so did my six match accumulator.

Chelsea v Hull, I had Chelsea at 1/5
Everton v Arsenal I had the Arse at Arsenal 11/8
Stoke v Burnley I had Stoke at 20/21
Blackburn v Man City I had City at 5/4

So far so good, roll on Sunday’s matches.

I had a lotto ticket for tonight too. Lotto? Notto, more like.

Day 57: Two tone pony

I awoke in the mountains of Poland with a mild hangover after attending my first Polish wedding. The main thing everyone was talking about the next morning was who fell asleep first and who drank the most Vodka. At two bottles per guest it was anyone’s guess. I certainly hadn’t bet on it.

On with the football and all I needed was Man United to beat Birmingham and Tottenham to lose against Liverpool. Seemingly an easy way to turn my £5 into £150.

Bloody Spurs!!!

My brother (the Tottenham fan) was there. He loved it.

Tiger Woods to win the USPGA golf was my banker for the day.

He lost!

Day 58: the wanderer returns

I got back home to blighty and I’d certainly missed the blackjack.

I tried my luck again at the three way tables.

10 hands later I was down £30 and figured the deck was cold.

Day 59: mixed forecasts

28 degrees outside, freezing deck inside. Another all to brief stint on Stan James – who now clearly wants all the money I’ve won from him back, sees me drop nearly £50 at the drop of a hat.

Time for a self-imposed break from that particular loser. No BJ for real money for 1 week!!

Playing for fun is fine though.

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Day 53: Pulled off at half time

45 minutes played in the Netherlands vs England friendly.

England are losing 2-0.

Stan James will give me 8/1 on the draw.

I take it and put a fiver of my hard earned quid on it. I don’t know any Dutchmen anyway so no one will give me any shit if I’m wrong.

UPDATE: 11.27pm

Jermain Defoe came off the bench to score twice in the second half. £45 to Andy 🙂

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Day 52: Three way action

Today I tried something for the first time.

A delightful threesome.

I had the little beauties spread all over the table whilst I spanked fivers down on top of them.

It started slowly, but soon built to a delicious crescendo and the princely some of £95 in the bank.

In summary: multi-hand, blackjack, Stan James. Winner.

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Day 47 – 51: from Willhill to downhill

So I’ve hit the half-century and although there aren’t as many cricketing Englishmen around who can claim that at the moment I too am not overly proud of the achievement as I write this today £385 down to John Q Bookmaker.

Thinking back to the larger wins on WillHill’s blackjack tables seems a million days ago as I’ve not managed to replicate the success since.

Speaking of which…

Day 47: Another black blackjack day

Black as in “dark”, not as in “in the black” too. A nasty £80 dump out, split over several sites with little to make it memorable other than the sad loss of the money.

Day 48: Poke’n all over the world

Made friends with a Russian, lost to an American, a dutchman, the Russian I’d recently made friends with. He wailed when I left the table – at least in txt spk – but I was £9 down and it was getting late.

Day 49: Live action at last

I went to Bournemouth on Saturday and my mate Chris and I had a £5 on the Newcastle/West Brom game with me backing the former. Luckily they were better in the second half and they came back from 1-0 down to draw the game and void the bet.

Buoyed by the news we headed to the casino for the first time since a trip to Sydney at Easter. It was also my first time in Bournemouth’s Gala venue since I joined on a previous weekend away in 2000. They still had me down as a member though, complete with a picture of a much skinnier me on their system.

We sat down at the table and I handed over £60 which I quickly took up to around £90 (playing between £3 and £10 a hand) before losing the lot back to the house within the hour. The other fellas made the most of their free craps and roulette bets (which I didn’t get as I was already a member) and walked out smiling.

A few hours later, when we could take no more cheesy choons we decided to head back and this time, with funds severely depleated, I just about managed to rustle up £40.

At 5am when they shut we were still there and I’d managed to win back everything I’d bet that day and keep a tenner for myself. Although a modest profit, a relief to get back to winning form and in a decent casino too.

Day 50: Not out…and almost on a roll

Arriving home I played several more hands on Stan James and won a quick £30 before losing £20 of it on the PokerStars tables. Annoying.

Day 51: Shot in the dark

Viking Spirit £3 e/w in the 7.20 at Windsor. Not sure which way it went, but it didn’t win.

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Day 46: The Times gives me the Nod

Sir Nod in the 4.10 at Pontefract was another NAP from the guy in the times.

I only ever read the times when I go to the dentist. The dentist was less painful than my £25 at 11/2 which Sir Nod banished with his “nowhere near nothing” performance.

I also had £5 e/w on Eye for the girls in the 5pm at Brighton but they withdrew him due to the ground.

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