When you go to the horse races or OTB or even wager on the ponies online, how do you prepare for your betting campaign? Are you a list maker? I've found that my memory isn't what it used to be, well at least I think it isn't, I really can't remember if it was ever any good.
Experience should be a good teacher.
You may have seen some nice winners at the horse races and looked over the racing form after the race and realized why that horse was actually a good bet.
The question is, will you remember that situation and horse racing angle the next time you go the races? If so, you may find such a situation and realize it's the best bet of the day.
How many people who saw the same races that should have alerted them to the situation will remember it and how many will lose the opportunity to score on the best bet of the day? That's why lists of angles and methods are so important.
Before you go over your racing form, it's a good idea to refresh your memory and to have those good betting situations in mind.
Maybe they won't be found on every program, but over the course of time some of those handicapping angles will make you a consistent profit.
If you have the patience to wait for them you may even make a profit betting on horse races, though that is very difficult to do.
Along with your list of profitable angles you might also want to refresh your memory of mistakes that you've made.
It's bad enough to make a mistake and lose money once, but if you keep repeating it, then you may have a serious problem, may even be one of those individuals that is a pathological loser.
You'll find those people every day at the races.
One of the benefits of lists and written notes to follow is that they build confidence.
Few activities in life require more confidence than handicapping a race and then plunking down your hard earned cash on a horse and rider.
That may well be why it's so thrilling and ultimately, for many people, so expensive.
Second guessing and last minute bets are the bane of many horse players who cannot stick with their original choices.
They bet on one horse or an exotic bet but then, as the minutes tick away, they keep looking over the program and feeling less confident about their opinions about the race.
Finally, because they are so afraid of losing, they rush to the window to put down that last minute wager.
Few of those wagers ever pay off and those people are chronic losers in most cases.
The old saying, go with your first hunch or choice, is a good one.