Remedy for a Short Bankroll

I gave you the greatest advice you could possibly hear. Maybe it's not what you wanted to hear, but when is the last time good advice lined your pockets with gold?

No, you won't listen. Those of you with $100

Bankrolls will bet $200 a game; those with $500 stakes will wager $1000 a pop; and the big shots with $5000 will go for the 4 team parlay with $8000 laid on three long shots carrying the ball.

Everybody bets beyond their means, beyond the money they have in their hands. It's the nature of the beast and my words ain't gonna sway 80% of you to see your sins and change your ways overnight.

But you're reading a book on sports betting, so if you were a constant winner you wouldn't need advice.

Years ago, when I was in the throes of one of my weekly bad streaks, losing on four consecutive baseball betting days, a sharp old timer pulled me aside.

We were in Vegas and there are many, many, many sports bettors lining the streets out there. We had become quite friendly and he knew I was going through a though run.

"Tell you what," he said to me, "I'm gonna show you how to stop your losing streak!!" I figured there was a catch, but I bit anyway. I was really going bad, betting big, losing big and dangerously close to having to get a (ugh) job.

But I was young, stupid, and determined to prove I could bang these sports books daily. However, when you're in a storm even a jerk like me needed a port, so I asked him what I should do.

His words were exactly the two gems I gave you at the start of this chapter. I wanted to punch him square in the mouth out of frustration. But I held back, not because I had self control, which I didn't,; not because I was a gentleman, which I'm not; and not because he was a gentle old man, which he was.