Handling your emotions

The old adage you see crop up from time to time is , it isn’t the picking winners and losers that does in sports bettors but rather the inability to control your emotions. While this is true most guys don’t know exactly what this means and entails and thus don’t recognize how it hinders their efforts. Every season you will encounter the dreaded ‘ BAD BEAT”, you know the game you handicap correctly and the game goes as you thought overall but a few weird bounces bad breaks and just plain old bad luck prevents you from cashing a ticket.

I have had some success playing NFL games so far this season including a stellar pre-season, but I also have encountered more than my fair share of what I thought were bad beats, that had me stewing for a little while and figuring out how much it cost me and where I thought my bottom line should be but wasn’t because of some unlucky results. This is normal because your bottom line is your bottom line and we all want to maximize good handicapping efforts and be rewarded with a win, but sometimes you can do everything right in the handicapping process yet still come up empty due to an inordinate amount of bad luck.

The hardest thing to do for many is to put these type of bad beats behind them and to not let it affect their handicapping in the future. How does emotion affect many bettors after they suffer a bad beat?? They immediately and some times recklessly look to get the loss back by getting on the next game they can , to “RIGHT THE WRONG”, this can be taking a game later in the day after your card was done earlier, your emotion can’t let the tough loss settle in , you need immediate retribution, so you take a game for no other reason than getting back the money you just lost. Of course this type of chasing your money invariably leads to further losses. You may vow to make that team PAY for their sloppy play and automatically go against them the next week, which is also an impulsive emotion based play that often backfires.

Another emotion based mistake many bettors make is overeating to what they last saw. You see a team play lights out and suddenly you can’t wait to get on them the next week. The problem is these teams are often overpriced the next week off of the great game. Some see a team tank one week, the team can’t get out of it’s own way and you can’t wait to go against them the next week. Of course you probably are getting a bad price value wise off of the poor performance. Sharp bettors often see these situations favor the team that played poorly the week before as a buying opportunity because their stock is lower and cheaper , and teams often focus harder and improve their play off of a bad performance than they may off of a solid game.

Some sharp players attempt to take all emotion out of the equation by imposing a strict rule for themselves about not playing a game involving a team that was involved in a tough loss the week before. They take them right of the equation so emotion won’t cloud their judgment. I don’t apply that rule as I have confidence that I have learned to not let my emotions affect what I play, but I have to reflect for a while to make sure it isn’t a factor , it’s always a struggle for even the most experienced and savvy player. I feel you often get a good value involving teams that were involved in a bad beat situation or after they get blown out.

When you encounter the inevitable losing streak, your emotional response to it is very crucial. The normal first thought is to try to get that money back , some double their plays trying to right the wrong if you will. The best thing to do is of course lower your wagers according to the lost bankroll and for less until you make some of that money back. Pro’s knows this, but it was a lesson learned from previous failure. There aren’t many if any winning bettors that didn’t have to go through their paces of painful results and the process of controlling your emotions to best combat losing streaks and bad beats and make better decisions going forward. Just as important is to not hold back when you are on roll. Many novice players have a great afternoon and then stop playing or LESSEN their play amounts to preserve the profit they made earlier . This is of course the wrong course of action , as you need t try to maximize your profits as your bankroll increases and you are seeing the board clearly and your handicapping is at it’s sharpest.

In summation being able to control your emotional state after bad beats and losing streaks and paring down your bet size and not chasing losses is imperative to long term success. Paring down your bet size when WINNING is also a different way of leaving money out of your pocket , as winning streaks need to be maximized when you are hot and bets should be increased as your bankroll grows. Playing on or against teams based on pure emotion form previous performances is also a great recipe to get little to no value on the line and to lose more than you win in the ling run. Emotion clouds the judgment as we all know , the key is to feel the emotion initially , learn to let it go by the time you start the handicapping process the next week and make decisions based on value and proven handicapping techniques that have served you well in the past and keep emotion out of the equation and you will see better results , more solid money management skills and more overall long term success.>p/>