Nope, not because I’d backed a 50/1 shot that finished a nose second after missing the break out of the stalls, finding itself in a pocket and hemmed in by the rail coming around the home turn, the jockey dropping the whip and then stumbling when leading inside the final furlong. I mean literally….sick to the stomach. A bug. A virus. Food poisoning – whatever. The outcome was the same and I’ve been knocked sideways.
So apologies, but it means I’m behind on my betting and my figures, so those will have to wait until the next post when I’ll sum everything up. I’ve no idea how the last few days would have gone. I’ve just lay in bed, moaning and griping to anyone who’d listen (which was no-one), feeling as if my time was up.
Yesterday however, although not still back to normal, I was at least able to put some generally cognitive thoughts together, and my mind wandered towards Northern Monkey. Why NMP in particular, I’ve no idea, but I got to remembering how it was when I joined up with the service, some years ago now.
It was the one time when I’ve joined a tipster and have immediately gone on a pretty significant losing run. Sure, there have been times when I’ve signed up to a new service and lost a bit over the first couple of months or so, but this was different. This was a proper drawdown.
I remember thinking many times that I would quit. That this guy didn’t know what he was doing and consequently I was losing good money after bad. I honestly don’t quite know how I managed to stick with it. Probably some sort of pig-headedness or perhaps other tipsters I was following at the time were performing well, making the NMP losses easier to bear. But stick with it I did, and I’ve reaped the rewards year after year since, with really solid profits banked. Sure, there have been flat spells and losing runs (including a pretty severe recent drawdown) but ultimately it’s come up with the goods.
Anyway, I’m thinking that the largest psychological hurdle to overcome when following tipsters, presents itself when you first sign up and things immediately go pear-shaped. You’ve built up no trust in the service and you’re losing money; that’s a tough spot to be in. It means it is essential to fully prepare yourself, to read and re-read reviews, to properly set up a betting bank and to brace yourself for the worst. Do all that and you have a chance. Don’t, and you could make a really bad, emotionally-based decision which means you miss out on making good money for many years to come.
Right, I’m off for a glass of Lucozade (the old-fashioned fizzy stuff, not this modern, new-fangled Sports drink malarkey) and a Rich Tea biscuit (other incredibly bland and largely tasteless biccies that immediately collapse when you dunk them in a cuppa, are available).