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References to gambling
In a dog eat dog world be a cat
Once upon a time I needed some money. I was living with my brother at the time; he was my legal guardian on account of our ages and our parents had fled; first our mum from our dad, and then our dad from my brother. My dad is the sort of man who would rather put himself in hardship than put hardship on others, so he would never have thrown my brother out on the streets.
It was five in the morning, I was sixteen and I needed money because I was going to run away from home; from my brother. Romanced by the story of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, I stole some potatoes from the sack in the larder. My brother wouldn’t buy anything else with the ‘rent’ I had to pay him; which was practically all the money I had each week. There was never anything else in the home. My friends told me that every time I farted, they could smell chips. I think when my brother farted, his friends smelt burgers, pizzas and beer, lots of beer.
With the potatoes and a duvet in my backpack I hitch-hiked north in the direction of Nottinghamshire, England, where I knew Sherwood Forest to be. ‘I will live inside an old tree that has been hollowed out by time and rot, and is now clean, I thought to myself’. I had only about two English pounds of money; enough to buy four bags of chips when I got to a town near the forest.
After a few lifts up the A1 and frequent long looks at the map I had I decided that Ollerton was a town inside Sherwood Forest. When I saw the sign for Ollerton on the A1 (major north-south road in England)
I used to read maps for bedtime reading; and dictionaries. They were the only books I could persuade my brother not to burn to keep the house warm in Winter. During that cold season, he was convinced that I was possessed and evil because his bedroom was above the living room, which was the only room that he would allow to be heated. My bedroom was above the kitchen, which was scarcely used, other than for making chips and cups of tea, so it was really cold. All the doors in the house had to be kept shut for some reason.
I set off walking towards where I thought Sherwood Forest was at the time. When Robin Hood was around, I would not have to have walked far from the A1. After a while, I came across a small town, and weary from my travels decided that I wanted to go home. It is strange that when we are young and tired we just want to go home, even though it would be an ordeal to get there. All I really had to do was rest. I was used to sleeping rough; I had done it countless times in the village in which I lived, to get away from my brother. But, sleeping rough in your home village is not the same as sleeping rough in a strange place.
I bought a picture postcard, which had ‘Greetings from Sherwood Forest’ on it, and a stamp, wrote a message on the back, signed it, addressed the postcard to myself, and posted it. Being young, it was not difficult to hitch-hike back home. I walked back in the front door at eleven in the morning. My brother asked where I had been. He wasn’t able to find me for some task he had planned for me.
‘Sherwood Forest,’ I told him.
‘No, you haven’t!’ he cried, in disbelief.
‘I bet you five pounds that I have.’ I offered.
He took the bet, certain that I could not prove it. Two days later, my postcard arrived and I showed him the picture of Ollerton with ‘Greetings from Sherwood Forest’ across it. He turned it over and read, ‘Told You.’ Surprisingly, he paid up, but it was my money he paid me with anyway, so no great loss to him really.
I slept in his abandoned seven and a half litre Ford Torino car in the rented garage up the the road that night. His pride would overcome any sensibilities he had over the course of his drinking that night and I was sure I would be woken with a series of punches in the face until I was unconscious again. He liked to surprise me like that.
I managed to escape a couple of years later and lived in a Bed and Breakfast place in the nearby market town. About a year after that, I got my own place and turned to gambling for money. No, no no! Not like the gambler who loses his weekly wage or chases his losses. I had a formula that actually worked.
It came about when there was nothing on the telly and I decided to watch horse-racing. I thought I would make a small bet at the local bookmaker, to make it more interesting. Don’t do this! I don’t get addicted to ANYTHING, not alcohol, cigarettes, or gambling. I don’t know anyone else like me. Don’t do it.
My bet won. I immediately bought The Sun (English newspaper) which had the racing form in the back pages. I studied the horses, the distance, the course conditions, and the jockeys. I made my bet with my formula and won. In fact I won forty-six consecutive times. People would ask me to make bets for them and I always paid them their winnings. The reason they didn’t always want me to make more bets for them is because they didn’t trust me to pay them the full winnings; but I always did. They didn't understand that each-way betting pays less than betting to win, but increases the chances of a payout. Disappointment with a windfall will do that to some people (cognitive dissonance). However, I made, on average 120 GBP every Saturday for the whole Summer. When I say I am not THAT sort of gambler, I mean this: I said to myself that when I lose my stake and do not win, I will not bet again. I had been betting on the horses running on courses without fences. When that season ended, the jockeys were able to cheat a little because they could make their horses hesitate at the jumps (fences). I lost my stake money in the first race of the steeplechase season on which I made a bet. I stopped betting.
I stopped betting, until Lewis Hamilton didn’t win the 2007 Formula 1 championship. He was the first black man in the sport and 2007 was his first season. No rookie had ever won the World Championship. He only needed to come third in the last race of the season, and was leading the race right from the beginning. Suddenly, his car developed engine problems and he got overtaken by a series of cars until he was tenth. Then, miraculously, his car started running well and kept up with the cars in front; race pace. He did not win the 2007 Formula One World Championship. I was certain that Formula One cars cannot develop engine problems and then return to race pace; they fall apart really quickly if they are not efficient. It had to be that his engine was electronically controlled to run slower. Of course Bernie Ecclestone, the man in control of Formula One knew the public would soon tire of another superstar like Michael Schumacher, who had just retired from the sport. To my mind, Lewis Hamilton was promised the win in 2008, before the 2007 Championship was finished, during that last race. Lets face it: how exciting is it for a car in tenth position to fight its way through the pack and the driver become World Champion?
In 2008, amazingly, in the last race Lewis Hamilton only needed to come third again. I had already staked quite a large amount on his Championship win. At the third to last corner of the entire race Hamilton was fourth. ‘Hang on’, I thought, This isn’t right.’ Then it happened, and this is why I don’t gamble like THAT gambler. The third place driver made a mistake and went wide two corners from the finish line and Hamilton overtook him. He finished third as the 2008 Formula One World Champion. I am not going to say that I saw the driver deliberately go wide. Oh No!
I have mentioned it before. There is always a clue. There is always something that isn’t right. There is always an advantage that can be gained. Seeing it is the hardest thing in the world if you are honest.
For a while, in about 2017, I analysed the Formula One tracks, the driver attributes, the cars, and the weather, and using probability made small bets across about five drivers for each race; hedging my bets. I always came out on top. Because I am not THAT type of gambler, the total stake amount for each race never exceeded two GBP, and I only ever won about thirty or forty pence for each race. Just Fun. DON'T DO IT. If you need the money, do something else - look for a misalignment or an advantage, not a probability. Misalignments precede probability assessments.
Most of us are familiar with the saying; ‘In a dog eat dog world, be a dog.’ I have adapted that to ‘In a dog eat dog world, be a cat.’