Once upon a time or the story of bettor (part 2)

In the first part of the interview our guest shared with us how he got into betting and his early failures. Today, in the second part of our interview, Kosmo365 will talk more about what measures you have to take to start winning. Enjoy!

• Did you lose a lot during that period?
   
• It depends what do you mean by "a lot". Some can spend such an amount at the restaurant on a Friday night when others won't even have something close to that on their savings account.
   
• Okay, let me ask you this way. How much did you lose back then?
   
• Sorry, but if you're looking for an exact number, I will have to disappoint you here. First of all, I don't really know the exact number, because I never bothered to count, and second of all, even if I knew it, I would not tell you. I was working, making money, losing it, borrowing it, winning, losing and over again. That's how it was for a couple of years. Probably, if you sum up, it would be somewhere around the price of a middle-class car.
   
• Meaning a decent amount. So, when was that turning point?
   
• You know what? At some point, I told myself, either I have to do it the right way to get something out of it or just let it go. To be honest, at the end of the losing streak, I was not in the best mental state. It was getting to head more and more every time. Have you ever been drinking alcohol?
   
• I don't see how it's related to the matter?
   
• Just answer!
   
• Well, yeah, I can have a couple of beers from time to time.
   
• When was the last time you've been hangover?
   
• Not too long ago. It was a boys night few of days ago, and I must admit I let myself loose a bit.
   
• Do you remember how you felt the next morning?
   
• Yeah, I do. It was horrible. My whole body was aching. I promised myself to never do it again!
   
• What do you think if I tell you that the worst hangover in the world is nothing comparing to the night after you lost tons of money?
   
• Can't be true!
   
• Just trust me. I'm not talking about the couple of hundred single, but rather about the couple of thousand one. I've been laying down in my bed not being able to fall asleep thinking "How the hell did it happen once again?", "Am I such an idiot for real?".
   
• Oh, well. How did it happen again?
   
• The way it usually happens, you know! Lack of self-control, lousy risk assessment, hot head and stuff. Lots of friends of mine from this industry have told me, they do never go to sleep after a losing streak. They start betting on whatever just to close the day with a winning bet. When they are not lucky with Bundesliga at 18:30, they start betting on Seria A at 20:45, then on American MLS at 23:00. In cases, when even that is not enough, they start betting on NBA and NHL games after midnight or anything else they have no clue about. And do you know what? I caught myself doing the same thing! The exact same thing was happening every weekend. Add some alcohol to this, and you will end up with only one result…
   
• Oh, my God!
   
• Yeah! Alcohol and betting is something completely different.
   
• Well...
   
• It really amazes me how lots of my friends place bets after a couple of drinks. I wasn't better, though. Let's just say, that betting comes with tons of adrenaline release. Especially when there's a significant amount of money on the line. Therefore, being a little tipsy is not helping you to assess the situation accurately. It becomes hard to stay calm and focused when the referee cancels the goal, or someone doesn't score the penalty in the last moments of the game. Anyways, watching the game while having a cold beer is something completely different from betting a couple of thousands while being somewhat tipsy. It's impossible to make the right decision while not being sober. I would even say that drunk live betting is nothing else but suicide. Emotions always take over and being reckless and irresponsible will only make it worse. I've never had a successful drunk live betting. NEVER! Every time I was so much in debt. Seeing the next morning, what I was betting on was really tough. There were bets I would have never even considered if I were sober.
   
• Like what?
   
• Ahh, I don't really remember. Probably something like endless accas with a couple of hundreds on them, where in case of winning I would've been able to buy a pretty nice car. Or maybe, live bets on complete outsiders with high odds. Or… betting on the victory of the team, that is losing 0:2. Some crazy stuff like that.
   
• Have you ever won anything from such bets?
   
• Maybe like once or twice but it felt amazing I would say. It doesn't matter, though, because I was losing, even more, the next moment!
   
• Why? Overconfidence?
   
• Yes and no. It's hard to explain, but I was wasting every big win in just few hours. I was reinvesting right away, without any analysis or risk assessment. It turned out that I was losing everything and had to take extra money out of my pocket in attempts to get some of it back. So, for example, for every 2 thousand, I was 1 down by the end of the day. This was happening over and over. Coming from that, I made myself a rule that every big win or loss or series of small one of those I have to take a break from betting to calm myself down and clear my mind.
   
• Did it work?
   
• For sure, it did! Of course, sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes you lose your first bet right after the break, which is okay. The most important thing is that if you summarize my bankroll, you will see that in the long run, it's a profitable one. It's always nice to see some progress. Coming back to the previous topic, there are two types of tipsters. The first type does this only for money and cares less about Real's or Barcelona's victory. On the other hand, we have the second type of tipsters, who do this because they are addicted to the feeling betting gives them. I used to be one of those addicted guys, but thankfully, I managed to find my way out of it. The more emotions you put into betting, the worse are the results. I know one Swedish tipster, who is a betting genius, but he's 40 something years old, with no wife or girlfriend, I doubt if he's ever even had one. He's completely anti-social and disconnected from reality but on the other hand, has some nerves and nothing can really faze him. Once I had a chance to watch a speedway match in Torun, and of course, there was some "light" betting going on online. The guy who we bet everything on, in the very last lap had his bike broken down in half. Can you imagine? It all happened in seconds! I have never seen anything like that before and even after. I really doubt I'd see something like that happen ever again. Do you know what? When I was cursing out as hard as I can, he just shook his head, lighted up a cigarette and walked out. I believe his blood pressure didn't even go a bit up. Anyways, thanks to that he's showing some outstanding results.
   
• Can you master something like that?
   
• Personally, I don't think so. You either give a crap or don't! Something like attitude.
   
• What do you mean?
   
• I am a pessimist from the day I was born. I think that if something has to go wrong, it will go wrong regardless! I've been trying to apply such a philosophy on betting for a long time. For example, while placing an Over 2.5 goals bet,  I was putting my hands down right away, when on the 60th minute, the score was 1:1. I also had a friend, who in a case of placing the same bet and the score 0:0 on the 75th minute, was saying: "Relax, there's still plenty of time!".
   
• So, you believe, that your bad attitude towards the bet was having an impact of the final result? How do those two things even relate? Are you saying that because of your crying the forward didn't score the goal?
   
• No, of course not! I was referring to something you mentioned before. Can you teach someone to have a proper attitude towards betting? No! It is something like the attitude towards life! I don't believe people change like that. If you're born as a good person, you're going to stay that way throughout the course of life, the same thing happens if you're born as a bad one. Either way, you are going to stay yourself! Do you think I would've not wanted to have nerves like that Swedish guy? Definitely! It is impossible, though. Even after so many years of experience, I still have tons of emotion that bring me up & down all the time. It's rather not helping me, but what can I do about it? I got used to it.
   

Stay tuned for part 3.