By Jess Kirley

Desire and Faith

The first requirement is the willingness to give your very best. If you don't possess a desire for the game, then it will be unlikely that you will excel. On the other hand, for those that possess a natural flair and drive to learn the business, then success will follow. Desire to achieve is the cornerstone of success.

Desire is extremely important in this business as there is no school or college available where you can be taught exactly what to do to become a successful gambler. We are on our own. Many of the world's most successful gamblers have invested a significant amount of time and money in their own education. They have had to set their own curriculum and ensure that they passed each subject without a lecturer casting an eye over their work.

The ultimate measure of the skill of a punter is in black and white; their punting bank. This is the ultimate exam if you like. You can't cheat this one. At the end of a financial year, if you posses more money than you started the year with, then you have reason to be happy. Punting is just like any other profession, and requires continual upgrading of skills. Those that have the personal qualities to make an above average income from gambling would be able to succeed in just about any other profession they tried their hand at.

The Personal Fortitude to Understand the Fundamentals of the Mathematics of Gambling.

No, I am not trying to scare you off by using that nasty word mathematics, but the truth is, this is an absolutely essential piece of the puzzle for anybody wanting to become successful. Rest assured, you certainly do not have to have the number skills of The Rain Man, all you have to do is understand the underlying concepts. These are straight forward and easy to understand when broken down.

After all, you don't need to know how to program a computer to use one, or the mechanics behind a microwave oven to operate one. We do however, need the instructions or somebody experienced to show us the ropes. The same goes for gambling. You really do not need to know the processes involved, but you certainly need somebody who can translate and simplify things for you.

Matt and I learnt this early on. We are far from mathematical whizzes and to be brutally honest, neither of us would dream of crunching a set of numbers just for fun. What we are interested in is improving our bottom line in our punting business. Just like any other business, if we can increase our profitability by even a small amount, then we are achieving our goal of continuous improvement. One of the keys to striving for this increase is in the maths.

As suggested before, neither of us have any intention in cluttering our mind up with information that we can source from others much more knowledgeable than ourselves. It makes no sense to invest hundreds of hours of our time when we can pay somebody $120 per hour for example and get 20 years of their mathematical expertise! We use these sorts of people to solve problems for us and to interpret in layman's terms complex mathematical concepts.

From personal experience I find that most punters turn their noses up at the thought of having to learn a little maths. Usually with the excuse 'I was never any good a maths a school'. SO WHAT! Just because you weren't any good at maths at school doesn't mean that you can't learn a little now. I am here to tell you, those the make a concerted effort to understand some of the maths behind gambling will be light years ahead of those that simply throw their hands in the air spewing the words, 'It's too hard'.

Becoming a skilled handicapper is minor compared to possessing a basic understanding of the role mathematics plays in gambling.

Self Discipline

The discipline I speak of is the discipline required to overcome the 'now' factor and stick to your plan. This especially applies on race day where the majority of punters may be tempted to strike a bet simply for the sake of betting to get that thrill or, dare I say it, to recover past losses. (And yes . . . I too have been guilty of this in the past.) You will need to either possess or develop the discipline to abstain and to stick to your original plan.

Mindset

If you are to become a successful gambler, you must eliminate any reckless thoughts. The person that starts his day with the idea that he is going to win a set amount of money will never make a success of this business.

Do you think I am being a little harsh? Every week I speak to punters who feel compelled to tell me how much they won last Saturday, last Wednesday or any other day. To be honest I DON'T CARE and neither should you! What I am interested in is how you have performed over the last month, 6 months or year. That is what matters, not how much money you won or lost over one particular day.

This is one of the main reasons why many punters aren't more successful at this game. They think short-term and when they have a bad trot, they change their approach or they give up! If you are to become a full-time gambler, you must find a real edge and you must allow enough time for the edge to manifest itself in the results. This will not become apparent after one day or one week. Hell . . . anybody can get lucky over that space of time. The only thing that should worry you is your results over a reasonable period of time.

What is a reasonable period of time? Well that is a discussion for another day but as a general rule, you should have, at the very least, 100 recorded bets to analyse.

You must view your gambling as one continuous session. Yes, I mean a life long gambling session. Successful punters know that their results over a single day, week or even month are not important by themselves. Get yourself into the habit of medium to long-term thinking.

This is exactly how the casinos and the bookmakers operate. They rely on a proven and real mathematic edge. To quote the famous gambler John Trijonis

"Basically, the winners find a way to be like the casino; they gain a small advantage and play it as often as possible. They remind you of Bill Gates, not Frank Sinatra."

This list is very brief but if you make a concerted effort with these four points, I am sure that gambling profits will soon flow your way.

Remember . . . many others are betting full-time, you can too.

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