In one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies, there’s one of my favorite lines. “So then, if you spot me coming around that corner… you’re just gonna walk out on this woman? Not say goodbye?”… “That’s the discipline”… “That’s pretty vacant, no”… “Yeah, it is what it is. It’s that, or we both better go do something else, pal”…”I don’t know how to do anything else”… “Neither do I”… “I don’t much want to either”…”Neither do I”…
This exchange between Pacino and DeNiro in Heat was awesome; I know I’ve talked about this before. The line though… about discipline, can be applied many different ways. Of course, the way I’m going to apply it today, is with sports gambling. On Friday, I went outside my discipline; on Friday, I got burned.
This isn’t the first time; I’d love to say it’s the last. Now back in the day, this was a constant bad habit; this is one reason why I was unsuccessful overall with betting on sports. Finding that “lock” and unloading on it. The first time it happened in my Draft Kings life, was about a year ago. It was the NFC Championship game, and I kept betting on the 49ers; it was the most I lost on a single game. Funny enough, the second time it happened was the 49ers again, this time, in the Super Bowl. Maybe don’t bet on the Niners when I feel like they’re a lock??? Finally, on Friday in the SEC tournament, the third time happened. I loved, loved, loved the Gamecocks against the Auburn Tigers. Third time’s a charm?
Well, it’s charm for something, and let me tell you, it ain’t “hitting the big one”. No, for the third time in my DK life, I bet a large amount (in my unit standards) on a single game; I am now 0-3. Sure, I’ve bet more than my standard a number of times over the past year plus, with mixed results. But Friday was one of my three biggest bets, and like the two before it, it lost. This is what I get for losing my discipline. I think of a line from another movie… “You know, you lose focus in this game for one second…” Ocean’s Eleven by the way; not in the same category as Heat by any means, but a pretty good flick in its own right… one I didn’t like right away.
Yeah, so this big loss, early in the day, set me up for a guaranteed losing day; so what did I do? I started betting on more games. Not only did I lose my discipline and bet way more units on a single game than I should have, now I was in chase mode, another cardinal sin of betting. I know this, yet I still do this. Thankfully, it turned out OK, as I ended up deflecting some of that big loss, but again, not a formula for success long term.
Maybe it’s that scene from another movie that plays in the back of my head.. “you did it to yourself, you had to put it all on the line for some Vegas pipe dream”… “yeah, I took a risk, I took a risk… you, you see all the angles, you never have the stones to play one”… “stones? you little punk”… Rounders, another movie I love.
Like I said, I can’t promise I won’t do it again… thankfully, I didn’t bankrupt myself and have to pick up a 2nd job to rebuild… No, I took a hit, yes, with my profit, yes, and now, it’s time to move forward, but this time… you know, let’s put a little bit of work into my system. Let’s gather those notes; let’s put something together that will help dictate my next “big play”… They say patience is a virtue too. You see, gambling on sports can teach you a lot…
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