I came in to this past weekend full of confidence having won decent money on the rugby in the last few weeks and although my cycling form has been poor I managed to turn it around with a 9/1 winner in the Giro on Friday.

It is amazing how quickly fortunes turn though and turn they most certainly did.

On Friday night I fancied the Bulls to give a good account of themselves against the Cheetahs and although they only lost by 2 points in the end it was a very disappointing performance and having backed them to score 35 points or more I was well beaten.

More trouble was to follow on Saturday in the Griquas v Pumas game where I thought the home team would make short work of the visitors. After a promising start it was the Pumas though that did most of the play and once again the bookies emerged on top.

On to the Stormers against the Lions in Cape Town and I backed the Stormers to lead by 6 points or more at the break. It was never in the running and after Rieko dropped the ball last week I am done with half time handicaps.

Things got worse though as I started chasing my losses and the Lions were on 10 points at half-time and I backed them to score 18 or more in the match. The Stormers were leading 23-17 when they missed a penalty which would have put them ahead by 9 with 3 minutes to play. This would have been good for my bet as the Lions, if they had got within range would have taken a penalty for the bonus point and my points bet would have arrived. The kick missed though and my weekend was going from bad to worse.  

I considered a reckless bet on Australia to score 16 points or more in the Bledisloe Cup game but fortunately I slept on that one and when I woke up I decided to rather take New Zealand under 34.5 points which arrived (not without a sweat mind you) and at least put a dent into my losses.

The best advice I can give you if you find yourself chasing losses is to take a step back until you see things more clearly. Betting when emotional ends in tears virtually every time.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 22 October 2020.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register