I used to track each and every bet I placed, but these days I simply reconcile my betting accounts at the end of the weekend to see if I made a profit or a loss.

The way I work is I round down to the nearest R1000 so for example if my balance with the bookmaker is R3600 I would consider that to be R3000. After a roller coaster betting weekend I logged on to my accounts for the balances. One balance stood out as it ended in R990 and according to my system if I had R10 more in that account it would actually be the equivalent of an additional R1000 onto my balance.

I did what any red blooded punter would and looked for a short priced bet to make buy me R10. I found live in-play betting in a tennis match on the WTA Tour. I cannot even recall the players names, but the one lady won the first set 6-1 and it was 4-4 in the second. The market that caught my eye was “to win the most games” where the first set winner was trading as a 1/20 favourite. I stuck R200 on and began to watch the betting.

I was reminded again there is no such thing as easy money and she lost the next two games and the second set. Her price dropped to 1/10 and then 2/15 before reaching 3/10.

I may have had a very small bet on, but I was thoroughly entertained watching the betting moves as it shortened once again to 1/10 and then to my horror a bet which I had taken a 5% return on went out as big as 14/10 for a 140% return. I was now more likely to lose the R200 than win the R10.

Fortunately, there was another swing in the match and the price hovered around the 1/16 mark before the market closed and the R10 was credited to my account.

I started a Twitter Thread during the game and while sure that many people will think I am mad in the head to have done this, I know that many punters would understand and one even tweeted “makes perfect sense, surely everyone does this”?

All is well that ends well and I had bought myself the R10 I needed, but certainly not with a sweat.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 1 April 2021.

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