Having enjoyed a couple of profitable weeks I was full of confidence heading into the Easter weekend and all of the rugby that came with it.

As a punter of many years’ experience, I have learnt though that form is fickle and things can turn in an instant and let’s just say that “Good Friday” wasn’t very good for my sports betting accounts.

I took an absolute pounding and when my Best Bet of the weekend, Rebels (+4.5) failed to arrive against the Brumbies on Saturday morning I took a conscious decision to shut up shop before I gave back all of the profits of the previous weeks.

I enjoyed some great time with the family on Sunday and most of Monday was spent lying on the couch doing some research for this week’s US Masters and also looking at some cycling bets.

Then a post on the Goodforthegame Forum caught my eye and it came from one of the shrewder Forum members, ThoughtsOnSports who made UCT a good bet (+18.5) against Maties.

The handicap did seem high and I ventured out of my shell to place the bet only getting (+17.5) as the money had begun to come for the UCT. I watched the game and it was one of those bets that was just never in doubt. UCT started strongly, went into the lead and ended up holding on to win the game by 6 points and I know many punters who not only took the (+18.5) but also the 7/1 that UCT would win the game.

The boys had played it perfectly and ThoughtsOnSports was rightfully getting back slaps for sharing the pick. I hadn’t bet that big so it was not enough to totally turn my weekend, but great to get some momentum heading into the new week.

When I logged on to my bookmakers account I noticed the bet had not been credited yet and I initially thought perhaps they were a little bit slow to process. However I was horrified to find that I had in fact backed the Maties (-17.5) in error.

There was almost an air of resignation about me as I realized that without bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all. I placed the winning bet, but even this turned out to be a loser on what was my worst weekend of the year by some distance.

Twitter: @BrentGraham.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 8 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