Years of gambling have instilled in me an automatic response to always look for edges and solve problems. That mindset has spilled over into non-gambling areas of my life, too.
For example, one of my major gripes in life – and no doubt one of yours – is queuing. It is particularly annoying at supermarkets when you join a line you gamble will be the quickest, only to find another till opens up and all those behind you dive into the new space and find themselves at the front. Damn!
Yes, I know it’s a bit sad but I’ve developed a strategy to find the quickest-moving queue. Well, that’s the plan anyway. It may already be obvious to many… but it still puzzles me why most don’t use it.
So here’s what I do: I simply look to see which trolley or basket in front has the most ‘duplicated’ items. For instance, one lady in front of me last week had about 20 tins of dog food (all same brand, I might add) and the man immediately behind her had about two dozen bags of frozen chips (had to be a cheapskate restaurateur) so this till was my target.
Once the checkout guy came to Ms Dog Food, he scanned only one tin and then multiplied that figure by whatever the total amount was in her trolley.
Ditto for Mr Chips. One bag of cheap chips was scanned, the rest were counted and totalled up and he was out of there in a jiffy.
With a smug smile on my face, I sailed through leaving the fair weather queue shufflers for the newly-opened till wondering where they went wrong…
So why do many overlook the obvious? Maybe they just have patience and having nothing better to do than stand in queues all day trying to resist the impulse buys as they move along. Not me, I want to be in and out ASAP so I can eat my 20 freshly baked croissants while they’re still warm.
It doesn’t always work, however. You always get the odd customer asking a thousand and one questions. Or they’ve forgotten something and the helpful checkout operator offers to go and get it. But it is all about reducing the risk and getting it right most of the time rather than all of the time.
Much like our gambling, where many seek to always try and win, win, win. A couple of losses and they abandon ship and look again.
When next gambling or following a service, consider this: when you lose you are coming closer to a winner if your system or strategy is fundamentally sound.
If you have more than one loss, you’re getting even closer to win, and so on. Don’t give up on losses, simply get ready to collect your winnings sooner rather than later…
Anyway, all this talk of queue-jumping reminds me of the 70’s Kids TV show Runaround with host Mike ‘Frank Butcher’ Reid. Don’t knock him – he didn’t have Phil and Graaaaant to contend with in them days.
How to give your bookie your very own Runaround…
Two services we’ve been trialling over the last 10 weeks could have blown the bookies out of the water based on their win/lose pattern, at least to the tune of £600-700 per month at £10 level stakes.
Up to the end of week 9 they reached a high of £805 combined to £10 levels. Now that would make a nice second income for anyone, wouldn’t you say? Double that monthly profit if using £20 level stakes.
Both services could really do some damage if used in tandem in a portfolio approach, as they compliment each other in terms of the pattern of winners that has developed.
One service has frequent bets at the higher end of the price spectrum, and the other service has fewer bets at lower prices (although not that low I might add).
Don’t worry about bookies’ restrictions…
As mentioned repeatedly over recent weeks, a new bookie on the block will help make this £700 or £1400 second income possible.
Blacktype.bet promise not to ban or restrict punters for individual winnings up to £500. So bingo, we’re in… at least for now!
I will be back with a full round up and trial conclusion of all three services next week. For now, do click on the links further below to see which two services I’m referring to.
1) Banker Bets: Service introduction here and results can be found here.
2) Carl Nicholson’s Racing Diary: Service introduction here and results can be found here.
3). Each-Way Kings: Service introduction here and results can be found here.