What Can Multi-tabling Teach Us About Sports Betting? Part 3

In this series, I have been discussing how multi-tabling in poker can teach us useful lessons for managing bets while wagering on sports and juggling multiple bets at a time.  If you haven’t already, start with Part 1 to learn what multi-tabling is, and why we can relate it to sports betting.  Then check out Part 2 for a couple of different in-depth lessons.  Once you have caught up, read on to find out more lessons that multi-tabling can teach us for managing sports wagers!

1. Track your wagers and analyse your performance.

Poker players who multi-table have a lot of games to keep track of, which is why they download poker tracking software.  This software documents their actions and results in their games and also tracks the decisions other players make.  The software can make recommendations for future games based on its analysis and yours.

In sports betting, you don’t need to keep track of any opponents, but you do need to carefully track your own activities.  The more bets you place, the harder it can be to do that without a system.  To that end, you should keep a betting journal and a spreadsheet, and you may also want to think about investing in sports betting tracking software.  Go back regularly over your history.  This will help you figure out which bets you are winning and losing, and may also help you to optimise and put a maximum cap on the wagers you will enter at once.

2. Eliminate distractions.

Just managing a single bet at a time can be tough if there is a lot going on in your environment.  You want to do what you can to minimise distractions even if you are engaged in just a single bet, but if you are going to be juggling more than one at a time, you really need to be able to focus.  It is tough following along with multiple matches or sports simultaneously, especially when wagering live.

So get rid of the distractions in your betting space!  Turn off your cell phone and keep chat programs offline.  Close out of unnecessary browser windows.  Shut the door, and if you live with other people, tell them that you need this time to focus and make money.  Commit yourself to concentrating 100%.  If you can’t concentrate, you shouldn’t be betting.  Make it easy on yourself!  You will get a lot more done, and you will make a lot more money.

3. Rein in your enthusiasm.

One of the biggest dangers of juggling bets is the feeling like if you can just take on more, you can get rich quick.  You get hooked on taking advantage of as many opportunities as you can, and you hate the feeling that there is money out there to be made and you aren’t making it.

This is a problem that poker players who multi-table deal with as well.  They push themselves too far, and they often don’t realise it until they have lost a lot of money.  It’s just all too easy to add another table and try to play another game.

The same goes for sports betting, and arguably it’s actually even easier to go too far, because all you have to do is place a wager.  You don’t need to play a game.  Once your wager is placed, unless you plan to modify or cancel it, your role is over.  You are just waiting to see if you will win.  And you know what they say about idle hands.  So you may think, “If I am just waiting around for something to happen anyway, why not just bet again on something else?”

Waiting is not the same thing as wasting time, however, and you should never treat the two as if they are.  There are a lot of other activities you can do during that time if you want something else to do.  You can take notes in your betting journal, look back at past wagers, or start analysing for future matches.  This is much better than going overboard with your bets and getting addicted.  Remember, no one gets addicting to winning—only to betting!  Winning never comes out of addictive wagering.  It comes out of smart, focused, moderated betting.

Hopefully these lessons from poker multi-tabling have provided you with a fresh perspective on managing multiple wagers as a sports punter.  If you can juggle bets and win more money, by all means, go for it!  But remember that we all have our limits, and your goal is to optimise your wagering, not simply take on as many bets as possible.  Take on only what you can handle, and you will optimise your return on investment too.