Why Did You Win or Lose Your Bet?

You may think a lot about how you are going to wager going into a bet, and you probably feel pretty anxious during the bet, but what happens afterward?  You win or lose, but at that point, is your work done?  Do you go off and celebrate if you won, mope a bit if you lose, and then get on to your next bet?  If you do, you probably are repeating the same mistakes going forward—and also missing out on the opportunity to identify and hone your strengths.

What you should do after you win or lose a bet is sit down, record the win or loss in your betting spreadsheet, and then open up your betting journal and write about it.  Actually, I recommend you start your journaling process before you even place your wager, when you are planning your bet.  Then record your emotions and observations during the bet, and finally, do some analysis and write down what you have learned in hindsight.

Whether you win or lose a bet, it is essential that you understand why you won or lost it.  A bet you won by complete coincidence is not really a win when it comes to betting professionally, because you cannot repeat it.  Likewise, if you lost a wager but you did everything right, it may not be a big deal.  If you lost it because you made an identifiable mistake you prevent in the future, it is important to pin down what you did wrong.

Always ask yourself:

• What was the basis for this bet?  What was the process which I used to come to this decision?

• Was the basis sound, logical, and tested?  Was I following all my system rules?  What about my money management rules?

• Were my emotions interfering in my betting process?  What about any distractions?

• Did I win or lose because of a bizarre random fluke, or was there something specific which I should have noticed before I bet the way I did?  If so, did I catch it or miss it? 

• If I lost, did I lose because I made a mistake I could avoid in the future?  If I were facing the same prospective bet today, would I bet differently, and would I win? 

• Is there a pattern to the mistakes I regularly make? 

Running through questions like these will help you to spot errors you repeatedly make, and will also help you to evaluating if you are successfully avoiding them in the future.  You will also figure out the reasons why you win bets.  When you understand why you win when you do, those patterns can be replicated, and you can win even more going forward.