In Answer to Arodd's Question!

Even though he didn't actually post it up in a comment ;) I found it again in the chat and will try to answer it as best I can.

The Question was: How do you deal with greed?

That is a tough question as one could argue that my entire philosophy of punting is based on greed, as I suppose is a Bookmakers!

If you realise the concept that bookmakers know that winning punters do indeed always put their winnings back in, then this is probably the first thing you need to address in your own style, so that you too do not fall foul of this. However as a compounding gambler myself I can hardly preach!

Personally I try not to think of money as money but instead look at profit or loss purely as a percentage of bank. I also do not consider the money in my Betfair account as mine until I withdraw it.

Both these things go some way to help me distance the financial transaction of placing a bet with real money and as such emotion. I have had matches where I have lost £1,000's, however losing 100% of bank is the same whether your bank is £10 or £1,000 in terms of percentage. Both have the same outcome... a zero balance. If you also consider your wins in the same regard then the euphoria associated with a win is also dissipated.

This is probably the fundamental part. Two things keep people gambling! Firstly the euphoria of a win and the urge to get that again, secondly the need to regain your losses or "chasing" which is nigh on impossible to eradicate.

This probably hasn't actually answered the question, but if you remember not to personalise your gambling it is a start I guess.

One last thing always remember that Gordon Gecko was wrong when he said "Greed is Good". Instead adopt as your mantra:

"Green is Good, Greed is Bad!!"