Odds-and-ends handicapping is the guide to cashing for profit, Part 2

by Frank Cotolo

Part 1 is here.

It is an astounding blend of academics and gambling that taught me more than any textbook through high school. At first, I did not understand how the two subjects could complete a perfect marriage. That was not my fault because I grew up in the 1950s surrounded by poorly taught and emotionally crippled people.

The guidance counselor in my junior high school told my mother I was an “outsider who would never fit into the mainstream.” That was a gentle way to label me a “loser.” A teacher in that same school system warned my mother I was a “classic risk-taker” which could only lead to hurting myself and maybe even some of those around me. Those opinions molded the grades they gave me no matter what work I produced along the way.

The smartest thing I ever did while being judged a student in perpetual disrepair was to ignore them all; dismiss their predictions of my failure and build my own wheelhouse. All in all, it was a battle of fear and yet I paid no attention to the anxiety it caused and focused on only the academic bits and pieces that served me and enjoyed the company of my artistic side.

No wonder I was attracted to how math could be one of a gambler’s greatest tools. It expressed opinions and literally was accountable for successes and failures. So, I could survive and thrive regardless of being dismissed by generations of closed minds.

What were the odds? I learned to answer that question one pari-mutuel bet after another. I embraced the necessary academics of math using the odds-to-percentages table and the utilities to manage the money I risked by their measures and the results were emancipating. I was no longer a hopeless longshot at anything I tried to achieve; I became an anomaly among the wagering masses: I made a profit playing the horses.

The second element, as I always swore, was grasping “Money Management.” It is the enemy of the common gambler who refuses to play like a professional. And that is necessary to satisfy the conditions of making a profit at a game with no regard for your feelings or your bank account. A successful gambler never needs bragging rights when winning nor blames the fates when losing. A successful gambler follows the professional rules even though the process includes unpredictable luck or the lack of it in no particular proportions. The matter of ruin is reduced to high odds when the process is not corrupted by ego or fear or any emotion raring to toss the formula asunder.

Another great thing about the team of academics and mathematics is with some experience under the belt the individual player can tweak the rules here and there. The main elements can be adjusted; the process can be personalized. The mark of the individual gambler is usually present in any wagering campaign. Why? Because the foundation of professional play is more powerful than whatever emotional components invade a process of simply picking winners.

Even more brilliant factors adorning the true process of handicapping is the fact that there are many times it insists you do not make any particular wager. Yes. The smartest way to respect the math and the method is to agree upon no action at all. This is a factor that tests the nerves of a gambler. What a magnificent feeling it becomes when a bettor is able to ignore making a bet on a race simply because the chances established came up short. Especially after passing a race and watching one of the top choices on a personal odds line win.

“You passed on that horse?” a betting friend of mine said to me.

“Yes,” I said.

“You told me it was your top choice. Who did you wind up playing?”

“I did not play the race at all.”

“But why? You had a top choice.”

“I wanted more than the bet offered.”

“A winning ticket is a winning ticket.”

That is a typical conversation with the average pari-mutuel player. I understand his questions but he refuses to accept my answers. So did many of the public handicappers I knew and worked with professionally. I care not to argue with them as much as I do not care to make a serious wager on any race not meeting my methods.

Of course, he was right about the success of cashing a ticket if the horse you bet upon won. But he was unable to grasp the most important truth of the matter: Success is not measured by the number of winning tickets you cash but by the prices of the winning tickets you cash.