Advice on how to Pass the Way from a Sports Fan to Professional Punter from the First Person

In the betting industry, there are a lot of books, each of which offers different kinds of information useful both for professional and beginner gamblers. Michael Konik’s The Smart Money is one of them since it describes the way of a man from a usual sports fan to a really successful bettor who could afford himself to freely lose about $40,000 from a single bet. The key message of the given book is that finding a reliable and suitable bookmaker is the most difficult part of professional gambling.

Yet at the very beginning of his career, Konik understood that it was always impossible to find a bookmaker that would allow you winning consistent benefits. Also, The Smart Money is extremely popular because it covers a wide audience. It is equally useful both for professional punters and for people who just make their first steps in the betting industry. Thus, the given article will provide you with the general review of the book.

The Basics of Betting

It is very interesting that the book was being written as the author was gaining experience. Thus, he describes new knowledge in details, and if you do not know what spread betting is or how to calculate expected value, the book is created specifically for you. Then, Konik emphasizes at once that it is not reasonable to look for benefits in the games with the negative expected value such as roulette and blackjack.

In such a manner, the bettor leads his readers to more serious phenomena that can be faced in the betting industry. Finally, the main lesson to be learned from the first part of the book is that losses are inevitable for successful punters. The only possible thing to do here is to make false predictions as rare as possible.

Sophisticating the Betting Process

Over his first gambling season, Konik did not achieve any significant success, nor he managed to obtain a lot of benefits. It was then that he understood that the man who wanted to succeed in betting would to work hard and long.

Also, it was the time when Konik found out that any external factors could easily influence a final outcome. Thus, the importance of injuries, variable weather conditions, and team news are highlighted throughout the whole book. To prove this idea, you can take a look at the example mentioned in the book when the author changed his handicap before it was too late after he knew that opponents had suspended players.

Bad Repute among Bookmakers

As soon as Konik caught a betting success, it did not take a lot of time for bookmakers to get wind of him and his possibilities. That is why they closed their doors for this bettor who was forced then to start betting with offshore bookmakers. In fact, it was not very difficult for him to make correct predictions, but certain problems arose when the bookmakers saw his winnings. As a result, he was consistently banned and limited for a number of reasons. Also, it was a real challenge to withdraw benefits earned. Thus, he always repeats his own phrase that is extremely sad for all the bookmakers: “you cannot win and if you can, you cannot play”.

The Betting Psychology

Though The Smart Money is full of interesting and useful stories on how to earn money at gambling, this fundamental work does not describe any emotions or psychological aspects of placing wagers the bettor feels over his way. At least, it is so until final chapters where Konik repeatedly admits that huge benefits do not gladden him. At that time, he misses his ex-girlfriend very much. Thus, it is an evidence that it does not matter how successful and rich you are; you will sometimes want to live a normal life.

It is High-time to Stop

Though Konik managed to achieve the enormous success over three years of betting, he decided to stop it in 2000. Finally, the author survived the experience all other gamblers could only dream of and left the fundamental work for the whole betting industry.