One of the most important parts of becoming a good gambler is learning how to control your emotions. Having a clear head at all times is vital to ensuring that you focus on the bets at hand.
We’ve put together a few basic tips and observations in order to help you handle your feelings and emotions and get the most out of your betting time:
Stubbornness
A classic human weakness is being stubborn and determined to stick to our guns no matter what – this could be a big issue when it comes to betting. People tend to look for evidence that supports their views and ignore evidence that contradicts it. No matter how strongly you believe in your pick, you should make sure that you are still considering new information that you receive. Successful bettors need to make sure that they are always taking different possibilities into account and should be willing to change their betting strategy if things change. Use data to make informed decisions and not just to support your existing viewpoint.
Happiness
It’s been proven in many studies that being very happy leads to people taking more risks. Being extremely happy is a sort of ‘high’ that could cause you to make snap decisions based on the moment instead of based on facts. Winning a previous bet could lead to a momentary elation that causes you to be overconfident in your next bet and maybe place a bet that you wouldn’t normally have. The solution to this is, of course, not to be unhappy, but rather be cognizant of your mood and make sure that you take a step back and think clearly when it comes to any important betting decisions.
Gambler’s fallacy
This is not so much an emotion, but more of a thought pattern that occurs for many gamblers. Gamblers have a tendency to think that if something happens a lot of times in a row, it is bound to happen again, or the exact opposite, that there is no chance it could happen again. However, despite how many times things happen, it doesn’t change the actual odds of the game. For instance, if Roulette lands on red 10 times in a row, gambler’s fallacy makes people think that it has to land on black at some point, even though the odds haven’t changed at all. Just like with a coin, the odds are 50:50 that it will land on either head or tails. Even if it lands on tails 20 times in a row, it doesn’t change the odds that there is still only a 50:50 chance of it landing on either heads or tails. Similar scenarios can happen with sports betting, so make sure that you don’t fall victim to this train of thought and don’t let it influence your betting decisions.
Anger or fear
Losing bets can elicit the strongest emotions out of bettors, usually, these emotions are either anger or fear. Both of these emotions could influence your future bets and cause you to perhaps place irrational bets, chase losses, or ruin your long term betting strategy. The most successful gamblers use losing bets as opportunities to learn and know to never focus all their attention on only one bet and always have a series of outside bets to ensure their overall profitability.