Leaving a Winner?

I wonder about gamblers sometimes. Why do we do it? The obvious reason is to win money? Right? Then why when so many of us win, we turn around and "give it all back". I mean, weren't we gambling to win? So if we win then we quit and say "Yay I won". Right? Wrong!!!!

This dilemma has concerned me for quite some time. I ask myself what's important? The gambling or the winning? Because if it were the winning and then I won, wouldn't I be right out of there? No. So many times this has happened and I am not right out of there. So I came to the conclusion that the gambling is more important. It's important to have play, action... Given that case my solution is to back off my bets to a point that I can't take myself out of the winning column. The goal I set for myself was half of the winnings so that I could leave with more than I came with.

In theory, this is a great idea. In practice, not so great. Here's what happened to me yesterday:

I had decided to start betting horses. I know nothing about them, not really. So I went to a web site and gathered some information on five tracks running at my simulcast venue. Armed with my "horse stats", a win/place strategy, I began. Things were deteriorating. All of a sudden, I caught an 11-1 and the exacta in the same race. The $5 WP netted me $87.50 and the $1 Exacta $65.00. There it was! The big hit! That race put me ahead around $80 after fighting them all day. I then gave most of it back. The thinking was: I'm going to hit another one. This describes it in a nutshell. I ended up down for the day. Not a good feeling. Oh, to learn from one's mistakes.

Tonight: Better. I was ahead $30 gave $15 back, and walked out ahead $15. This is so do able! More later!