Overcoming Your Fear of Betting Bigger
Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 6:07 pm
OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR OF BETTING BIGGER
I see a lot of players step up to the table and buy in for $1000 or more. Then they'll wait for the next shooter to set a point and their first bet will be something like a $12 Six or maybe a $12 Six and Eight with a $15 Come Bet to act as a partial hedge against the second roll Seven. Now, in my mind this is a player who can afford to bet $80 to $100 or more per shooter, depending on his strategy, yet he's only willing to risk $9 - $12 in this example. In Heavy vernacular, I'd say this person has a pair of gnat balls. In this person's own language, he'd probably say he's playing it conservative, waiting to see if a hand develops. But the fact probably lies somewhere in between. The fact is this person is most likely afraid to bet bigger because he's afraid of a large initial loss he'll have to struggle to recover from. In other words - he's playing with what we often refer to as "scared money."
The problem with playing with scared money is that it makes it almost impossible to win. Small losses mount up to the point that it takes a huge win to recover, but the player is frightened to bet beyond certain levels, so as my friend Parson puts it, he doesn't have enough "paint on the brush" when it comes time to score a profit.
The key to this game is ultimately money management and discipline, and to bet less when you are losing and more when you are winning. But in my opinion you have to start out with a first bet that can give you the possibility of the win. So let's look at our player with the $1000 buy in and think what he might do in order to improve his possibilities for a win.
By breaking his bankroll down into 12 betting amounts - enough to give him around $85 to bet on each shooter on a relatively full table with 12 players - he has a number of options that can get him off on the right foot. Right off the bat I'd suggest he forget about the Pass Line and just Place Bet. He could Bet $42 each on the Six and Eight and have $84 action once the point is established. Give the shooter three or four shots at tossing a Six or Eight. If either number rolls he gets paid $50 for $1. Then he can regress his bets to $12 each on the Six and Eight and have $24 action and a $25 profit guaranteed in the rack. Or he can take it all down and have $49 profit in the rack. Or he can regress to $18 each on the Six and Eight and have a $13 guarantee in the rack. The point is, he has options. If he stays up he can say "same bet" on the next hit and increase his guarantee. Or he can Press one or both of his numbers. Or he can take a portion of his winnings out of the rack and Power Press the number that hit. Again, options. And THAT is the key to getting more "paint on the brush." Keeping those options open, and being prepared to exercise those options.
Now let's say our player has Pressed his bets back up to $42 on the Six and $90 on the Eight and he's noticed that the Nine is rolling on every fourth or fifth toss. He gets another $50 for $1 hit on the Six. Instead of Pressing the Six to $90 he might Press it to $60 and then Place the Nine for $25. He still gets a few dollars change for his rack and has spread out to the Nine. The next hit on the Nine pays $35. He Presses that number to $35 and locks up $35. Now he's set to collect $50 for $1 every time the Nine rolls again. And he's done this all without dipping deeper into his original $85 for that particular shooter. The REASON he was able to do this because he had the INITIAL "paint on the brush," that $42 Six and Eight, to get things started.
Will it work out this way every time? Of course not. You are always going to have those PSO's and short hands that will eat up your initial bets or cut short your profits, but once you get that first regression in you're in the perfect position to turn a profit, and it's all because you positioned yourself to do so from the beginning of the hand.
Real POWER when it comes to playing this game begins on the day you step OUT of your comfort zone and embrace your fears. By "embrace your fears" I mean "do the thing you are afraid of." By creating a specific game plan to do that and committing it to memory so that you do it on auto-pilot you essentially give up control of that fear over your game. No, it's not going to happen overnight. It may take months, or even years to get there. Especially if you don't play on a weekly or monthly basis like some of us. But you WILL get there over time if you work on it consistently - even if it's just in your practice sessions at home.
Serious about making changes? Write down the changes you want to make in your game and how you plan to do it. Then read your list of goals regularly - before every practice session and before every live session just to reinforce where you're trying to get to. Then when you get to the tables - do it, regardless of the results the first few times out. You'll eventually overcome the fear monster and be able to play with confidence at the level you deserve to play at. I promise.
I see a lot of players step up to the table and buy in for $1000 or more. Then they'll wait for the next shooter to set a point and their first bet will be something like a $12 Six or maybe a $12 Six and Eight with a $15 Come Bet to act as a partial hedge against the second roll Seven. Now, in my mind this is a player who can afford to bet $80 to $100 or more per shooter, depending on his strategy, yet he's only willing to risk $9 - $12 in this example. In Heavy vernacular, I'd say this person has a pair of gnat balls. In this person's own language, he'd probably say he's playing it conservative, waiting to see if a hand develops. But the fact probably lies somewhere in between. The fact is this person is most likely afraid to bet bigger because he's afraid of a large initial loss he'll have to struggle to recover from. In other words - he's playing with what we often refer to as "scared money."
The problem with playing with scared money is that it makes it almost impossible to win. Small losses mount up to the point that it takes a huge win to recover, but the player is frightened to bet beyond certain levels, so as my friend Parson puts it, he doesn't have enough "paint on the brush" when it comes time to score a profit.
The key to this game is ultimately money management and discipline, and to bet less when you are losing and more when you are winning. But in my opinion you have to start out with a first bet that can give you the possibility of the win. So let's look at our player with the $1000 buy in and think what he might do in order to improve his possibilities for a win.
By breaking his bankroll down into 12 betting amounts - enough to give him around $85 to bet on each shooter on a relatively full table with 12 players - he has a number of options that can get him off on the right foot. Right off the bat I'd suggest he forget about the Pass Line and just Place Bet. He could Bet $42 each on the Six and Eight and have $84 action once the point is established. Give the shooter three or four shots at tossing a Six or Eight. If either number rolls he gets paid $50 for $1. Then he can regress his bets to $12 each on the Six and Eight and have $24 action and a $25 profit guaranteed in the rack. Or he can take it all down and have $49 profit in the rack. Or he can regress to $18 each on the Six and Eight and have a $13 guarantee in the rack. The point is, he has options. If he stays up he can say "same bet" on the next hit and increase his guarantee. Or he can Press one or both of his numbers. Or he can take a portion of his winnings out of the rack and Power Press the number that hit. Again, options. And THAT is the key to getting more "paint on the brush." Keeping those options open, and being prepared to exercise those options.
Now let's say our player has Pressed his bets back up to $42 on the Six and $90 on the Eight and he's noticed that the Nine is rolling on every fourth or fifth toss. He gets another $50 for $1 hit on the Six. Instead of Pressing the Six to $90 he might Press it to $60 and then Place the Nine for $25. He still gets a few dollars change for his rack and has spread out to the Nine. The next hit on the Nine pays $35. He Presses that number to $35 and locks up $35. Now he's set to collect $50 for $1 every time the Nine rolls again. And he's done this all without dipping deeper into his original $85 for that particular shooter. The REASON he was able to do this because he had the INITIAL "paint on the brush," that $42 Six and Eight, to get things started.
Will it work out this way every time? Of course not. You are always going to have those PSO's and short hands that will eat up your initial bets or cut short your profits, but once you get that first regression in you're in the perfect position to turn a profit, and it's all because you positioned yourself to do so from the beginning of the hand.
Real POWER when it comes to playing this game begins on the day you step OUT of your comfort zone and embrace your fears. By "embrace your fears" I mean "do the thing you are afraid of." By creating a specific game plan to do that and committing it to memory so that you do it on auto-pilot you essentially give up control of that fear over your game. No, it's not going to happen overnight. It may take months, or even years to get there. Especially if you don't play on a weekly or monthly basis like some of us. But you WILL get there over time if you work on it consistently - even if it's just in your practice sessions at home.
Serious about making changes? Write down the changes you want to make in your game and how you plan to do it. Then read your list of goals regularly - before every practice session and before every live session just to reinforce where you're trying to get to. Then when you get to the tables - do it, regardless of the results the first few times out. You'll eventually overcome the fear monster and be able to play with confidence at the level you deserve to play at. I promise.