When Should You Increase Unit Size?

Question

Hello everyone,

I joined covers.com a few weeks ago and really appreciate everything I have been learning here and most of the people are really great. I had been a part-time sports bettor for roughly 10 years and a full-time employee of the system for the same time.
Last month I was laid off from my job and left with a sour taste in my mouth from it. I really had (and still have) no interest in returning to the workplace as a guinea pig to the system. I've always wanted to handicap games full-time and decided I was going to invest some of my severance pay into my Sportsbook account and give it my best effort.
The hardest part for me is having the discipline to stick with a set of rules I've made for myself, and the patience to not deviate away from the systems I have decided to use.

Well I've rambled on enough about me (am I allowed to do that on here?), here's to the question I am hoping for some insight on from all you Professionals..

I've read that one should start with a unit size about 2-5% of your total bankroll. Sound about right?
AT WHAT POINT should one increase the dollar amount of their Unit size???

When I started this thing on April 30th, 2009, I started with a unit size of 5% of my total bankroll. I have been using 3 systems during this time (the RL Blitz system posted by prof8t, the HFOUDL system posted by Tomspeople, and one I created myself which is currently 7-0 for +8 units).
I've lost some units due to betting on the Kentucky Derby and The Preakness (hard to resist those ponies) and on some parley bets (something which I've learned to not be betting anymore). Now I am ONLY playing the system plays from the 3 above.

I am currently +9.2 units good for a 31.5% increase to my bankroll (subsequently, if I had only been playing system plays the whole time I would be +27 units or 126% increase! Yes, the ponies really hurt me!)

What are some thoughts about when one should increase the $$ amount of their units?

Cheers
Parker

(Sorry for the really long post, I can ramble on forever when I start writing this time of day..)

kreatture · Answer

Hello everyone,

I joined covers.com a few weeks ago and really appreciate everything I have been learning here and most of the people are really great. I had been a part-time sports bettor for roughly 10 years and a full-time employee of the system for the same time.
Last month I was laid off from my job and left with a sour taste in my mouth from it. I really had (and still have) no interest in returning to the workplace as a guinea pig to the system. I've always wanted to handicap games full-time and decided I was going to invest some of my severance pay into my Sportsbook account and give it my best effort.
The hardest part for me is having the discipline to stick with a set of rules I've made for myself, and the patience to not deviate away from the systems I have decided to use.

Well I've rambled on enough about me (am I allowed to do that on here?), here's to the question I am hoping for some insight on from all you Professionals..

I've read that one should start with a unit size about 2-5% of your total bankroll. Sound about right?
AT WHAT POINT should one increase the dollar amount of their Unit size???

When I started this thing on April 30th, 2009, I started with a unit size of 5% of my total bankroll. I have been using 3 systems during this time (the RL Blitz system posted by prof8t, the HFOUDL system posted by Tomspeople, and one I created myself which is currently 7-0 for +8 units).
I've lost some units due to betting on the Kentucky Derby and The Preakness (hard to resist those ponies) and on some parley bets (something which I've learned to not be betting anymore). Now I am ONLY playing the system plays from the 3 above.

I am currently +9.2 units good for a 31.5% increase to my bankroll (subsequently, if I had only been playing system plays the whole time I would be +27 units or 126% increase! Yes, the ponies really hurt me!)

What are some thoughts about when one should increase the $$ amount of their units?

Cheers
Parker

(Sorry for the really long post, I can ramble on forever when I start writing this time of day..)

jv040 · Answer

it all depends what betting method your using. &#xA0;If your using the laubuerche line then I think you can safley increase your line by 5% &#xA0;of your base bet for every 2 lines cleared. &#xA0;if your using the chase system. &#xA0;then I would wait on increasing your bet till at least your bankroll is doubled. &#xA0;I would play 1% instead of 2% of your banktroll just in case you crash. easy too crash using chase method. &#xA0;if your going too run snowball on some games then a smaller portion of your bankroll should be used like you could start out with like 10$ for example and bet 10 precent of that as your snowball increases so does your bet size and their are some really good betting systems where snowball would indefinetly be more profitable in the long run. &#xA0;snowball is a little more riske &#xA0;but if &#xA0;the winners start coming in then the bet size would increase rather quickly.

toft33 · Answer

I appreciate the question, b/c it is waking me up to the fact that I probably am underfunded on my bankroll, which I could afford to do, but I want to be conservative about it.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;So Kreatture - what would you say are the best of the three systems you are on now?

kreatture · Answer

[Quote: Originally Posted by toft33]  &#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;I appreciate the question, b/c it is waking me up to the fact that I probably am underfunded on my bankroll, which I could afford to do, but I want to be conservative about it.&#xD;&#xA; &#xD;&#xA;So Kreatture - what would you say are the best of the three systems you are on now?  &#xD;&#xA;   [/Quote]Hello toft, I apologize for not responding to you on your question. I just looked back on this thread this morning and saw your post.I believe unit size is an important factor in coping with your money management, and am working on what I feel comfortable using. I started my bankroll with a 5% Unit, but only started off using 1 system. There were only a couple of plays every few days so it was very manageable. Since then, I have tripled my bankroll since May 1st, but am currently still using the same unit size since I am running 3 or 4 systems now. I was encountering the problem of having too much money in play when I had 2 or 3 chases at the same time become 3 or 4 games deep and this made me very uncomfortable.Of the systems I am currently using, I would have to say all of them are proving to be very reliable. I&#x27;m around &#x2B;38 Units since May 1st.I have been documenting everything on spreadsheets and just recently moved them all over to Google Docs. I almost have everything to my liking and plan on starting my own thread which everyone can check out if they&#x27;re interested.I may have this completed as early as today.Cheers

JimmyJet · Answer

I believe that your bet size of 5% should remain at that percentage and as your bankroll increases than your bet size will also increase. If you hit a losing streak than your bet size will diminsh as your bankroll gets smaller. The hardest discipline to perfect is limiting your bets to that 5%.....i.e as you are following multiple systems you are tempted to place more wagers and the total of all wagers probably is exceeding 5% of your bankroll. I personally am reading and watching different systems including some of thos you are watching. Is my opinion that chase systems are dangerous for bankroll protection because there is no way you can limit yourself to 5% of bankroll each day. The ideal would be to take the best slections from different sysytems and through filters narrow down your plays to a few each day and thus increase your winning percentage and curb your vigorish. Good luck and hope to join you in a full time sports investing, but I need to retire first and learn a lot more. This a great place to do research.

sambuca frank · Answer

start with say 1000$(example). play 5%=55$(vig included).&#xD;&#xA;play this amt. till you reach 1500$.now play 4.5%(67.5$).&#xD;&#xA;play unto you reach 2250$.now play 4%(90$)&#xD;&#xA;keep doing this until you are playing 1% of your bankroll.&#xD;&#xA;see how you are increasing your wagers but decreasing your bankroll%? never decrease your unit size once you have reached your goal. by decreasing your % of bankroll you will escape GAMBLERS RUIN but will still be betting more than the previous plateau!!!!

allornothin · Answer

As soon as your girl says you are too small for her

chicano1 · Answer

I have purchased the ebook from Frank Belanger"bookie buster" Golden SystemsMAAAAAAAN its full of all sorts of good infomany different systems he even has an answer to this question !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

drknow · Answer

[Quote: Originally Posted by JimmyJet] &#xD;&#xA;I believe that your bet size of 5% should remain at that percentage and as your bankroll increases than your bet size will also increase. If you hit a losing streak than your bet size will diminsh as your bankroll gets smaller. The hardest discipline to perfect is limiting your bets to that 5%.....i.e as you are following multiple systems you are tempted to place more wagers and the total of all wagers probably is exceeding 5% of your bankroll. I personally am reading and watching different systems including some of thos you are watching. Is my opinion that chase systems are dangerous for bankroll protection because there is no way you can limit yourself to 5% of bankroll each day. The ideal would be to take the best slections from different sysytems and through filters narrow down your plays to a few each day and thus increase your winning percentage and curb your vigorish. Good luck and hope to join you in a full time sports investing, but I need to retire first and learn a lot more. This a great place to do research.[/Quote]

drknow · Answer

[Quote: Originally Posted by jv040] it all depends what betting method your using.  If your using the laubuerche line then I think you can safley increase your line by 5%  of your base bet for every 2 lines cleared.  if your using the chase system.  then I would wait on increasing your bet till at least your bankroll is doubled.  I would play 1% instead of 2% of your banktroll just in case you crash. easy too crash using chase method.  if your going too run snowball on some games then a smaller portion of your bankroll should be used like you could start out with like 10$ for example and bet 10 precent of that as your snowball increases so does your bet size and their are some really good betting systems where snowball would indefinetly be more profitable in the long run.  snowball is a little more riske  but if  the winners start coming in then the bet size would increase rather quickly.&#xD;&#xA;[/Quote]

drknow · Answer

[Quote: Originally Posted by sambuca frank] &#xD;&#xA;start with say 1000$(example). play 5%=55$(vig included).&#xD;&#xA;play this amt. till you reach 1500$.now play 4.5%(67.5$).&#xD;&#xA;play unto you reach 2250$.now play 4%(90$)&#xD;&#xA;keep doing this until you are playing 1% of your bankroll.&#xD;&#xA;see how you are increasing your wagers but decreasing your bankroll%? never decrease your unit size once you have reached your goal. by decreasing your % of bankroll you will escape GAMBLERS RUIN but will still be betting more than the previous plateau!!!![/Quote]

drknow · Answer

[Quote: Originally Posted by sambuca frank] &#xD;&#xA;start with say 1000$(example). play 5%=55$(vig included).&#xD;&#xA;play this amt. till you reach 1500$.now play 4.5%(67.5$).&#xD;&#xA;play unto you reach 2250$.now play 4%(90$)&#xD;&#xA;keep doing this until you are playing 1% of your bankroll.&#xD;&#xA;see how you are increasing your wagers but decreasing your bankroll%? never decrease your unit size once you have reached your goal. by decreasing your % of bankroll you will escape GAMBLERS RUIN but will still be betting more than the previous plateau!!!![/Quote]

kreatture · Answer

drknow.. was there a point to re-posting all those posts? LoLWas expecting some sort of commentary afterwards, but nothing..? LoL

When Should You Increase Unit Size?

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