Bankroll and risk
Tilt
Betting emotionally after losses — chasing, staking up, and abandoning your process.
Tilt is the bankroll killer that has nothing to do with handicapping. A bad beat leads to a bigger bet on a worse game, which loses, which leads to a bigger one still.
The defences are mechanical rather than emotional: fixed unit sizes, a maximum number of bets per day, and a rule that you never place a wager you did not identify before the losses happened. Deciding those rules while calm is the only reliable way to follow them while not.
Want the full version? Read the in-depth guide, with worked examples and the math.
See also
- Bankroll — The money set aside specifically for betting, separate from everything else you own.
- Flat betting — Staking the same amount on every bet regardless of how good it looks.
- Variance — The spread of outcomes around your expected result — why good bettors have terrible months.