15th November 2001 - issue 8

1. P2P Poker sites?

I have received an unsolicited e mail from an online casino site which offered poker rooms. Technically you could say that these are person 2 person sites, ie private individuals betting amongst themselves, with the host site just taking a commission. The problem with these sites is that you don't know who you are playing with. For all you know your opponents could be in league with each other, in contact by telephone or email, just waiting for a mug punter, you, to come and join their game. If you find yourself in this situation you could be taken to the cleaners.

(Post editorial note:  poker sites are now much bigger business than betting exchanges, and whilst there is a danger of collusion the sites have sophisticated software to detect this and they bar anyone caught cheating in this way.) 

2. Covering your losses in soccer matches

When there is a red hot favourite playing at home I often look to see if there is a chance of the away team pulling off a bit of an upset and snatching a draw. When you think you have spotted a team which could pull it off, and you back the draw it is very frustrating when the underdogs go one better and actually win the match! This happened to me over the weekend when I backed Arsenal £50 at 5-1 to draw with Charlton. Arsenal missed a hat full of chances, Charlton converted their's and pulled off a highly unlikely victory, losing me my fifty quid. In future I will be taking out a small insurance policy against this, which is something you may wish to consider doing yourself.

If in addition to my £50 main bet, I had staked just £5 on the Charlton victory at 10-1 I would have won £50 which would have cancelled out the losses from my main bet. Therefore I would have broken even. Having removed the away victory from the picture this just left the home win -£55 and the draw +£245 as the only two results which could impact on my account. This means that the odds I am getting on the draw have been reduced from 5-1 to 9-2, but I think that is a worthwhile price to pay, to prevent the losses and above all frustration I experienced over the weekend.