Run Like a Drain

Home

This website is for me to write about my Poker, Matched Betting and Betfair Trading activities. I’m a keen amateur poker player and really enjoy it, which is just as well as I’ve been playing since 1976.

My blog is a mix of older poker related posts and newer ones about my passion for Betfair Exchange Trading. I concentrate on trading UK & Irish horse races In-Running.

Even though I’ve had some very good wins via poker, including an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to play the Aussie Millions and a World Series of Poker (WSOP) package to play a WSOP event in Las Vegas, poker is just a fun/social thing for me.

I am still relatively new to exchange trading but I am progressing nicely and I hope to be able to earn a regular income from it eventually.

My Old Blog

I had an old poker blog called “The Ramblings of a Poker Dinosaur” which I ran from 2008 until fairly recently but since I started matched betting about 3 or 4 years ago I’ve not updated it much.

In January 2019 I started “trading” on the Betfair exchange and since then I’ve dedicated virtually all the free time to trying to master it. I intend to chart my trading “journey” here as well as continue writing about my poker stuff.

Run Like a Drain Poker Chips
Run like a Drain Poker Chips

Regarding my old poker blog, I was always amazed how many people would visit that website each month even when I hadn’t posted anything new. When I did a new post literally thousands of people would go and read it.

It was very strange to me when I was sitting at a poker table and people would say “Hi Dave” to me and I’d be thinking, I’ve never met this guy in my life how the hell does he know me? Sometime later while we’d be chatting I’d find out he “knew me” from my blog!

So I’ve decided to migrate all the old post’s over from my old poker blog to here. It will encourage me to post poker stuff more often as well as sharing stuff about my new passion which is for trading horse races on the exchange.

I’m a complete novice at exchange trading so I plan to record my progression here. If you have no idea what it is don’t worry I didn’t all that long ago.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone trading on the Betfair Exchange unless you already have a very good idea how the exchange works. So I would strongly recommend you try “matched betting” first which is a risk free way of making money and you will learn, risk free, all about “Backing” and “Laying on the same event.

Matched Betting

I’ve been earning very good money in recent years via “Matched Betting” and more recently I’ve started to learn about “Exchange Trading on Betfair“.

Since I first went into a bookmakers office aged 18 in 1977 I’ve dreamed of “beating the bookies” and the fact that matched betting offers guaranteed winnings meant I found it irresistible.

So much so that I almost entirely stopped writing my poker blog and spent time writing about matched betting on my other website. FreeBetsOffers.

Matched betting is guaranteed tax free money but there is a limit to what you can win in the long term. Normally when you start out, assuming you’ve only currently got one or two bookmaker accounts, you can easily make use of all the opening free bet offers on new accounts and make about £700 in a couple of weeks for not much work.

Some people, not me of course, do multi-accounting so after they’ve done accounts in their own name they do them in their partners name, kids names, grandmothers, friends, neighbours etc etc, so they can get the £700 many times over.

Once you’ve exhausted that though you can still do it long term with “reload” offers but it’s harder work for lower returns, so being naturally lazy I became less interested in it.

Don’t get me wrong you can win consistently on an ongoing basis and earning £250 – £500 per month going forward is not to be sneezed at. Especially when it’s tax free, just sat at home on your PC. However I’ve been really busy work-wise in the last year or so, meaning I just haven’t had the time to dedicate to it. Though I still take advantage of the free bet offers for the really big sporting events like Cheltenham, The FA Cup Final, Wimbledon, Golf Majors etc.

Also in recent years I’ve had so many of my bookmaker accounts closed because as soon as they realise you’re not a standard punter they don’t want you.

Matched betting is all about using big free bets when you first start so the “value” isn’t so important. However to win once the big opening free bets dry up you need more “value” ie when a particular bookie is offering a slightly better price than all the others. The matched betting software I use finds all the bets for me, but it does highlight the fact to the bookie that you know what you’re doing.

Bookies know when they are offering better prices on a particular horse or football team to win a match than the other bookies, so as soon as they spot you only bet with them when they’re offering value they instantly restrict your account.

Even though it tilts the life out of me, I sort of also like the fact that they are clearly scared to take a bet off me. See an example email below. I’ve literally had dozens like this from bookies.

BetVictor Gubbed Account

Exchange Trading

I started trading on the exchange in January 2019 and I’m finding it really exciting. Weirdly although I’m naturally a lazy git, when I find something new that excites me I work harder at it than anyone.

If you have know idea what “Exchange Trading” is don’t worry I intend to write a full guide to it as soon as I’ve sorted out the poker blog migration. So please come back and check it out.

For me now, when I’m not doing real work on my websites or clients websites I am spending a big chunk of my free time trading and learning about trading.

Advertising and Affiliate Links

As I mentioned above my old poker blog got literally thousands of visitors each month and I never had any ads or affiliate links on it at all.

I realise now that was a bit daft of me so there will be ads and one or two affiliate links on here. You can read my affiliate policy here along with the websites cookie and privacy policy.

If I do earn any commission it will help with the running costs of the website.

Please Gamble Responsibly

Matched Betting carries no risk in the medium to long term, as long as you follow the instructions carefully you are sure to win. Also I enjoy playing poker because there is an element of skill to it and you can influence the outcome to your long term advantage if on average you make better decisions that your opponents.

However with matched betting and poker if you have a gambling problem then it will surely expose it. So please gamble responsibly and only play with money that you consider fun/entertainment money. Never gamble with money you need to pay bills etc or even worse money you don’t have by borrowing money to gamble with.

Trading on the Betfair Exchange is a risk and if not done correctly can lead to significant losses. Yes the top exchange traders earn large sums but many lose money as it is a difficult skill to master.

If you have placed bets or played poker when you knew you shouldn’t and had that awful feeling in the pit of your stomach when you lose more money chasing losses then please check out the Gamble Aware website here.