I wrote this up for my page and I was hoping to see what you guys think of it.
DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT
The surest bet in the Mad Jacks message forum is that after any big game or controversial play, a number of gamblers will enlighten the citizens of the message board with the details of their latest failure.
Oh, those incompetent refs. What a load of crap, that inconsistent quarterback. Geez, who would ever expect wild pointspread swings in NBA garbage time. And so on, and so on. It is a neverending river of pointless drivel, trailing off only when the offending parties have put back their last glass of Thunderbird and crawled under the covers of their discount Serta.
Save it. Save it for your wife or your beer drinking buddies or your coworkers. We dont want to hear it. We watched the games. We marveled at the grave injustice your suffered through because we were well aware of the point spread as the game was going on. Other significant people in your life at least have the ability to marvel at your tale of woe. The residents of the message board have seen, read and heard it all, so there is no pity to be found here.
Of course logic dictates this constant whining will never cease. Every gambler who becomes unhinged at a series of bad beats probably has a group of friends and loved ones already tired of their whining over losses. Mad Jacks is a safe haven for bitching. Typing up vitrol directed at incompetent refs or players in a rage is cathartic for some. And even though it wont happen, the complaining gambler holds out hope that their little rant will inspire other gamblers to shower them with pity and empathize with the unfairness of their plight. Complaining gamblers are only a nickname in most cases. Only ones reputation in the small circle of gambling is at risk. To complain at ones job or home, the gambler puts their entire being in danger of being branded a whiner. All it takes to wipe ones image clean at Mad Jacks is a new nickname.
Venting after a tough loss is a natural reaction. It is also a reaction that should be tempered. Sportsbooks prey on the emotions of gamblers. Most gamblers can pick a reasonable percentage of games but the way they lose their shirts is by making bets in unsteady emotional states. After a few bad breaks, gamblers can become enraged to the point that make up bets and action bets can become the rule rather than the exception. Venting on a message board does not assuage this rage, it only fuels it. Whether other Mad Jacks posters agree with your rant or not, it becomes a lightning rod either way. Rather than forgetting about the bad break and moving on towards handicapping the next game, you are stuck reading replies and replying to those replies. That is valuable handicapping time lost at the altar of a game that is in the past. Nothing can change the result of the game but now you are spending added time away from games that could be handicapped to recover some of that profit.
The gamblers reputation is also sullied by frequent complaints about losses. A cursory view of Mad Jacks reveals that there are many successful handicappers in every single sport. If you are losing, it is your fault and nobody elses. It is not as if profitability is nearly impossible to attain. Certainly it is difficult. But by complaining, you make yourself seem petulant as well as incompetent. If dozens of other handicappers are winning, why aren't you? Could be a bad streak. Everyone understands that. So take your bad streak and go back to work the next morning more dedicated than before to winning. If you lose and react by keeping quiet and staying positive about the future, other handicappers will respect you. If you come up with excuses for nearly every poor play you have made, respected handicappers who have been through bad streaks without complaining will brand you an immature crybaby.
This rant is not meant to call for the banishment of all complaining. Just tone it down a bit. In a way some complaining is understandable. A good handicapper will often examine past plays and try to use both wins and losses to find greater success in the future. It is only natural that some of that examination can lead to frustration over bad breaks, and that is where complaining begins. In the majority of cases, though, the complaints posted in the Mad Jacks forums are sour grapes. Every gambler experiences good and bad breaks and a vocal few choose to vent thier frustrations over losses without considering the lucky breaks they have received in the past.
If you do the work and play smart, the breaks will even out over time. You may go through stretches of several weeks or even months where most of the breaks seem to go against you. Bite your lip, do the work and eventually things will even out. You will find that as your bankroll improves, so too will your standing in the Message Forums. There are a select number of posters in the forum that are respected by virtually everyone and it is no coincidence that those people generally refrain from bitching about losses. Take a que from them and you will see that keeping your complaints to yourself will help you be a better gambler and Mad Jacks be a better message forum.
DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT
The surest bet in the Mad Jacks message forum is that after any big game or controversial play, a number of gamblers will enlighten the citizens of the message board with the details of their latest failure.
Oh, those incompetent refs. What a load of crap, that inconsistent quarterback. Geez, who would ever expect wild pointspread swings in NBA garbage time. And so on, and so on. It is a neverending river of pointless drivel, trailing off only when the offending parties have put back their last glass of Thunderbird and crawled under the covers of their discount Serta.
Save it. Save it for your wife or your beer drinking buddies or your coworkers. We dont want to hear it. We watched the games. We marveled at the grave injustice your suffered through because we were well aware of the point spread as the game was going on. Other significant people in your life at least have the ability to marvel at your tale of woe. The residents of the message board have seen, read and heard it all, so there is no pity to be found here.
Of course logic dictates this constant whining will never cease. Every gambler who becomes unhinged at a series of bad beats probably has a group of friends and loved ones already tired of their whining over losses. Mad Jacks is a safe haven for bitching. Typing up vitrol directed at incompetent refs or players in a rage is cathartic for some. And even though it wont happen, the complaining gambler holds out hope that their little rant will inspire other gamblers to shower them with pity and empathize with the unfairness of their plight. Complaining gamblers are only a nickname in most cases. Only ones reputation in the small circle of gambling is at risk. To complain at ones job or home, the gambler puts their entire being in danger of being branded a whiner. All it takes to wipe ones image clean at Mad Jacks is a new nickname.
Venting after a tough loss is a natural reaction. It is also a reaction that should be tempered. Sportsbooks prey on the emotions of gamblers. Most gamblers can pick a reasonable percentage of games but the way they lose their shirts is by making bets in unsteady emotional states. After a few bad breaks, gamblers can become enraged to the point that make up bets and action bets can become the rule rather than the exception. Venting on a message board does not assuage this rage, it only fuels it. Whether other Mad Jacks posters agree with your rant or not, it becomes a lightning rod either way. Rather than forgetting about the bad break and moving on towards handicapping the next game, you are stuck reading replies and replying to those replies. That is valuable handicapping time lost at the altar of a game that is in the past. Nothing can change the result of the game but now you are spending added time away from games that could be handicapped to recover some of that profit.
The gamblers reputation is also sullied by frequent complaints about losses. A cursory view of Mad Jacks reveals that there are many successful handicappers in every single sport. If you are losing, it is your fault and nobody elses. It is not as if profitability is nearly impossible to attain. Certainly it is difficult. But by complaining, you make yourself seem petulant as well as incompetent. If dozens of other handicappers are winning, why aren't you? Could be a bad streak. Everyone understands that. So take your bad streak and go back to work the next morning more dedicated than before to winning. If you lose and react by keeping quiet and staying positive about the future, other handicappers will respect you. If you come up with excuses for nearly every poor play you have made, respected handicappers who have been through bad streaks without complaining will brand you an immature crybaby.
This rant is not meant to call for the banishment of all complaining. Just tone it down a bit. In a way some complaining is understandable. A good handicapper will often examine past plays and try to use both wins and losses to find greater success in the future. It is only natural that some of that examination can lead to frustration over bad breaks, and that is where complaining begins. In the majority of cases, though, the complaints posted in the Mad Jacks forums are sour grapes. Every gambler experiences good and bad breaks and a vocal few choose to vent thier frustrations over losses without considering the lucky breaks they have received in the past.
If you do the work and play smart, the breaks will even out over time. You may go through stretches of several weeks or even months where most of the breaks seem to go against you. Bite your lip, do the work and eventually things will even out. You will find that as your bankroll improves, so too will your standing in the Message Forums. There are a select number of posters in the forum that are respected by virtually everyone and it is no coincidence that those people generally refrain from bitching about losses. Take a que from them and you will see that keeping your complaints to yourself will help you be a better gambler and Mad Jacks be a better message forum.
