Originally posted on 11/18/2010:

I've been doing this for about 15 years. I lost thousands of dollars every year for the first 7 or 8 years, until I finally woke up and realized one simple rule: Wager the way you want, and don't give a crap what anyone else thinks, says, what their mathematical formulas suggest, or the rest. You will have a specific style and specific areas that work for you; you just have to find them.

It is a long process. I always suggest people start off with the tiniest of bets, like $5 units and stick with it for a least a year, then maybe bump up after that slightly. You need to have EXPERIENCE before you start playing for real money. Experience with variance, experience with dealing with screw jobs, experience watching line movement, experience with money management, experience chasing your losses and betting too much when hot so you can see why this never works....

So get in the game, take your time, and LEARN. Take at the absolute minimum 2 years to study and practice. View it as school, where you invest your time and money before going out into the real world to make real money. And then realize that you aren't going to make as much money as you think you will right away! It really is a long process for almost everyone.

And back to a previous point--read as much as you can on forums like this, but for information only. If you begin to give a crap what people think of your picks or your style, you are dead. I almost never post picks in here because I know the people who think they are experts would ridicule the way I do things and I would be too tempted to waste time responding to them. But I have a system that works, and for the last 7+ years it has brought me enough money to where it is well worth the time I put in. I wouldn't be able to quit my day job and I certainly will never be able to do this as a full-time gig, but it CAN be profitable. And if you can have a profitable hobby, you have hit gold.