ponys

[conslice]

is it possible to be consistently profitable at the horse track? ive heard that many ppl do it but im just not sure if i believe that. anyone with anyone on this topic please post any helpfull info this is more for a freind of mine he wants to see if he can do it

[Bishop22]

Definitely profitable but probably 10x more difficult than making a living playing poker. I am in the black for the last two years but I don't cap often enough to say with any certainty that I am a winning player. You definately need at least a year, probably two as a semi-pro before I would even consider doing it as my only source of income. If he keeps good records of his smaller bets while learning the game there is no reason he couldn't give it a go if he's proven to be a winning player. I would need about $20000 roll plus 6 months nut before I would ever consider it.

[lefty rosen]

It's about as difficult as playing the highest level of poker or being a tourney pro. I would say it's even tougher than being top vegas pro as there is always a donk that is rich enough to buy in to top poker game, but handicapping the horses with huge rake and strange beats is real tough. Most bettors get buried worse than poor card players......

[Ethan G]

A related question: is there any more potentially profitable way to bet horses than pinny's 16 cent line horse matchups?? Vig on these bets is about 4% vs. the traditional 15-25%.

Thanks,
E

[Bishop22]

The rake in horse racing is really over-estimated. A pro horseplayer's average bet is at odds of about 4-1. A horseplayer who makes a prime bet on a 4-1 horse probably expects it to win around 30% of the time. At that win rate you are only paying just over 5% juice (assuming 17% takeout) as you don't pay juice when you lose. Plus not paying juice when you lose controls downswings similar to paying rake vs. time payments in poker. You pay even less rake for exotics because of the small winrate despite the higher takeout. A good horseplayer rarely makes place/show bets and never bets horses at less than 8/5. These practices help to control how much you give to the track.

As a sidenote, I was thinking of horseplaying versus poker and the only real advantage I could think of was that you don't really need to get better to win more. As your bankroll grows your income grows with your bet size as your ROI should remain roughly the same.