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Being profitable as a Sports Bettor, Poker Player or as a Crypto Trader goes much deeper than just the ability to make good predictions. How you are able to handle the swings along the way will have a huge influence on your longer term earnings. One of the things I often talk about is how emotions are a huge part of being human and how understanding them can help you a lot with betting and life in general. This article will outline some of the things I try to do to keep myself as mentally stable as possible.

Manipulate your Bankroll / Portfolio

A very simple thing you can do assuming you keep close track of you Betting Bankroll / Crypto Portfolio is to manipulate it in order to decrease the swings mentally. Something I did with the crazy rise in altcoins was to simply multiply my total portfolio worth number x 0.90. During a massive upswing like this, pure emotionally you feel no different when counting 90% of your Portfolio compared to 100% after going up like this. When things correct down on the other hand there is an emotional difference between going down -25% compared to -16%. By seeing the numbers on your screen it's easy to trick your brain and your emotional reaction on the ups and downs. Obviously this can only be done by counting less than you have, anticipating an upswing and writing down more than you have can cause an even bigger emotional backlash when everything keeps going down.

Look at Estimated Profit

Few people really understand variance and how big a sample needs to be to actually say something. You can literally be flipping coins and make huge gains over the course of 1000+ Bets or have very sharp analisis and be down a lot over the course of 1000+ Bets. Being able to estimate what you expect to win based on past performance and adding this into your personal statistics and graph can make you a lot more stable and capable of handling the ups and downs. Being above the expected profit will keep you from dreaming and slacking because you realise your haven't fully earned the profit. Being far below will make you realise that it's just a downswing which will likely regress to the mean. I am always referring to this pink line in my weekly results roundup. https://steemitimages.com/DQmZLY9cfajpBbEam86FtLxGsTtfRZmAPtfKRTFCVgGnyFh/Betting%20Graph%20week%2019.jpg

Take Care of Your Health

Big downswings will make you feel like shit and in a mental state where you are very tempted to go for instant feel good fixes like junk food, tv binge watching, gaming or anything else that cheaply triggers the reward center in your brain. This often spirals out of control as all these things make you braindead and decrease the blood flow which is needed in order to use the more advanced regions of your brain (The Prefrontale Cortex). Being shut out of this part will make you much more emotional and highly increases the risk of poor Decision-making,chasing and making the downswing even bigger.

Being mentally, emotionally and physically sharp is a highly important when it comes down to making profit and being able to handle the swings along the way. It is one of those things that can indirectly increase your profitability by a lot. Eating healthy (Plant Based Whole Foods Diet), Drinking mainly water, Take supplements (Omega3,D3, B12), Working Out Daily and Meditation are all tools that you can use in order to be more profitable. Getting to a point where this all comes naturally without the need of discipline can be quite a challenge though.

Stick To Your Plan

Having solid Bankroll Management with a proper plan when moving up or down in stakes helps a lot when it comes down to dealing with the swings. Playing with money that does not influence your life in any way when lost also makes things a lot easier. Just take the time to think about, make and write down your plan and force yourself to stick to it. Once you have something that works, you can blindly put all your trust into it. To quote myself...

"Having this bankroll management for me is extremely liberating and it allows me to just focus on being profitable without having to worry about anything else. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to losing 100k in a single day while using this kind of bankroll management since this would mean that I could actually handle it financially."

Don't Take Things For Granted

We as humans are extremely good when it comes down to taking things for granted. Understanding this process can really do miracles with how you go about your life and your mental mindset. The following thought experiment has really helped me understand and change the overall way I look at things on a daily basis.

Vividly imagine, you are at your work and get a get a phone call from the police saying your house burned down and your wife/husband and child have died in the fire. Completely devastated, you rush home to see your partner and child are fine and it was another house that burned down somewhere. At that moment you are extremely thankful and feel an insane relief that they are still alive while in reality nothing happened. The only thing that actually changed was your brain no longer taking something for granted.

Having this story and idea in the back of your mind instantly makes any downswing you will go through look like a joy and a privilege to be in.

Previous Gambling Psychology Articles Gambling Addiction | The Fall and Rise of a Gambling Addict Gambling Psychology | What makes an Expert Gambler ?

Let me know your tricks to handle the ups and downs in the comments !