Perfect Punter

The Perfect Punter - Week 31: Scouts honour

10 March 2010 / Leave a comment

Dave Farrar takes lessons in analysis from a top football scout and explains why putting yourself on the touchline isn't enough; now you have to get inside the heads of sport's protagonists. Next he'll be telling us to "be the...Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 29: Barreto, always Barreto

24 February 2010 / Leave a comment

Dave Farrar travels to Bari to commentate on their match against AC Milan and looks forward to meeting his punting nemesis Paulo Barreto. You couldn't make up what happened next.......Read more »

The Perfect Punter Week 28: The rest is noise

17 February 2010 / Leave a comment

After a quiet Sunday afternoon in Naples, Dave Farrar explains how an intense, partisan match atmosphere can some times inhibit players and make for a cagey, low scoring contest......Read more »

The Perfect Punter Week 27: What if I'm just a bad punter?

10 February 2010 / Leave a comment

Dave Farrar is all of a sudden filled with uncertainty and self-doubt and begins to wonder if it just wasn't meant to be......Read more »

The Perfect Punter Week 26: Knowledge, respect and a little guesswork ... the Guttenplan method

03 February 2010 / 4 Comments

Watching contestant Alexander Guttenplan on University Challenge has given Dave Farrar a fresh insight into successful gambling...Read more »

The Perfect Punter Week 25: A parable for the gambler

27 January 2010 / Leave a comment

Finally the Perfect Punter has found a tale which sums up the weekly quest of gambling......Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 24: Shades of the prison-house

20 January 2010 / Leave a comment

The Perfect Punter explains why wiling away the hours in front an implausible television drama has helped him gain greater control over his gambling. And why, when you're in control, you have to take advantage......Read more »

The Perfect Punter Week 23: An eye-opener from the most unlikely of sources

13 January 2010 / Leave a comment

The Perfect Punter meets the perfect woman and learns more about his punting habits than he would normally have expected when meeting a beautiful woman in a bar......Read more »

The Perfect Punter: Chapter 22 - New Year's resolutions

06 January 2010 / Leave a comment

Improving his punting ranks pretty highly on Dave Farrar's list of goals for 2010. So how does he plan to go about it?...Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 21: The twelve days of Paulo Barreto (reflecting on what we've learnt)

23 December 2009 / Leave a comment

Dave Farrar pays a special Christmas homage to Bari's beautifully inconsistent Paulo Barreto whilst recalling what the first 21 weeks of trying to be the Perfect Punter have taught us so far....Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 20: Sometimes a short price is a good price

16 December 2009 / Leave a comment

The Perfect Punter travels to similarly cold destinations in the form of Cheltenham and Berlin this week for horseracing and boxing action respectively, whilst considering the age-old question of whether heavy odds-on shots can be perceived as betting value......Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 19: The day foes turned to friends

09 December 2009 / Leave a comment

In Week 19 The Perfect Punter tells why Paulo Barreto and Fabio Quagliarella, not exactly two of the most celebrated footballers in Serie A, now hold a special place in his punting heart....Read more »

The Perfect Punter - Week 18: Confidence in gambling, confidence in love

02 December 2009 / Leave a comment

The Perfect Punter draws comparisons between getting lucky in love and lucky in gambling. Until we remember that of course it's not about luck but rather state of mind and decison-making......Read more »

The Perfect Punter: Chapter 17- Know what's in the mind of those you're betting on

25 November 2009 / Leave a comment

This week The Perfect Punter tells us why being comfortable with one's own mind is only half the battle and why we as punters also need to know what's going on in the mind of those we are actually punting...Read more »

The Perfect Punter: Chapter 16 - Ode to abstinence (and a game little chestnut)

18 November 2009 / 1 Comments

The Perfect Punter explains why bettors need to retain a sense of perspective before declaring his love for a wonky-looking, four-legged phenomenon. Just don't expect him to consumate his affection with a flutter......Read more »

The Perfect Punter Chapter 14: Take these gems from the Buffett to improve your punting prowess

11 November 2009 / Leave a comment

Dave Farrar's mission to hone his punting super-senses continues with a look at the wisdom of business guru Warren Buffett...Read more »

The Perfect Punter Chapter 13: Sometimes it's just not meant to be

04 November 2009 / Leave a comment

This week globetrotter Dave Farrar breaks the golden rule of TV commentary, drinks iced coffee in Genoa and dreams a rather strange dream....Read more »

The Perfect Punter Chapter 12: Fate, faith and being sick of the footballing life of Brian

28 October 2009 / Leave a comment

A keen football betting fan, The Perfect Punter tells us about two cracking bets involving Liverpool that got away and why journeyman midfielder Brian Howard shouldn't expect any Christmas cards from in the foreseeable future....Read more »

The Perfect Punter: Chapter Eleven: Ask yourself deep down what constitutes value

21 October 2009 / Leave a comment

The Perfect Punter travels to Cheltenham race course on a quiet Saturday afternoon and watches a horse who failed at the Cheltenham festival last year put in a super performance. All of which gets him thinking about about the concepts of context and betting value....Read more »

The Perfect Punter: Chapter Ten - Use Occam's razor to reach the most logical conclusion possible

14 October 2009 / Leave a comment

In Chapter Ten the Perfect Punter dusts off the cobwebs from his fourteenth century books to find a character whose words are still very relevant to our betting in the 21st century....Read more »