If you love your professional gambler stories, then you must have heard of Alan Woods?
Perhaps you haven’t. If you need a subtle reminder, he was the bloke who had a falling out with his partner Bill Benter. That’s right, the two gamblers who made the computerised horse racing system to clean up millions if not billions of pounds betting at Hong Kong’s two racecourses Sha Tin and Happy Valley. By all accounts, they cracked the system. I’m not sure who blamed who for the money situation. You’d think when you are some of the richest gamblers on planet Earth that keeping amenable would be the easy part of the equation.
I’ve stumbled across a chapter about Alan Woods in the old publication of Mike Atherton’s Gambling: A Story of Triumph & Disaster. It was published by Hodder & Stoughton back in 2006. I purchased it from Amazon from Awesome Books for about £3.65 including postage and packing. To be fair, I enjoy these old books the best because you have a chance to consider the people within the pages at different points in time. It makes for an added read because I’m sitting here saying: ‘You didn’t see that coming’ some fifteen years down the road. I don’t know the fortunes of Alan Woods since reading the chapter 2 : Controlling Chance.
It’s a very good book and I particularly enjoyed this chapter which investigates probability theory from a point in time (and I know it sounds stupidly simple) where no one actually though about the odds of anything happening. Back in the 12th Century, you were more likely to consider that the only reason two dice showed double six was simply because it was God’s will.
Clearly, Alan Woods wasn’t around in those times else he would have most likely been the man to come up with probability theory first.
There was much to learn from the chapter. However, I was struck by a quote: ‘Chance has rules which can be known’.
I must admit, I do like that quote. Because it details why data-driven information and the scientific method is so important to the best gamblers.
It offers a glimpse into the future by understanding the past.
The likes of Alan Wood, Bill Benter & Tony Bloom all realised the strength in that approach which made them very wealthy men. All individuals who turned the odds in their favour.
It’s why Edward O Thorp (and all these gamblers mentioned) used card counting to make their gambling pay. It led to them making many niches of gambling pay.
If I new three Kings had been dealt from a pack of cards but you didn’t, I could tell the future.
That was the same with Alan Woods. He didn’t care about the horses name or even the short term results. All he knew was if the system was correct in the long term he would win.
And so he did.
The best gamblers don’t rely on luck although the day may come when things fall nicely into place.
A man who didn’t like his team to show any excitement when winning. He did remind them of the day they won £8M.
They were allowed to cheer a little on that day.
Horse Racing Betting With Alan Woods
Alan Woods passed away on 26th January 2008 (aged 63).
Photo: JC 2024
