Young man, I literally created an account for the first time tonight to tell ask you to please reconsider what you are doing. I've been a lurker on this site for more than two years. I do this for a living, like to provide for myself, my wife, and my four children. And even with all that on the line, I don't walk up to a ticket window and play a game for a grand all willy-nilly. That isn't how this stuff works man. And trust me, if you honestly think you are good enough at this to where you can make it your given profession, you're going to lose a whole whole whole whole whole lot more than $3000, especially if this is your maiden voyage, as it sounds. I have exactly one other post on here, so you can realize I'm not bs'ing you.
That said, if you are serious, here is some advice...
1. Go buy yourself a dozen of the biggest spiral notebooks you can.
2. Write down everything. I mean freaking everything. The games you played, the final results, notes on the games, why you played them... Everything. I mean everything you can possibly think of to write down... Line movements, an injury you missed, how many road dogs you lose with, how many in-conference 10+ point CBB favorites you lose with, and everything else possible for you to think of and write down. And learn your own betting traps and trends. Take bigger note of your losers than your winners.
3. DVR and watch every possible game you can. If this is your job, you have to treat it as one, and the hours are endless. Worse than any other job in America. Take some of that money and buy subscriptions to All-22 footage in football, the conference sites that replay their basketball games, etc.
3A. Hedging doesn't make you a puddy, it makes you profitable. And every once in a while, you get a little bonus and catch both sides.
4. If you have a site that allows open bet parlays, open 15-20 of them as soon as possible. This is your built in equalizer if you're having a bad week. Just go pop a one-away open parlay. Lol, I usually fade myself if I've been particularly awful that week.
5. NEVER bet more than 10% of your active bankroll on any single event ever.
6. Get the bleacher report, team stream, rotoworld, and all the other apps and make every team your favorite team. The local guys know far more than anyone in the mainstream media about teams and every once in a while, you get information... Like half the team spent the night in a hospital, which actually happened this year.
7. Use sites like covers to understand as much about a game as you can. *The most important information in your education is learning why people bet a certain way. This helps you understand why lines are where they are. Also, from time to time, you can find a guy to tail/fade (which, yes, I check covers to fade more often than tail, not that it makes my decision, but if I like something and 4 donkeys on here love the other side, I like it more)... but once again, if you write down these picks and where you got them, you can see trends... Like person X hits at about 52%, but man they hit 62% on SEC games. stupid stuff like that.
8. Understand "value"... Your book loves him some juice. And, at times, you can find better value on a -145 moneyline than laying points. Again, value, because one of the very very very very tiny infinitesimal advantages you have over the book is exposure. You are fully exposed to whatever bet you make, while a bookie doesn't have that luxury. And sometimes he'll juice a ML away from a dog, or maybe he'll take a knee jerk reaction at half time (usually the 2H favorite is the game favorite and if a bookie set a line at 10, and the team is up 15, and he still sets a line as that team -3/-120 2H, then that bookie is essentially telling you that he was 8 points off on opening spread??? Nope) wager.
9. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!!!!!!!
10. Work hard at your job. There is no glamour in this profession. I am sitting in my underwear in my garage smoking what is probably my 50th cigarette today, watching film of Texas/TCU, and looking at the blowout quarters to see who replaces starters and how they performed. Because somewhere, a guy that is setting lines has an entire army of computers being run from one big brain center that is doing the exact same thing. And you have to work hard to find tiny little specks that somehow may help you win a buck or two somewhere down the line.
Good luck! PM me if you would like to hear any more of my rubbish.