European Lottery Crazy Combos usher out 2011

2011 ended with two different European lottery games drawing crazy combos on December 31st.

First, the Irish Lotto picked the numbers:

04 - 11 - 23 - 30 - 37 - 44

While these seem innocent enough, 4 of the 5 the delta differences between each of the numbers are all 7s. These are ( 7 - 12 - 7 - 7 - 7 ). And, three of the 6 numbers are prime numbers as well ( 11, 23, and 37 ).

 A little later that evening, the UK Thunderball lottery selected the 5 white ball numbers:

08 - 16 - 21 - 24 - 32

This pattern is a bit easier to identify, as 4 of these are multiples of  8 ( 8, 16, xx, 24, 32 ), which are the multipliers of: 1, 2, 3, and 4.

In both games, there was one winner who won the jackpots that night.

A Lucky Sevens Crazy Combo

The night before December 7th, the Mega Millions lottery anticipated the date by selecting 4 numbers that were divisible by 7. In the Tuesday Dec 6 drawing, the white balls were:

7  21  29  35  49

We classify this as a crazy combo because of its rarity. Of the 56 Mega Millions white balls, only 8 are divisible by the number seven, and half of them were drawn that night. Only the center number, 29, is not divisible. However, it is important to note that it is only 1 digit off of 28 which is also divisible by 7.

If a player wheeled the 8 available numbers, he would have spent a total of $56 and would have won $642 that night. Not bad for a days work!

Tuesday Mega Millions Results 11/15/11 - Next Jackpot $40M

All numbers drawn (except the Megaplier) are divisible by 3. Of the white balls, there are only  18 of the 56 balls which make 8,568 different white ball combinations. Add to that, the Megaball is also divisible by 3 and there are only 15 of the 46 red balls here. So, we classify this as a Crazy Combo!

The winning Mega Millions numbers for Tuesday Nov 15, 2011 were:

03 06 24 30 33 Megaball 21 - Megaplier 4

In this drawing, Lottery Power Picks recommended 434 combinations. Of these, we had 10 winners: (5) mb, (4) mb+1w, and (1) 3w, returning $29 back to our players. Our 5 number pool had 1,486,836 combinations. The first other winning combos were located at:

• 3-w @ # 60 - LPP Winner
• 3-w + Megaball @ # 13,410
• 4-w @ # 16,983
• 5-w @ # - na -

There were no MM jackpot winners, so the jackpot grows to $40 million with a cash option of $29.2M and a yield of 2.71%

US Hot Lotto and UK Thunderball draw same five white balls on Saturday night

We often hear about the same numbers being drawn in various Pick 3 games, but it is extremely rare that two larger lottery games draw the same numbers. Even more rare is having the same combination drawn on the same night.

Well, that's exactly what happened on Saturday, August 20, 2011. First, the UK Thunderball white ball combination of:

6 7 11 22 33

was drawn. Then, a few hours later, the US Hot Lotto rolled out the same identical 5 white numbers.

We wrote about this rare event in our Bimonthly blog post: Same 5 lottery numbers are drawn on same night in two different lottery games.

But, we think this news is worth repeating in case you missed it!

Mega Millions Hits 4 Numbers Divisible by Seven

In the most recent Mega Millions drawing held on Friday May 27th, four of the 5 white ball numbers were divisible by seven. The white ball winning combination that night was:

05 07 14 28 56

Notice that the last 4 numbers are all divisible by 7. Additionally, they are multiples of seven in the form of 1, 2, 4, and 8 times. Uniquely, one player's ticket from Texas matched this crazy combination as well as the Megaball 10 to win a whopping $35 million which is another multiple of 7. Way to go!

Arizona Pick 3 Selects Delta 303 3 Days in a Row

For three days in a row early last week, the Arizona Pick 3 Lottery choose numbers that had the same Delta. The Delta was 303.  The results are shown below:

Wed 05/25/11 3-3-6 (Delta 303)

Tue 05/24/11 6-1-3 (Delta 303)

Mon 05/23/11 9-9-2 (Delta 303)

Sat 05/21/11 6-6-9

As we define a delta, there are 8 unique combinations of numbers that can be played. This means that out of a pool of 1000 allowable numbers, the Delta reduces this to only 125 different combinations. We have often seen Deltas repeat, but triple repetitions are extremely rare.

You can learn more by visiting our Arizona Lottery Pick 3 Recommendations page.

Texas 2 Step Dances Straight and Narrow

In one of the very rare draws, the Texas Two Step Lottery selected the straight white ball sequence:

19 20 21 22

on the Monday, May 2, 2011. There are only 32 straight sequential number sets of the possible 52,360 white ball combinations.

Unlike other lottery games that have drawn sequential (or near sequential) numbers, there was not an unusually high number of 4 white ball winners (only 9). Thus, we do not believe that many of the Two Step players play the range of straight number patterns.

Crazy Combo Trivia to ponder while waiting for the $218M Powerball Drawing

Two of our favorite lotteries drew unique crazy combinations the past few days that which we thought might interest you.

The first was Hot Lotto, whose numbers on Saturday, April 2, 2011 were:

16 20 25 28 34 and Hot Ball 14.

Looking at the deltas between these numbers, we find 04 - 05 - 03 - 06. When we move the Hot Ball to the beginning, we obtain a delta of 02 to the first number. Re-arranging these, we get a sequential delta series of :

02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06.

The second game was Texas Two Step which selected the 4 white ball series on Thursday March 31, 2011:

03 04 09 16

Looking at these numbers we find that the 3rd ball (09) is the square of the first number (03), and that the 4rd ball (16) is the square of the second number (04).

These are simply two more pieces lottery trivia that will keep you amused while you are waiting for the big $218 million Powerball drawing this Wednesday night.

Odd Powerball Numbers Counter Mega Millions Even Numbers

Like clockwork, the Powerball lottery counterbalanced Mega Millions all odd number drawing with its own set of all even numbers.

On Tuesday March 8th, Mega Millions drew the odd number white ball combination:

03 17 19 41 55 (all odd and 4 prime).

The next night, Powerball's winning Wednesday night numbers were selected:

12 28 28 40 48 (all even and all divisible by 4).

The chances of all even or all odd number combinations are approximately 2.57% for Mega Millions and 2.37% for Powerball. This means that we would expect to see between 4 to 6 occurances of both odd and even combos within a year. However, the laws of randomness have been tilting the scales to the even side only in both of these games.

During the past Mega Millions year, we observe 3 all even combinations and only 1 all odd. The yearly Powerball deviation is more extreme with 5 all even combos and 0 all odd combos.

While this imbalance may seem to contradict randomness, we need to remember that the probabilities of flipping a coin are 50% heads and 50% tails.  During any short term observance, we may find streaks of all heads or all tails for a while.

Thus, we must not find it unusual to see that only one side of the lottery even-odd bell curve has received the majority of occurrences recently. We must conclude that in total, the outside sets perform as expected. While we know that all odd number combinations are overdue, we must play the odds and say that we are sure that either all even or all odd numbers will be drawn, but we don't know which. Since there is a 50% chance either occurring, we need to continue playing the two outside sets of numbers to be sure of capturing the next winning combination.

Texas Lotto's Sure Prime Pickings

Image via Wikipedia

As the Texas Lotto jackpot grows, we discover that the game is prime pickens for its own crazy combos. This was evident in last Wednesday's drawing when 5 of the 6 numbers picked were all prime numbers. The combination for February 2, 2011 was:

11 19 31 37 42 43

With a game format of requiring players to correctly match 6 of 54 numbers, we know that there are both 27 odd and even numbers. Of the odd number subset, we can identify 16 that are also prime numbers (including the number one).  These are numbers that can only be evenly divided by itself and the number one.

Had players limited their playing combinations to only prime numbers, they would have matched the five red numbers shown above and won nearly $1,600 dollars. This drawing illustrates that the: Texas Lotto's Sure Prime Pickings.

Sum of First 2 Numbers Equal Third Number

In both the last Powerball and Mega Millions drawings, the sum of the first two white ball numbers equals the third number. As you can see, we have listed the drawing results for each below:

• 01/15/11 - PB   9 13 22 23 37
• 01/14/11 - MM 2 15 17 33 35

Since we enter the lottery results by hand after every drawing, we have noticed this pattern quite often. So, we decided to calculate the probability of these combinations being selected.

• In Powerball, there are 219,646 combinations where this occurs. This represents 4.387% of the population; and we would expect to see this once in every 22.79 drawings.
• In Mega Millions, there are 176,904 combinations where this occurs. This represents 4.631% of the population; and we would expect to see this once in every 21.59 drawings.

Checking the results of the past 26 drawings, we have found that this restriction has occurred  twice in both lotteries (on 01/14/11 and 11/16/10 for Mega Millions), and (on 01/15/11 and 12/22/10 for Powerball). While this happens with double the frequency as we mathematically expect, we are not convinced that this is a viable strategy as yet. So for now, we attribute the sum of the first 2 numbers equaling the third number as part of the normally expected random distributions.

Lotto 649 Draws Mostly Prime Numbers

This is just a short bit of Crazy Combo Lottery Trivia.

On Saturday December 11, 2010, the Canadian Lotto 649 main set of numbers were:

 02 07 13 17 27 41

What's unique about this combination is that 5 of the 6 numbers were all prime numbers. These are shown as red. Only the number 27 was not a prime number, but, it is 3 cubed ( 3 x 3 x 3 ).

Using the game's format of 49 white balls, we find that there are 15 pure prime numbers (not including the number 01). Of this set, only one (the number 02) is even, and the rest are odd. Players who limit there selections to these 15 numbers would have a total of 5,005 combinations to play. In that drawing, there were 5 tickets matching 5 of the 6 main balls; and, each of these won C$52,830.60. 

We don't know if these gamers were playing prime numbers, but if they were, the system worked wonderfully!

UK Thunderball Reveals Delta Equaling Multiple of Sixes

Once again, the UK Thunderball Lottery drew a somewhat Crazy Combo on Friday November 19, 2010. In that drawing, the 5 white ball sequence was:

07 13 25 31 37

If you examine these numbers closely, you will observe the delta spread between the numbers to each be a multiple of 6.

Deltas : [ 06 12 06 06 ]

Due to the nature of randomness, the space between numbers is rarely a consistent spread or an even multiple of an integer. 

Additionally, this sequence contains 4 Prime numbers and one Square number.

Further, the entire sequence consists of odd numbers, but this is expected because the starting number is odd and each of the deltas are even.

Many lottery experts advise against choosing numbers that follow a pattern. But, we recommend that if you are trying to devise a winning lottery selection combination, don't ever dismiss the hidden power of multiples.

Are you Superstitious? Then Play Wednesday's Irish Lotto

Image by getgood via Flickr

The Jackpot prize for this coming's Wednesday October 13 2010 Irish Lotto drawing is set at €12 million.

And, this will also be the 13th drawing since the last winner. Hmmm, the 13th drawing on the 13th day of the month. (Too bad it wasn't for €13M)

The last time the jackpot reached this level was in April 2010 when 1 winner claimed a €16 million prize.

So, if you are superstitious, perhaps you should play combinations containing the number 13 in various locations and multiples (13, 26, 39).

And maybe, just maybe, you'll win.

Thunderball Picks 5 White Balls All in the Twenties

On Saturday, September 11 2010, the UK Thunderball Lottery drew the 5 white ball sequence

23 24 26 28 29

The interesting fact about these results is that all the numbers were within the same "decade" grouping of 20's. This is indeed a rare occurrence in all lotteries since there are very few combinations because there are only 10 balls numbered between 20 and 29. Using strict combinatorials, we find that there are only 252 possible combinations out of the total 575,757 possible in the Thunderball 1-39 number range. In decimal, this equals 0.000438 of the total combinatorial population.

Because sequences of this nature are rarely selected in any lottery, most serious players shy away of this type of strategy.

Yet surprisingly so, there are 10 winners listed as matching this 5 white ball sequence on the official Thunderball results site.  Go figure!

Multiple of 5 Wins Powerball Jackpot

I've been thinking a lot recently about playing numbers which are all multipliers of a single digit: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 because the subset of combinations is relatively small. Then, like magic, one lucky Powerball player in Wisconsin won a $31.4 jackpot on Wednesday October 14th 2009 by matching the:

Crazy Combo

White Balls: 05 15 25 30 40
and Powerball: 06
 

Looking at the white balls, it is easy to see that each is a multiple of 5! To match the white ball set in the Powerball game, a player must correctly pick 5 of 59 number. There are a total of 5,006,3896 white ball combinations.

But, if a player limits his selections to only those numbers that are divisible by 5, then there are only 11 numbers to pick from, and only 462 combinations. If a player (or office pool) choose this strategy to simply match the white balls, they would be risking $462 to win $200,000 minimum. And, if he played all Powerball numbers, the player could even win the Jackpot!

We're not sure if our recent Powerball winner used this strategy to win the Jackpot, but it's clear that if you play small subsets of numbers, you really can win the Lottery!

JL.............

Powerball Draws Crazy Combo Last Wednesday

Last Wednesday, Powerball drew what looked to be a typical set of numbers. But, after studying the numbers more closely, we discovered a rare relationship between each of these five white balls. The randomly selected results for August 5 2009 were:

25 34 41 46 49 and Bonus Ball 29

These look innocent enough. However, if you calculate the deltas between numbers, you will obtain the pattern:

09 07 05 03

which is an ordered sequence of decreasing odd numbers! Hmm.

Just Another Piece of Lottery Trivia

JL ........

Irish Lotto Draws Near Straight Combination

In last Saturday's Irish Lotto drawing held on July 18 2009, a nearly straight sequential combination was drawn. The numbers were:

04 05 06 08 13 39 and Bonus Ball 03

Rearranging them, we get:

03 04 05 06 xx 08 13 39

As you can see, only the number 07 was missing when using the Bonus Ball 03.

People who played sequential sequences: 1 2 3 4 5 6; 2 3 4 5 6 7; 3 4 5 6 7 8; 4 5 6 7 8 9; and 5 6 7 8 9 10 were all winners, claiming the 3 white, 3+Bonus, 4 white, and 4+bonus prizes.

Comparing the distribution of winners to the average of the previous 6 drawings in July, we learn that there were:

• 119.7% more 3 white ball winners
• 185.8% more 3+Bonus winners
• 119.0% more 4 white winners, and
• 190.4% more 4+Bonus winners

These resulted in prize winnings of:

• €5 for 3 white ball winners (fixed prize)
• €14 for 3+Bonus white ball winners (56.5% lower than average)
• €42 for 4 white ball winners (88.6% lower than average)
• €77 for 4+Bonus winners (51.1% lower than average)

Based on these statistics, we can conclude that:

1. Players in Ireland like to play sequential number sets
2. When straight numbers hit, there are more winners
3. Payouts for those playing sequential sequences are much lower!
   

Hope you enjoyed reading this:

Important Lottery Trivia

JL ........

Two Duplicate Mega Millions Crazy Combos Win the Jackpot

We classify the most recent winning Mega Millions sequence drawn on Friday May 15, 2009 as a Crazy Combo drawn because 4 of the 5 white balls were multiples of 12!

The winning numbers were:

07 12 24 36 48 Megaball 27

What is even more remarkable is that 2 duplicate winning tickets contained this unique combination.

And, for the second time in a row, the lucky tickets were sold in California and Virginia!

Simply another piece of

Crazy Combo Lottery Trivia.

JL ........

Two Win $38M Jackpot in Fri Mega Millions 05/15/09 Drawing

The winning Mega Millions numbers for Friday May 15, 2009 were:

07 12 24 36 48 Megaball 27
(qualifies as crazy combo)

In this drawing, Lottery Power Picks recommended 328 combinations. Of these, we had 10 winners: (5) mb, (1) mb+1w, (1) mb+2w, and (3) 3w, returning $44 back to our players. Our 5 number pool had 1,500,876 combinations. The first other winning combos were located at:

• 3-w@ # 15 - LPP Winner
  
• 3-w + MB @ # 4,516
• 4-w + MB @ # 25,141
  
• 5-w @ # - na -

There were two MM jackpot winners, sold in California and Virginia, so the jackpot resets to $12 million with a cash option of $7.7M and a yield of 3.96%

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