Before arriving at my question, some background information:
My strategy in Pick 3 and Pick 4 is to identify numbers that are statistically overdue to be drawn. This method has yielded quite a bit of $'s over time. In the Pick 4 game, we have won just over $21K since mid-May. BUT......I am currently in a bit of a drought and have not won in over three weeks.
I am playing a set of 24 numbers in the North Carolina Lottery Pick 4 game. This is a relatively "new" game in NC..........we are just approaching the 650th drawing since it's inception. The 24 numbers have never been drawn in any combination and I typically play them as "box" (aka: 50/50 in NC).
These numbers are a mix of 4-ways, 6-ways, 12-ways and 24-ways. In aggregate, there are 338 possible combinations. So: 10,000/338 = 29.59. In other words, using straight probability calculation, one of these combinations should be drawn about once out of every 30 drawings. (Yes......I realize there are widely divergent views on this method - but this is a straight probability calculation to use as a reference point)
From the figures above, I can divide the number of drawings since inception by the frequency to determine how far "out of phase" my numbers are. 650/29.59 = 21.96 In other words, the numbers I am playing are nearly 22 times "out of phase" with the frequency in which they statistically should have been drawn.
Now, to the question: In Pick 4; is 22 times out of phase unusually high? Unusually low? In Pick 3, using the same methodology as outlined above; it was rare to exceed 4 times out phase before my numbers started "hitting". Pick 4, of course; has many, many more numbers to deal with. So, my numbers may not be as likely to hit soon as I'd like to believe. There are bound to be other posters here that use a similar system. Any thoughts on this?