sorensonfan41's Blog

One of the things that I'm not crazy about GA's scratchers is the fact that sometimes you'll have 2 exact games under 2 different titles....and I'm talking about down to the special symbols.  In GA, we have a ticket called $500,000 Riches (where I hit my $500 winner in my last post).  The special symbols are a moneybag (for 5 times) and a gold bar (for all 16 prizes).  We also have a game called Sterling Silver.  It too has a moneybag for 5 times the prize and a silver bar for all 16 prizes (and it looks exactly like the gold bar, but it has the word "SILVER" on it).  Well.....I hit another moneybag on a Sterling Silver today.  I scratched off the prize and thought that was it.....until I looked over the ticket again 10 minutes later to see if I missed anything....

...and I missed one small little number match that came along with that moneybag.  Boy am I glad I found that number match before cashing it in. (I actually haven't cashed this nor the $500 winner in yet.  I'm waiting for my next day off so I can get the cash (and find a place that has enough to cash both) and deposit into the bank.

Wow.....I can honestly say I've never had this much luck on scratchers....not even back to when I first started playing scratchers on a regular basis.  This tops them all.....even the times where I've had 5 or more tickets in a row win.....even when I've had 2-3 back-to-back $20-or-better winners....even when I've seen 11 of 12 $2 tickets win something.

I'm working on 2 new YouTube scratcher videos.  I've finally got all of the images scanned (one of the games took a while....you might see why when I upload the videos).

Well, until next time.....may you have some really insane luck on all of your lottery tickets.

I bought some $3 tickets and hit a $9 winner, some break evens, and some free tickets (I'll recap those and other winners I make reference to in next Friday's KACHING Report).

I then decided, after I was done with $3 tickets for then, to go to the $2 tickets.  I started off with a $2 10X The Money.  I hit nothing.  I buy another one.  I scratch...

...that.  It was a nice $30 winner.  I put it in my pocket, take out another $2, and then switch to the $2 Instant Win For Life tickets.  I bought 1.....nothing.  I bought another...

....BAM!  My 2nd $30 winner in about 3-4 minutes.  I then play the other $2 tickets, hitting a $15 winner among others in the process.  I used that $15 to start on the $5 tickets.  I start with the $5 Diamonds & Gold tickets.  After 2 duds, I bought a 3rd ticket.  That 3rd ticket, which I scratched about 10 minutes after I hit that 2nd $30 winner, just so happened to be...

...a THIRD $30 WINNER!  THREE $30 winners in the span of about 15 minutes!  I bought some $5 Bass Pro Shops afterwards.  After I had just hit a $20 winner on one of them, I got a call from my mom telling me to come on and lets go and eat lunch.  I used that winner and 3 $1 bills and bought 3 $1 $10,000 Summer Daze and 4 $5 $500,000 Riches.  The guy who owns the Tobacco Mart had been having a hard time selling those tickets.  Nobody was buying them, so I helped him out by buying some for the past couple of weeks.  I hit some free tickets and a Moneybag for 5 times $2 on one of them.  The 1st 3 of those $500,000 Riches tickets were duds.  But, come the 4th ticket......I didn't realize what I was about to scratch off.  I discover a Moneybag symbol for 5 times the prize.  I figure "Oh, it's just gonna be $2 under it for $10."

It was one of those times where I was the happiest person in the world that I was wrong on my guess of a $2 prize under the moneybag.  I HIT MY FIRST $500 WINNER BABY!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BABY!  WOOHOO!  YAHOO!  IT'S PARTY TIME BOYS AND GIRLS!!!!!!!!  GET THE CONFETTI AND DRINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still jumping up and down and going Daffy Duck around the house.  I FINALLY BROKE MY CURSE OF NO $500 WINNERS!

Oh, and by the way.....I have that game on my detailed odds pages on my lotto hideout.  The odds of hitting a $500 winner on the $5 $500,000 Riches was 1 in 10,909.

I tell you.....I've never been so excited in my life (well, unless you count the time I went to LA to see The Price Is Right before Bob Barker retired).  I was shocked at the fact of hitting 3 $30 winners in such a short period of time.  I never saw that $500 winner coming.

It's time to update the good ol' Big Winners List:

$20 tickets:  2 $100 winners, 1 on GA Lottery 15th Anniversary Millionaire Extravaganza ($50 + $20 + 3 x $10) in July 2008 and 1 on World Class Millions (5 x $20) in April 2009

$10 tickets:  3 $100 winners on Cash Explosion -- 1 via 5 x $10 + 10 x $5 w/firecracker and 1 via 4 x Bill $5 in February 2008 and 1 via 5 x $10 + 10 x $5 w/firecracker in May 2008

$5 tickets:  $500 (Moneybag $100) on $500,000 Riches -- June 2009

$3 tickets:  $72 (12 x $6 w/gold bar) on Lucky Gold -- February 2009

$2 tickets:  $125 ($100 + $20 + $5) on Loteria -- January 2009

$1 tickets:  $100 (Jumbo $20) on Junior Jumbo Bucks -- April 2005

$0.50:  $40 (381 box) in Cash 3 -- October 2008

Until next time, may you get moneybags and other special multiplier symbols and may the prize under those multiplier symbols contain more than 1 digit after the dollar sign.

Saturday slow playing:

$20 (4 x $5) on $10 Super Lucky 7s

$15 ($7 + 4 x $2) on $1 $10,000 Summer Daze

$10 (10 x $1) on $5 Giant Jumbo Bucks

$15 (5 x $3) on $5 Bass Pro Shops $250,000 Cash Adventure

$25 ($25) on $20 World Class Millions

Other places:

$20 ($20) on $10 Super Lucky 7s

2 $2 winners (both 2 x $1) on 2 $1 $10,000 Summer Daze

...and here's a YouTube video.

Wednesday:

Free ticket and $2 (2 x $1) on some $10,000 Summer Daze

$3 ($2 + $1) on $2 Smooth Sailing

$15 ($15) on $3 Mighty Mega Bucks

Thursday:

Free ticket and $2 (2 x $1) on some $1 Pirate's Gold

$3 ($3) and $50 (Triple Cherry $10 + 5 x $4) on some $2 Fruit Twist

If you're wondering why there's no profit/loss.....that's because I now keep up with that stuff on my lotto hideout.  Go to my lotto hideout and you can see the profit/loss for the month and for the year (as of a certain date).  I update it whenever I get home from work if I bought tickets that day...or when I get back from slow playing if I have time before work.

I need to hurry up, post this, and post my Cash 25 Challenge picks.  I've gotta be at work at 5 (today and tomorrow).

Until next time, may you win big!

"Mmmm.....cherries, strawberries, pineapples, 4 leaf clovers, coins, and crowns"

I hit my 1st monster for June today.  Here's a coincidence.....the last time we had a store meeting at my place of work, the day after....I hit a $50 winner.  Yesterday.....we had a store meeting.  Figure that one out.

Until next time, may something Homer Simpson might go "Mmmmm...." over win you some nice loot.

First, I'll start off with the KACHING Report...

Saturday slow playing:

$2 ($2) on $1 Triple Wild

Free ticket on $2 Loteria

$18 (Triple Cherry $3 + 3 x $3) on $2 Cherry Twist

$7 (Line, Card #2) on $3 Lucky 7s Bingo

$10 (Moneybag $2) on $5 $500,000 Riches

$10 (5 x $2) on $5 Red White & Blue 7s

$15 (3 x $5) on $5 Giant Jumbo Bucks

$10 (2 x $5) on $5 Diamonds & Gold

Saturday other places:

Free ticket on $1 Triple Wild

$50 (Bill) on $2 Smooth Sailing (see previous blog post)

$65 profit

Tuesday:

$20 wipeout

Wednesday:

4 free tickets on 4 $1 $10,000 Summer Daze

Free ticket on $2 Smooth Sailing

$20 loss

It was a great Saturday....but Tuesday and Wednesday weren't that good.  Didn't have any luck with the new $10 Super Lucky 7s tickets.  Hopefully that'll change when I slow play them Saturday.

Now to the GA Lottery Detailed Instant Game Odds Excel Sheet.  I've done a nice update to the stuff (but, unfortunately, still no new detailed odds....yet).  When (and if) you go to my Lotto Hideout site, click on the link to the Detailed Odds sheet.  You'll notice that the entire workbook is now a series of web pages and is now entirely web based.  So, if you don't have Excel (or Open Office) and don't want to download any software....you can now see the sheet with a basic web browser (tested in Firefox and IE).  Yes...the pages aren't too colorful.  I'm just wanting it to work right for right now.  I may concentrate on adding some more color to it at a later time.  Feel free to post suggestions for any improvements or whatever else you can think of.

Until next time, may your 7s be super lucky and may you win lots of loot this weekend!

I've made some some small updates (as in no more added detailed odds, just small stuff like updated number of top prizes, added 2 new games and their overall odds, etc.) to my GA Lottery Detailed Instant Game Odds Excel Sheet.

You can read the changes and download the updated sheet here.

Hopefully I'll get to try the new games today before I go into work.

I just found out that I'm working SEVEN straight days next week...Sunday through Saturday.  That'll be one nice payday (unfortunately, though, it's over 2 pay periods.....our pay periods run Thursday through Wednesday) split over 2 checks.  I certainly won't mind....especially since I'm trying to (kinda) save up for Myrtle Beach in late August).  I got to go home early last night because business was so slow.  I certainly didn't mind.  I was originally supposed to close the dish pit....but the manager on duty got someone else to.  I don't mind sharing the wealth and letting someone else get a couple of extra hours by closing the dish pit, now that I know I've got a marathon ahead of me.

Until next time, may you win lots of loot and may your systems and whatever else, including lady luck, help you win tons of dough!

The May '09 KACHING video is now up on YouTube.  Be warned.....there's another new video uploaded and the May KACHING video does contain a small spoiler of that other video (where I scratch off more tickets).

Until next time, may you win lots of loot!

I'm still finding my way around the new features that you get with a Gold membership at LP.  I've been fooling around with my personal web space and new little "lotto hideout" site of mine.  Yesterday, I decided on a blog layout that seemed like the better bet of the templates available (even though it now spoils any spoliers I had on those "blank lines" (which were just white text on a white background) -- I'll have to find another way to do that now).

I decided to test out the Inspector 3 thingamajig today.  I did 10 predictions for the GA Lottery evening Cash 3 drawings up to Wednesday's drawing (to simulate what I might actually play).  I might fool around with the new wheels that I have access to with the Gold membership tonight or tomorrow morning.

I've still got that nice looking ticket with that nice looking bill symbol that wins that instantly nice looking prize.  I may cash it in this evening after work if I have time.  (I might do another YouTube video tonight if I do cash those tickets in......I'll upload that along with my May KACHING video.)

I did forget to mention another little thing about me in that last blog post where I talk about myself.  I am a college graduate.  I graduated in accounting from a local accredited technical college.  Did I mention how much I love Quickbooks? (makes an accountant's life a lot easier)  The only reason why I don't work as an accountant right now is because of some other stuff that happened in 2004 and has thrown a small monkey wrench in my life.

Until next time, may your extra goodies you get with a Gold or Platinum membership help win you lots of loot.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I would talk a little more about myself.

My name is Robert.  I'm 23 years old.  I was born at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.  I'm a prep person and sometimes a customer service representative as a local restaurant.  I work 4 to 5 days a week, and usually close the dish pit at that restaurant 2 days a week (sometimes more).

I'm a leather nut.  I love leather jackets.  I own several jackets and one pair of leather pants (that I don't wear too often....because the bottoms of each leg needs hemmed off (way too long) and I can't find anyone that'll do it cheap and on-site.  The one dry cleaner place that I know of wants to keep my pants for several days and ship them off to someone to have them done.  I don't trust that....especially for a pair of pants I paid $75 for (and the only pair of pants I'd pay $75 for -- I'm a cheapskate on all of my other clothes, like shirts, pants, and shorts).

I got started playing the lottery at a very early age, when I was still in elementary school and the GA Lottery first started (in 1993).  No, I didn't buy the tickets.....my dad did.  He'd buy a $1 scratcher for me each week if I was a good boy at school and around the house.  Sometimes, depending on if I hit a winner the previous week, it'd be 2 $1 scratchers.  The most I had ever won off of a scratcher was $10 on a game that I don't even remember.  Now we go to 2004...a couple of months after I graduated high school.  I bought my first lottery ticket on my own.  I actually bought quite a few that day.  I had gone to a local fair....but they didn't have any fun games to play.  So, being that I was 18 and legal to play lottery, I asked my mom to take me by a gas station nearby.  I bought a bunch of different kinds of tickets.  On one of them, a $2 Double Lucky 7s, I won in all 10 games for a total of $20 (I think it was double 7s in all 10 games for double all $1 prizes).  I also bought some of a $2 game called Mad Money.  I scratched off the 1st tic-tac-toe game and got the 3 correct symbols in a row.  I scratched off the prize....and found $30.  I scratched the 2nd game and found another correct tic-tac-toe....the prize was $50 on that one.  I scratched the bonus box and found the correct symbol for another $20.....my 1st $100 winner.  That's what got me playing the lottery full time.

In March of 2007, I got to live a childhood dream.  I saved up a bunch of money (some of it was from an insane streak of $20-$40 winners on lottery tickets in January and February)....I sold all of my old Pokemon cards I had collected when I was a teenager (yeah....I stayed in the Pokemon card biz a little too long ) and got nearly $400 out of them.  I ordered my plane tickets and flew out to Los Angeles, CA on an early Sunday morning.  That week I had some of the most fun I had ever had in my life.  I got to see someone I had always wanted to go see in person....all the way back when I was a toddler.  I got to see a guy by the name of Bob Barker.  I got to see one of my favorite TV shows in person, The Price Is Right.  I was born and raised watching game shows (and The People's Court with Judge Wapner).  In 2003, I got to meet Marc Summers, long-time host of Double Dare and also currently hosting Unwrapped on Food Network.  He was doing something for Game Show Network at a local mall.  He was very impressed about my knowledge of game shows.  I walked out of there that evening with so many shirts and small prizes that my mom and stepdad had to help me carry some of the loot!

I'm also a Nascar fan.  My username is from my favorite driver, Reed Sorenson, when he drove the #41 for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sebates last year and the year before.  Of course, Reed no longer drives the #41....instead, he drives the legendary #43 for Richard Petty Motorsports (as teammates to Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, and AJ Allmendinger).  I haven't got to meet him yet, but I did get to meet Bobby Labonte back in March 2005.

Well....that's all I can think of for now.  Now you know quite a bit more about me.  It's time for me to do some last-minute stuff before I get ready to head on into work.

Until next time, may you win lots of loot on your favorite lottery games.

The first great part of this weekend was finally getting those detailed odds.

The third great part of this weekend is getting my gold account (I'm still working on my new site on the LP web space).

The second part I skipped for a reason.  The second part...

...was hitting that nice looking bill symbol for an instantly nice looking prize.

*hops around and goes Daffy Duck-wild*

It's about time I hit another monster.  The most I had won on these $2 Smooth Sailing tickets prior to this was $5.

I'm still working on my new site on the LP space.  I'm also working on my new blog layout.

I won't have much time to fool around....I've gotta be at work at 5.

Now that I've gotten to know most of the LP family a little bit......I'm going to let you know a little about me.  Until now, with the exception of about 3 of you, nobody knows my name nor nothing much about me.  That's about to change.  I'll have a blog post telling you a little more about the guy known as sorensonfan41.

Until next time, may your bills win you money rather than drain your bank account.

The only 2 days I played this week for the KACHING Report, Wednesday and Thursday, are both YouTube videos.  I'm (kinda) cutting back a little so I can save up for a trip to Myrtle Beach I'm taking in August.

About the detailed odds stuff.....sorry if I disappointed you with my title of my last blog post.  I was just flat out excited to finally get the detailed odds from the GA Lottery (even if it's only 7 games right now and the rest on the way in the "coming days").  As Tenaj said in a comment, sometimes getting info from a lottery HQ is like pulling teeth.

Originally, when I offered to share the detailed odds information with others, I was talking about PMing me with your email address and I'd send it to ya.  I understand some people may not trust me with their email address, so I'm thinking about doing something that the head bottlewasher himself (Todd) might like.....

....I'm very highly considering upgrading my account to a Gold account for $4.95 a month.  If I do, I'll probably do month-to-month until I get comfortable with all the new features....and if I like 'em, I may upgrade to 6 months or a year and save some dough.  If I do, I'd probably just upload my Excel sheet there (in the web space that you get with a paid membership) and let you download it at your own will (and I'll update it on occasion whenever I get new detailed odds on games or update the sheet with the overall odds on all games along with the number of top prizes remaining).

Edit:  Change that.....I just did upgrade to a Gold account (for 1 month right now....may do 6-month or a year if I like the extra stuff here).  Now I'm waiting patiently for Todd to perform the upgrade to my account.

Until next time, may you win lots of goodies and may getting information from your lottery be painless and not be like pulling teeth.

I finally got a reply from the GA Lottery about my request for detailed odds on all of their instant games.

They sent me detailed odds for 7 of the games I requested.  According to the little letter they sent with it, more are coming and they asked for my patience and apologized for taking so long.

(Side note:  I had gotten to the point to where I emailed WGCL-TV 46 CBS Atlanta's consumer team asking if my request fell under open records laws (thinking the GA Lottery was going to pull something a few years ago when it came to top prizes remaining in their games).  They said it did, and to include that in my next request for detailed odds.  I did that and got the response and some odds today.)

I will start making an Excel sheet today and update it when I get more odds.

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!! I now know some more about (some of, as of right now) our instant games than what you see on GA Lottery's site.

(and yes....I'll share this information with you if ya want me to.  Just PM me and I'll ask ya another question...and then I'll send the Excel sheet to ya. )

Until next time, may you study up on detailed odds on your instant games and use that information to your advantage.

Saturday:

Free ticket on $2 Loteria

$5 on $2 Cashword II

2 $3 winners (3 x $1 and $3)  on 2 $2 10X The Money

$14 loss

Monday:

Free ticket on $5 $500,000 Hold 'Em Poker

$25 ($20 + $5) on $10 Extreme Green

$10 profit

Tuesday:

$5 (2 x $2 + $1) on Smooth Sailing

$2 ($2) on $1 Triple wild

$8 loss

Wednesday:

$9 (Triple $3), $6 (Triple $2), $3 (Triple $1), $2 ($2), and a free ticket on 5 $1 Triple Wild

$11 profit

Thursday:

The tickets are here.

$6 loss

Friday:

$2 ($2) on $1 Triple Wild

$13 loss

Someone in my family is graduating high school tomorrow.  I bought him a $20 World Class Millions ticket (as he turns 18 on Sunday....so if he wins anything, he'll be legal to cash it in and buy more tickets if he wants).  With my luck the way it is sometimes.....I probably passed up a $500 winner by giving it to him.   Someone at work joked with me that if I gave him a ticket for a graduation present, it'd probably be the time you'd wish you'd kept it because it'd be worth $5 Million.

There won't be any slow playing tomorrow.  If nothing happens before next Saturday (or if there's no change in plans), I may get back to slow playing and slow play the new games.

Until next time, may you win lots of loot and may anyone who has someone in their family (or friends) graduating have a very nice graduation and congrats to them for getting through school, passing, and not quitting!

Saturday slow playing:

$8 (2 x $4) on $5 Red White & Blue 7s

2 free tickets on 2 $2 Cashword II

Saturday other places:

They're here.

Highlight the blank line below to see the profit/loss after the slow playing and the video.

$26 loss

Sunday:

$7 (Mega $1 + 2 x $1) on $3 Mighty Mega Bucks

2 free tickets on 2 $5 Red White & Blue 7s

The others are here.  Highlight blank line below for overall profit/loss.

$24 loss

Monday:

$8 ($8) and $15 (7 $2 + $5) on 2 $5 Red White & Blue 7s

$13 profit

Tuesday:

Free ticket on $10 Extreme Green

$10 loss

Wednesday:

$8 (2 x $4) on $5 Red White & Blue 7s

$3 ($3) on $2 Aladdin's Lamp

Free ticket on $3 Lucky Gold

$15 (3 x $5) on $5 Giant Jumbo Bucks

Some more are here.  Highlight blank line for profit/loss overall.

$19 loss

Friday:

$15 ($10 + $5) on $5 Red White & Blue 7s

Free ticket on $10 Extreme Green

Free ticket on $2 10X The Money

$5 (5 x $1) on $3 Lucky Gold

Free ticket on $3 Mighty Mega Bucks

$2 (2 x $1) on $1 Pirate's Gold

$3 loss

There's not going to be any slow playing tomorrow nor next week (unless something unexpected happens).  Tomorrow, I'm going somewhere else with my mom for shopping and next Saturday...someone in my family graduates high school and I'm going to their graduation.

Until next time, may you win lots of dough.

Oh, by the way.....I learned something from someone at the bottle shop that I buy tickets before I go into work...one of the new games coming to GA next week (they get flyers every month or so talking about upcoming games) is a type of game that I haven't seen GA have in several years.......a "get 3 like amounts and win that amount, get 2 like amounts and a (symbol) symbol and win triple that amount"-type game.  I can't wait to see those again.

Before I took these pictures of Miss Kitty, she was laying down in the window on her side.  She was all stretched out and purring her head off.  She was facing the outside and I tried to get a picture of her.  She decided to suddenly get up and just be sitting.  I go inside, hoping she was just moving around to lay in a different position.  She didn't......but I decided to take pictures anyway.

(In the pictures, Miss Kitty is like "Curse you for waking me from my sleep!" )