How Far Off the mark

Reply #11

time*treat — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 04:08:52 GMT

... and lotto-type games that pay on 3/5 and 4/5 matches.

Reply #10

Amazing Grace — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 08:19:22 GMT

Close only counts in Horseshoes and Hand Gernades

Reply #9

skycruzr — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 07:36:23 GMT

For the WV Powerball, imagine a stack of pennies 144+ miles high, where each penny is a possible winner of all possible numbers selected plus the powerball. When I refer to mileage, I'm refering to the distance my selection of numbers, represented by a penny within the stack, are away from the winning set of numbers, the other penny in the stack. Since it is highly unlikely I'm going to win all the numbers, my brother and I simply brag who was the closest to winning the big bucks, hence, picki... [ More ]

Reply #8

time*treat — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 04:34:29 GMT

RJOh,In the case of these bonus ball games, if you use the sequence (1 2 3 4 5 +1 to 51 52 53 54 55 +42), the 5+0 numbers are all evenly spaced from each other.

Reply #7

fja — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 18:23:51 GMT

the 41 combinations that matched 5+0 would be within 30.76 inches of the winning combination. As far as value....a tossed horse shoe has more value than this type of analyzing.....

Reply #6

time*treat — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 17:11:05 GMT

I haven't done this sequence thing for a game with a bonus ball, but to answer the question regarding 'closeness' of the almost wons (lower tier prizes), these are varying distances from the top prize sequencewise. Some are clustered near it but most are scattered . The main factor is the winner itself. Winners that begin with (2 or 3) low numbers, or are mostly high numbers, have their lower tier prizes clustered more than 'wide spread' sets.If that is hard to visualize, consider the pick 3 nu... [ More ]

Reply #5

RJOh — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:09:59 GMT

fja,I never thought of sequencing the combinations of PowerBall from 1 to 146,107,962 (1 2 3 4 5 +1 to 51 52 53 54 55 +42) which brings up some other questions. If one knows the sequence of the winning number, how far away are the 41 combinations that matched 5+0? Could a 3+1 combination be closer and pay less? If a closer combination paid less, what is the value of being close? Do such information have any value

Reply #4

fja — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:36:46 GMT

Or do you mean that if you lined up every combination in sequence and each penny represented a combination in that sequence you were 159,667 combinations away from the winning set of numbers.....Or are you really just BSing like RJoh says.....

Reply #3

Just6ntlc — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:29:41 GMT

I always buy my lotto tickets within 2 miles, but not successful of winning anything more than $23 [2001].

Reply #2

RJOh — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 08:39:16 GMT

skycruzr,When you say the closet you've come to winning the powerball is 1.89 miles, do you mean that had you bought your ticket at a store 2 miles down the road you might have been closer to winning? Or are you just BSing to get people to visit your website

Reply #1

TheGameGrl — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 07:03:06 GMT

okay , you either got wayyy too much time on your hands, or your relatively brilliant! I 'll have to flip a coin to decide which one you are though .sorry that i didnt visit the link, but recently had a virus crop up from following a link ...

How Far Off the mark

skycruzr — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 04:57:19 GMT

Just for kicks and grins, I've developed a html page to calculate how far away from the winning powerball numbers using a stack of pennies in relative miles. Where each penny is a selection of numbers, plus powerball. The closest I've come so far is 1.89 miles. http://webpages.charter.net/dcronin/lottery