For pick 3 I use pen and paper, preferring the 1/4 square quadrille paper. Since DE now has 2 draws a day and 1 on Sunday, I line my numbers for each draw across the page by day-night, day-night, etc., beginning with Mon thru Sunday. That way I can observe what happened exactly one week back as each new draw comes up to see what hit. It seems that often a pair of numbers that hit exactly the week before will repeat in the next draw, and If I have a number I'm playing that fits that category, I may play it .50 cents of $1 combo for that draw. I may make a play like this if I see my digits in any of the numbers either above, to the left, or to the right of the new draw spot. This stategy only has to succeed once in a blue moon to cover a lot of "misses". I prefer to play my numbers .50 cents box only at the start of the week (I always pick a new set of numbers for each week on Sunday night) and then if I hit, I may switch to a $1 box to amplify any winnings for the remainder of the week. Later in the week, if I've had a couple of hits, I may play a favorite number .50 combo for the rest of the week. I rarely play straight as I feel that I can use any extra money for more boxed wins or combo wins. My theory is that I try to pick numbers that will hit soon.....1 to 2 weeks. I think of this as "short odds" and "long money" to guarantee more winnings in the long run. It is a take on the "Steve Player" thinking I guess as he used to suggest on most of his systems for 4 digit that one play more boxed tickets per play as one won more money. On one system of his he suggested playing 12 $1 boxed tickets which would win $2400 for a 24 way box 4 digit, the near equivalent to a .50 cent str play on 1 number. The $12 play was a build up of course after winning at the $1 level and not an immediate play suggestion. That theory of course was to avoid having to pay any taxes on the 4 digit money.
I also make up another chart with the 1/4 squares paper where I post all of the numbers that hit for each week by their lowest digit up to highest digit underneath a column with that lowest digit. All numbers with a "0" go under it and so forth up to "6". Since there are not that many numbers above 6, I post everything starting with 6, 7, 8, or 9 under the "6" column. I am able to split the page down the middle and start a 2nd group down the right side of the page. With this scheme, I am basically looking at the 3 digits in the "220" number format from which all straight plays come from. This data allows me to quickly find a specific number if I want to know if it hit before in the year, or if a friend would ask me about a certain number, etc. I also use it to help me pick my numbers for the next week. Lottobrain
