mid-Ohio United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
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Experts say there are a lot fewer combinations with 4-6 sequential numbers than there are combinations without them therefore the winning combinations are less likely to be one of them, they neglect to mention the chances of matching any combination is the same regardless of the numbers in it.
They also say never play birthday numbers because winners will likely have to share the jackpot, concluding it's better to win nothing than share a jackpot. Fact is most jackpots won with low numbers usually have only one winner and many time low numbers drawings have no winners at all.
There is a lot of such worthless information about lotteries floating around out there.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Dump Water Florida United States
Member #380
June 5, 2002
3,580 Posts
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Or so say the "experts"
Illinois Lotto 3-8-06
06-33-41-42-43-44
"Don't ever play four numbers in sequence" or so say those who write lottery books.
Four sequential numbers are drawn roughly 2% of the time, so the advice not to make up tickets with 4 or more consecutive numbers is sound. It all comes down to how often you want a chance to win vs. how good a chance you want of winning when it comes around. If you are willing to wait out 50 draws for a chance to play all sets of 4 consecutive numbers plus all the remaining number pairs, that could be an effective jackpot strategy if only 4 consecutive numbers could be counted on to appear once every 50 draws and not just twice in a hundred or four times in two hundred or whatever it takes.
I don't believe in playing something that only comes around once every 50 or 100 draws. I'd rather have a chance of winning in every draw. BobP
Zeta Reticuli Star System United States
Member #30,469
January 17, 2006
11,791 Posts
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RJOH
There's a diference between saying never play birthday numbers and never play all birthday numbers. Theorhetically, if you hit and all the numbers were under 31 there's less chance of that being a solo hit.
Michigan United States
Member #22,394
September 24, 2005
1,583 Posts
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Coin Toss
One day someone will see these numbers too:
1 2 3 4 5 6
LOL
I think what RJ is saying is this...if you think all birthday numbers are going to come out winning, who cares if the jackpot is shared. Why pass up the once in your lifetime that you will win it?
Wisconsin United States
Member #1,303
March 27, 2003
1,508 Posts
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Or so say the "experts"
Illinois Lotto 3-8-06
06-33-41-42-43-44
"Don't ever play four numbers in sequence" or so say those who write lottery books.
They also say "never bet two numbers ending in the same digit on the same draw". As per your example, it shows again that they don't know what they are talking about. Even three numbers ending in the same digit will show often enough. Throw out most of what the "experts" who write the books say. I've seen too much proof that they don't have a clue.
I guess if they did, they would have won the lottery by now and not have to write books to make their money.
mid-Ohio United States
Member #9
March 24, 2001
20,272 Posts
Offline
Or so say the "experts"
Illinois Lotto 3-8-06
06-33-41-42-43-44
"Don't ever play four numbers in sequence" or so say those who write lottery books.
Four sequential numbers are drawn roughly 2% of the time, so the advice not to make up tickets with 4 or more consecutive numbers is sound. It all comes down to how often you want a chance to win vs. how good a chance you want of winning when it comes around. If you are willing to wait out 50 draws for a chance to play all sets of 4 consecutive numbers plus all the remaining number pairs, that could be an effective jackpot strategy if only 4 consecutive numbers could be counted on to appear once every 50 draws and not just twice in a hundred or four times in two hundred or whatever it takes.
I don't believe in playing something that only comes around once every 50 or 100 draws. I'd rather have a chance of winning in every draw. BobP
BobP,
The Ohio Buckeye5 game ended in October 2004 after almost an eleven years run. During its run only 0.6% of the possible combinations were ever drawn so how does avoiding 2% of the possible combinations improves ones chances of winning? The numbers 01 02 03 04 05 and 06 in a pick6 has never come up all together, but in most cases they have done as well as any other set of numbers that has never won the big prize when you compare small wins. These are just MegaMillions results.
Dump Water Florida United States
Member #380
June 5, 2002
3,580 Posts
Offline
Or so say the "experts"
Illinois Lotto 3-8-06
06-33-41-42-43-44
"Don't ever play four numbers in sequence" or so say those who write lottery books.
Four sequential numbers are drawn roughly 2% of the time, so the advice not to make up tickets with 4 or more consecutive numbers is sound. It all comes down to how often you want a chance to win vs. how good a chance you want of winning when it comes around. If you are willing to wait out 50 draws for a chance to play all sets of 4 consecutive numbers plus all the remaining number pairs, that could be an effective jackpot strategy if only 4 consecutive numbers could be counted on to appear once every 50 draws and not just twice in a hundred or four times in two hundred or whatever it takes.
I don't believe in playing something that only comes around once every 50 or 100 draws. I'd rather have a chance of winning in every draw. BobP
BobP,
The Ohio Buckeye5 game ended in October 2004 after almost an eleven years run. During its run only 0.6% of the possible combinations were ever drawn so how does avoiding 2% of the possible combinations improves ones chances of winning? The numbers 01 02 03 04 05 and 06 in a pick6 has never come up all together, but in most cases they have done as well as any other set of numbers that has never won the big prize when you compare small wins. These are just MegaMillions results.
The 2% figure I gave is for the Illinois 6/52 and the reason you want to avoid playing 2% of the combinations is because they may be 100% of your combinations. Even if you only play 5 lines, one bad line is 20% of your playing power, why waste 20% of your playing budget on a gross line type that comes up one time in roughly 50 draws meaning 49 draws it's impossible for this line to win a jackpot. There is a big difference between slim and none.
"Spock, what are the odds of the away team encountering hostile aliens?"
"Captain, I estimate the odds to be 1 in 13,983,816.
"Say again, I can't hear you over all the screaming!"
Badger: I've never seen an "expert" say not to play a combination where two numbers end in the same last digit, as the odds of that is 50% and the other 50% consists of everything else that can happen with last digits. The odds of no numbers with the same last digit is 20% and the odds of two sets of two with the same last digit (12, 22, 25, 35, 47, 49) is also 20%, talking IL 6/52 game again, other games may vary slightly. If you can supply a source for the "expert" advice you saw I'd love to see it. BobP