Houston United States
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June 24, 2008
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Quote: Originally posted by four4me on Jul 16, 2008
The people who run these games aren't stupid they know people will devise many methods to try and win their games. However because they change the ball sets for every drawing how can anyone possible defeat that without having and using that information in their systems.
They change the balls sets to avoid a common occurrence of balls being drawn. If they used the same ball set for every draw then i think it would be possible to possibly trap the numbers once using some system.
How can you assume or even consider patterns in a game where the variables are constantly changing. The next draw might have a completely new set of balls for all we know and the next draw after that have a ball set they used 9 draws ago. They might rotate out the machine they use so the same balls and machine only get used tow or three times every month.
Believe me i have tried finding patterns to use in the mega and our own bonus match 5 game here in Maryland. While there are a few occurrences from month to month the numbers drawn never keep the same pattern. Of course there were numbers drawn more times over the course of the game so what if you cant find the numbers that are going to go along for the ride.
I have tried to take advantage of this by pooling different numbers to go along with whatever pattern i see emerging and sometimes i get close. But close only counts in horseshoes.
I am not against anyone using any methods to win these games but let be realistic about it.
Four4me,
Believe me, I used to think the same way as you. So one day (recently, actually) I decided to email Mega Million and question them about changing the ball and the amount of lead on the ball that may tilt the numbers differently than if they hadn't use a ball with more lead. I asked some other questions too.
The Lottery official that responded to me, answered my question and on the last question (about changing the ball and the lead on them) she didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Now, I don't know what to make of that but when I went on with my studies, I come to realize the patterns are still showing up in its' natural sequencical order. Every single time.
The variables may be changing but I don't look at that. I'm looking at specific patterns (and as it seems, only a few members here seems to understand that... like LottoL), those patterns are still showing up. The numbers within in the patterns are consistent as the previous one -- I see hardly no problems with it except when the number "0" lands and knock it temporarily out of joint.
I suggest you devise a better method that goes "deeper" than what you're already using. I tell you, the patterns are very detailed as is. Trust me.
Kentucky United States
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February 14, 2006
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Quote: Originally posted by Mega-ThinkTank on Jul 16, 2008
Four4me,
Believe me, I used to think the same way as you. So one day (recently, actually) I decided to email Mega Million and question them about changing the ball and the amount of lead on the ball that may tilt the numbers differently than if they hadn't use a ball with more lead. I asked some other questions too.
The Lottery official that responded to me, answered my question and on the last question (about changing the ball and the lead on them) she didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Now, I don't know what to make of that but when I went on with my studies, I come to realize the patterns are still showing up in its' natural sequencical order. Every single time.
The variables may be changing but I don't look at that. I'm looking at specific patterns (and as it seems, only a few members here seems to understand that... like LottoL), those patterns are still showing up. The numbers within in the patterns are consistent as the previous one -- I see hardly no problems with it except when the number "0" lands and knock it temporarily out of joint.
I suggest you devise a better method that goes "deeper" than what you're already using. I tell you, the patterns are very detailed as is. Trust me.
"I decided to email Mega Million and question them about changing the ball and the amount of lead on the ball that may tilt the numbers differently than if they hadn't use a ball with more lead."
I have plastic shaker device that holds 54 small numbered balls with slots on the base that trap 6 of balls. It's shaped and painted to look like Santa Claus and has gold colored string so it can double as a Christmas tree ornament. It didn't come with instructions but it's obvious the idea is shake it several time and write down the numbers that are trapped in the 6 slots and put them on a play slip.
I don't know if these balls were weighted and calibrated to be equal size, but they are very small and the numbers are painted on only one side of the ball so the tilt is more evident and sometimes makes it difficult read the numbers. The lotteries use larger balls, put them into a larger container for mixing, and number is painted on each ball in several places to make them easier to see.
"she didn't know what the hell I was talking about."
After revolving in a container using a mixing device and rolling down a ramp or colliding with the other balls because they are hit with forced air, it would be next to impossible for the balls to end up in the same position they started. The reason the numbers are tilted differently or not in the same position should be obvious. How could using more or less lead change that?
"I come to realize the patterns are still showing up in its' natural sequencical order. Every single time."
I agree there is a "natural sequencial order", but to find the current sequential order, you have to know which one it is out of a number that probably has millions of digits. There are a possible 3,904,701 different outcomes in MM and the mega ball increases that to 175,711,536. To find out the number of possible sequential orders, we would have to factor either number (175,711,536 times 175,711,535 times 175,711,534 times 175,711,533 times 175,711,532).
If we could bet which of the numbers on the five balls are tilted to to left or tilted to to right as they face the camera, there are 64 sequential orders and it would probably pay $4 guessing correctly. Each drawing is a random new drawing and if in fact there is a pattern forming from past drawings, that pattern is just as random.
Indiana United States
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January 7, 2007
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Quote: Originally posted by Mega-ThinkTank on Jul 16, 2008
Four4me,
Believe me, I used to think the same way as you. So one day (recently, actually) I decided to email Mega Million and question them about changing the ball and the amount of lead on the ball that may tilt the numbers differently than if they hadn't use a ball with more lead. I asked some other questions too.
The Lottery official that responded to me, answered my question and on the last question (about changing the ball and the lead on them) she didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Now, I don't know what to make of that but when I went on with my studies, I come to realize the patterns are still showing up in its' natural sequencical order. Every single time.
The variables may be changing but I don't look at that. I'm looking at specific patterns (and as it seems, only a few members here seems to understand that... like LottoL), those patterns are still showing up. The numbers within in the patterns are consistent as the previous one -- I see hardly no problems with it except when the number "0" lands and knock it temporarily out of joint.
I suggest you devise a better method that goes "deeper" than what you're already using. I tell you, the patterns are very detailed as is. Trust me.
The Lottery official that responded to me, answered my question and onthe last question (about changing the ball and the lead on them) shedidn't know what the hell I was talking about.
The 56 ball obviously weighs more than the 1 ball because there is more black paint used for the number itself for the 56 ball than the 1 ball. Those cheaters!................................
MD United States
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June 18, 2003
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Quote: Originally posted by JAP69 on Jul 16, 2008
Did any one ever inquire about this one.
If they have say four ball sets numbered 1 thru whatever. Now take all four ball sets place them in a drum and twirl them around mixing them up.
Now take out the four sets of balls in the drum to remake your four numbered ball sets 1 thru whatever.
Jap thats kinda what i was getting at the other day i watched Maryland's pick 3 drawing on the Internet they drew the 3 balls and when they did the number 6 was all beat up like the paint was missing from some areas where the black 6 was the other two balls looked new or nearly new. So i asked myself why on earth would they put a used ball in with newer balls. Probably because they needed a ball that weighed the same as the other within the specs and didn't have a newer one handy or got it from a box of used balls used for that purpose.
And to top it all off how did the numerals have wear marks on them if said balls have several coats of lacquer on them to protect them from being rubbed off. ( still shaking my head at that on) It's been years since they made the small pingpong balls without lacquer.
You see i know how the ping pong balls are made and what went into them to get them certified as good enough top be set aside for the lottery. They make them a few miles from my house.
I don't know who makes the bigger balls used for the mega and powerball drawings but they are probably made to the same exacting standard as the smaller lottery balls.
BigJohn says. You don't hit the number. The number hits you!!!!
I'm not Big John, I'm Four4me, Big John's a friend.
Kentucky United States
Member #32,651
February 14, 2006
10,303 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by four4me on Jul 16, 2008
The people who run these games aren't stupid they know people will devise many methods to try and win their games. However because they change the ball sets for every drawing how can anyone possible defeat that without having and using that information in their systems.
They change the balls sets to avoid a common occurrence of balls being drawn. If they used the same ball set for every draw then i think it would be possible to possibly trap the numbers once using some system.
How can you assume or even consider patterns in a game where the variables are constantly changing. The next draw might have a completely new set of balls for all we know and the next draw after that have a ball set they used 9 draws ago. They might rotate out the machine they use so the same balls and machine only get used tow or three times every month.
Believe me i have tried finding patterns to use in the mega and our own bonus match 5 game here in Maryland. While there are a few occurrences from month to month the numbers drawn never keep the same pattern. Of course there were numbers drawn more times over the course of the game so what if you cant find the numbers that are going to go along for the ride.
I have tried to take advantage of this by pooling different numbers to go along with whatever pattern i see emerging and sometimes i get close. But close only counts in horseshoes.
I am not against anyone using any methods to win these games but let be realistic about it.
In the last 9 Mega Millions drawings, $170,960,727 worth of tickets were sold and estimated cash jackpot for the next drawing is $64.3 million. And that number is base on expected sales of another $25 to $30 million on the next drawing. After subtracting the approximate number of secondary prizes from the $132.5 million if the jackpot is hit, gives us an ballpark figure of how much the game will profit and it should be at least $60 million.
It's possible a couple of tickets were sold in one those 9 drawings that will match all the numbers in the next drawing but they will be useless to the players bought them. The people who run these games know that and changing or keeping the same ball set still won't prevent someone from choosing the correct numbers in the next drawing whether it's from using an elaborate system or birthdays. If 30% or 40% of of the projected sales of over $25 million are picked numbers, that's only 5.7% of all the possible combinations so I doubt the lottery people will lose any sleep over system players.
They know it's possible somebody in Maddog's challenge could match 5 of the 12 numbers and 1 of the 4 mega balls and play the necessary 3168 combinations to guarantee winning. But since the percentages are in their favor because of the large number of possibilities, they know it's unlikely that will happen. But even if that does happen, they have already made a nice profit.
"I am not against anyone using any methods to win these games but let be realistic about it."
I've matched 5 of 15 numbers in a 5/39 game so I know it's possible, but only matched 3 numbers on one ticket because I only played 13 of the possible 3003 combinations. I can say "had I spent the $3003 I would have won over $100,000" but I didn't know for a fact even one of those numbers would be drawn and didn't want to donate 3 grand to the lottery.
For the next drawing somebody will probably buy one ticket and say "it only takes one ticket to win the jackpot", but realistically if 30 million QPs are sold, there still is an 83% chance the ticket matching all the numbers wasn't sold. In either method people have to be realistic; it's a dollar and a dream.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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"I am not against anyone using any methods to win these games but let be realistic about it."
Lets be realistic, if you're going to play then you're going to have to pick your own combinations or let the terminal do it for you (quick picks). If you pick your own then that's a system whether you use dates of births or important events in your life or something else. Chances are the combinations you pick won't win the jackpot but giving it your best try is better than wishing you had after the drawing is over.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Kentucky United States
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February 14, 2006
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jul 16, 2008
Many new players come to LP hoping someone or a group have developed a system or strategy that wins big and are willing to convince them that it really works. Unfortunately, that's what people who are trying to sell something do, information as LP is shared freely as is.
The pick3 and pick4 forums are more active in that regards and the pick5 and jackpot forums have their supporters too but they haven't developed a consensus on what works. Like johnph77, I and others post information and charts that are not systems or strategies and it's up to the readers to decide if the information is helpful.
I have lots of information and charts that I use to pick numbers to play and the best I've done so far is to reduce the number pool by about 40% which has all the winning numbers about 10% of the time. 25-30 numbers cover a lot of combinations and I'm lucky to get even a small win with 20-30 lines when all the winning numbers are in that pool.
As far as I know no LP member has ever won a jackpot so if he/she is using a system or strategy to pick their combinations the only way to know if they are improving their chances for a win shot of actually winning a jackpot is to compare their results with those of an equal number of QPs. I use the LP Quick Pick generator to get my test groups.
"Like johnph77, I and others post information and charts that are not systems or strategies and it's up to the readers to decide if the information is helpful."
I have a LP file in Word I copied and paste with many ideas, theories, and information from this site and I've tried many things that might combine 5 or 6 of them. It's almost like some of the new people expect to find a system on LP where they do a few things, play $2 or $3 worth of tickets, and collect the jackpot the next day.
From experience I know positional limits is one of the best reductions in full wheels but that is only when the numbers cooperate. Yesterday had I made a large wheel, used the same limits I suggested by using the most frequent numbers in each position for MM, I would have been wrong in the first position.
Texas United States
Member #33,718
February 24, 2006
764 Posts
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jul 16, 2008
"I am not against anyone using any methods to win these games but let be realistic about it."
Lets be realistic, if you're going to play then you're going to have to pick your own combinations or let the terminal do it for you (quick picks). If you pick your own then that's a system whether you use dates of births or important events in your life or something else. Chances are the combinations you pick won't win the jackpot but giving it your best try is better than wishing you had after the drawing is over.
I agree with RJOh!!
Based on my system, I would venture a guess that I may capture 3, and hopefully
4 winning numbers out of a set of 30 for Friday's July 18 MegaMillions drawing.
Here is my 30 number set (not in any particular order):
In the last 10 MM drawings, repeat numbers have hit in 8 of these draws, with
two drawings containing 2 repeat numbers. It appears we are in a cycle of
repeats for the time being. RJOh has an excellent slogan which I try to pattern
my analysis after: "What happens most is most likely to happen again"
Looking at the past several drawings, out of my 30 number set, the most likely are:
Repeat Numbers: 24 - 45 - 51
Numbers That Have Occurred In The Past Six Draws That Match My 30 number set:
01 - 08 - 14 - 16 - 22 - 36 - 52
My Guess would be that 1 possibly 2 numbers would come from these 10 numbers.
That leaves the other 20 numbers. All I can say here is that the numbers that look
good to me are as follows: 06 - 07 - 23 - 47
That's about the best forecast I can come up with. Like I said before, I'm just
trying to capture three numbers with this forecast, and if I'm lucky I may get 4.
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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To get my initial list of numbers I look at the number of times the winning numbers have hit in the previous 50 drawings since the last matrix change. 60% of them have hit 3-6 times and 15% of the time all 5 winning numbers were within that group.
Using that statistic I start out with a group of 39 numbers: 01 03 04 07 09 11 12 13 15 17 20 24 25 26 27 30 31 32 33 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 54 55 56. This list is larger than I like so I will be doing some additional analogies to reduce list even further, preferable to 30 or less.
In the past I have reduced the numbers pool down to 27 with all the winning numbers in the group and still couldn't do any better than a match2 in 20 lines, so it still takes a little luck to get a win.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
Houston United States
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June 24, 2008
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Quote: Originally posted by RJOh on Jul 17, 2008
To get my initial list of numbers I look at the number of times the winning numbers have hit in the previous 50 drawings since the last matrix change. 60% of them have hit 3-6 times and 15% of the time all 5 winning numbers were within that group.
Using that statistic I start out with a group of 39 numbers: 01 03 04 07 09 11 12 13 15 17 20 24 25 26 27 30 31 32 33 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 54 55 56. This list is larger than I like so I will be doing some additional analogies to reduce list even further, preferable to 30 or less.
In the past I have reduced the numbers pool down to 27 with all the winning numbers in the group and still couldn't do any better than a match2 in 20 lines, so it still takes a little luck to get a win.
That's ALOT of numbers, dude. If it suits you, so be it though. I narrow my numbers for each columns down to 1 or 2 numbers. Sometimes I might have to play 3 different numbers for one particular column. Overall, my pool of numbers rarely goes over 10 numbers (excluding the MM ball).
mid-Ohio United States
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March 24, 2001
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Quote: Originally posted by Mega-ThinkTank on Jul 17, 2008
That's ALOT of numbers, dude. If it suits you, so be it though. I narrow my numbers for each columns down to 1 or 2 numbers. Sometimes I might have to play 3 different numbers for one particular column. Overall, my pool of numbers rarely goes over 10 numbers (excluding the MM ball).
You're right, those are a lot of numbers, but they are the initial list which will be reduced to 30 of less eventually.
In addition, when I create my combinations from them, I will use the most popular distribution patterns. For example I've replaced numbers in the last 320 drawings with the letters A=1-19, B=20-38 and C=39-56 and found only 19 distribution patterns and 65% of the combinations were cover by six of them. All the combinations that I play will fit one of those top six patterns.
I've never had much luck using less than 25 numbers when playing MegaMillions. Only once did I ever have 4 of the winning numbers in Maddog Challenge which is limited to 12 numbers. I'm still trying to find a way to win that challenge more often, if I ever do it will be in my system.
I've never come close to winning a jackpot with my system but everyone have their own ways of picking combinations to play and this is part of the logic behind the way I pick mines.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
I was able to reduce those 39 numbers to 31 without eliminating the 17,36 and 55 , played 20 lines and got a 3+0 and a 0+1 for $9. I'll be going through the same steps of my system for Tuesday's drawing and hoping to do better.
Put 12 of my WB and 4 of my MB in the Maddog challenge and got a 1+1.
* you don't need to buy every combination, just the winning ones *
I was able to reduce those 39 numbers to 31 without eliminating the 17,36 and 55 , played 20 lines and got a 3+0 and a 0+1 for $9. I'll be going through the same steps of my system for Tuesday's drawing and hoping to do better.
Put 12 of my WB and 4 of my MB in the Maddog challenge and got a 1+1.