Most of us know what vtracs are, and most have used them to work out plays for P3 and P4. I'm trying to work out a way to narrow down vtrac strings and possibly get a str8 out of the deal. :) Keep in mind that each vtrac string permutation has 16 str8 numbers.
First let's take a look at the catagories of vtracs, and how many numbers are in each catagory.
Quads
This one is pretty easy. This catagory has the least amount of str8s in it. Of the 5 quad vtracs, there are 16 numbers in each, totaling 80 str8s.
Triples
This catagory has 20 vtrac strings (boxed). For each string there are 4 possible combos. The total number of str8s in this catagory are 1280.
(20 X 4 X 16 = 1280)
Double/Doubles
This catagory has 10 vtrac strings (boxed). Each vtrac has possible 6 permutations. So the total number of str8s in this catagory are 960.
(10 X 6 X 16 = 960)
Doubles
This catagory has the largest number of total strings (30 boxed). Each vtrac has 12 permutations. So the total number of str8s in this catagory are 5760.
(12 X 30 X 16 = 5760)
Singles
This catagory has 5 vtrac strings (boxed). Each vtrac has 16 permutations. So the total number of str8s in this catagory are 1920.
(5 X 16 X 24 = 1920)
Have I lost you all yet!?!?!?
The total from each catagory added up should equal 10,000.
Now that's the ground work. You'll have to take a look at your state to see which vtrac is due. Since the double vtracs have the most numbers, you can start there. Once you find the longest out vtrac, then look at the str8 vtrac strings that have not fallen yet in your state.
I will use New Jersey as an example! :) Longest double vtrac out there is v2235. Looking over the history of this vtrac there are 3 strings that have not show in the past year. You can go back further to narrow the strings down, but again, this is just an example. Here are the str8 strings that have not shown this year.
v2235 1124 1129 1174 1179 1624 1629 1674 1679 6124 6129 6174 6179 6624 6629 6674 6679
V2523 1412 1417 1462 1467 1912 1917 1962 1967 6412 6417 6462 6467 6912 6917 6962 6967
V2325 1214 1219 1264 1269 1714 1719 1764 1769 6214 6219 6264 6269 6714 6719 6764 6769
We're coming up on this vtrac soon. Let's see if this works out. You can also do this with any of the catagories. For example v3335 in NJ is missing since Jan 5th!! Now triple vtracs have far less numbers compared to double vtracs so you can expect the long skips to occur. Try things like narrowing down the picks by keeping track of singles and doubles. When doubles are due, remove the singles from the strings, and so on.....
Hope this helps someone catch a str8 in YOUR state!!
Best of luck to everyone!