Thanks for your kind words! It's very much appreciated.
So yeah, I could have hit for a little money last night. But don't forget that's only if I had managed to put the three winning numbers (#2 #18 & #33) that are included in my set of 16 on the same line on my ticket. That's where having a little good luck comes into play. Many times I've had three winning numbers included in any given set of 16 that I had picked. What typically happens is I win multiple Free Tickets rather than cash. I might play ten lines and have winning numbers sprinkled on each line of my ticket, but only occasionally do I have three winning numbers on the same line.
But first and foremost though is I have to be very lucky and have all five winning numbers that were actually drawn included within my set of 16. Then I must be lucky enough to have put all five of them on the same line. That's not easy to do. Here's why;
When you choose just 16 out of 36 numbers to play, your set of 16 numbers will generate 4,368 different combinations of 5 numbers. So your odds of winning a jackpot (which can only happen if your set of 16 numbers contains all five winning numbers) are reduced from 376,992 to 1 to 4,368 to 1. That's a lot better odds to win a jackpot, but believe me when I tell ya, having all five winning numbers included in your set of 16 does not happen much. When you chose 16 numbers to play, you're essentially saying "None of the other 20 numbers are going to be drawn".
There have been a few times that I had four of the five FF5 winning numbers included in my set of 16, but so far I've never been able to put all four of them on the same line on my ticket. I cant think of a time playing FF5 when I was lucky enough to have all five winning numbers in my set of 16. I did have that happen to me when I lived in New York playing NY's Pick5 game, Take5. That was after many years of playing Take5. I've only been living in Florida and playing FF5 for just over one year so it might take a while for Lady Luck shine on my numbers. One thing is for sure, while I know it's never easy, I wont give up on the fact That Lady Luck might be kind to me some day. She does that all the time to other good folks living in Florida. Why not me? G5