Robert,
Thank you for your review.
The main question seems to be how many previous draws to pick. In the first version of MasterMind 3 I did not reduce the predicted numbers by eliminating all of the entered previous draws.
A "potential" answer to this question is mainly based on the chances the player wants to take, or better how mnay numbers he/she wants to pick.
The know that the number to be predicted (the next drawing) will be a Single Number in 72% of the cases, a Double Number in 27% of the cases and in 1% of the cases a triple. If we eliminate previous the boxed numbers from recent drawings, the question is: What are the chances to reduce the number to be predicted.
To use a formula to come up with chances:
6/1000 *0.72 + 3/1000 *0.27 + 1/1000 *.01 = 0.00514
These are the expected chances that we get rid of the potential winning number for each previous drawing that we are entering.
So more or less every previous drawing that we are eliminating will add about half a procent to the chance that we eliminate the potential winning number from our selection.
What that means is:
If you are entering 20 previous drawings the chances that you are eliminating a winning number from the selection is only 10%.
With 50 previous drawings the chances are still only 25%. 66 drawings brings you to 33%. About 100 drawings gives you an even 50/50 chance that the winning number gets lost in the previous drawings.
Keeing this mind I would suggest (depending on the numbers that the system picks) that you should slect numbers between 20 and 66. That should be based on the maximum numbers you wnat to play.
Just some thoughts.
Good Luck