Those Damn Yankees! Rhode Island Wins Jackpot...

The Powerball site is reporting that someone in Rhode Island won the $151 million jackpot this evening. We'll wait another couple of weeks for the jackpot to climb back to near $50 million levels before we participate again in the drawing. When that happens? We'll be ready with an extra injection of number picks from our winning $63 plus our previous banked earnings! (See post below for more details.) Thanks for your continued support! John

Pool Sets Record for 2007 Winning $63

We had an excellent evening tonight, winning the greatest amount we've yet to earn in a single drawing in 2007 - thanks to 6 number sets that had the powerball 38 alone correct or combined with one white ball. Total earnings this evening? $63. That represents our 4th highest earnings in our pool history.

I worked hard this evening on statistical pattens for the powerball and I think it payed off - even though 38 was the 21st pick out of the 21 powerball numbers I chose out of the total pool of 42 to choose from. I now use 6 different statistical factors that weigh which powerball numbers to choose.

Our banked earnings now jump to $105 which will give us a great boost for more picks should the jackpot continue to rise over the weekend. We'll know the results of this evenings jackpot status a little later this evening.

Payments and banked balances are up to date as of after this evening's drawing.

We beat the odds even more than we thought!

After looking over last weeks winning number picks for the group I made an interesting discovery. We won $28 because we had TWO sets of number picks that matched 3 whiteball numbers. Furthermore, the reason I missed this little anomoly was that not only did we beat the odds by getting that set when statistics show that only happen every 1 in 290 but we did that TWICE making those odds 1 in 580 that we'd hit those numbers! Not too bad when you consider we only did so in about 60 picks. Cross your fingers for tonight.....John

Powerplay Pays Off! Pool Wins $28.

The extra dollar we pay per pick paid off this past drawing, quadrupling a $7 pick to a powerplay of $28. We had a 1 in 290 odds chance of getting 3 of the 5 white balls right in any of our picks and we did that on one series of numbers. That raises our banked earnings back up to $55 giving us more picks for what will hopefully be the ever climbing jackpot next Wednesday which now sits at over $130 million since nobody won this past Wednesday. I anticipate that if nobody wins Saturday the pot will be approaching $150 million.

Banked balances and payments are all current in member payment records here.

We've got about $250 to earn before we'll tie our record from last year of earnings in 2006. Hopefully, we'll have a couple of good weeks before the year is out that will allow us to equal or eclipse that amount. Thanks for all your support of our pool! John

Jackpot Breaks $100 million

The pool blanked this evening as history was once again set with the drawing picks of five even and no odd numbers on the white balls. That in itself isn't so unusual, but is highly unusual for the previous five white balls to be five even and no odd too. In fact in over 1000 drawings? It's only happened once before. So that didn't help us this evening.

For the powerball, if you look at the past 60 drawings and do so for a number of drawings back? Less than 20% of that group of drawings ever have a powerball number that's been drawn 3 times in that group. So how do you hopefully increase your chances of getting the powerball right? By choosing those numbers that have not been picked or picked once for the next drawing. Brrzzznnt! Not this time. The number 6 was chosen for the third time.

The good news is we still have $50 left in our past winnings bank and we'll use that again to hopefully increase our odds of winning something with the next drawing assuming nobody wins the jackpot this eve' or on Saturday. Speaking of....yes, we do plan to participate in the drawing on Wednesday and I will plan on buying our tickets on TUESDAY. So all funds for that drawing - assuming once again, that the jackpot continues to climb - will be due Tuesday before we leave school rather than Wednesday. I'll be leaving town Wednesday and won't be able to purchase tickets that day.

All banked balances and payments are up to date.

Thanks for hanging in there! John

It's Back To Work...

Well people...we can't quit our jobs yet - especially after blanking on the numbers tonight. We had a couple of 2-number white ball hits on our picks but blanked on the power ball. That's a shame too, since the multiplier was 5x this evening, which means if there are some who did pick a few numbers right - they'll win some serious money if they chose the Powerplay option.

Banked payments and totals are up to date as of after this evening's drawing.

I performed some major tweaks on the spreadsheet today - but unfortunately tonight's draw wasn't a night where it might strut it's stuff. We've had a long run now of 3-2, 2-3 odd-even whiteball picks now, so I guessed that wouldn't continue. So most of our picks were of the 4-1, 1-4 odd-even flavor. So that didn't help much. In an effort to increase our odds for a win and whittle down the 5 out of 55 white balls we have to choose from I threw out 12 whiteball numbers from our picks based on various other statistical data. Unbelievably three of those numbers were part of the picks tonight. Ouch.

On the powerball side statistics show that a full 90% of the time for the past 3 years of drawings the difference between the currently picked powerball and the one previous is less than 29. Well, this evening it was a record-setting 40 in difference from the last! So that statistical oddity was against us too.

All in all, the number set had enough strangeness to it that the spreadsheet just didn't have the mathematical know how to get it right, based on past statistics. We'll try again next Wednesday if nobody wins the jackpot tonight or Saturday. If that occurs the pot will no doubt be over $100 million by then. Good luck to us all! John

It's Treats for the Pool On Halloween Night!

The lottery pool is back to its winning ways - albeit in M & M size - pulling in $12 on two successful pick groups last night. We got the powerball right in those two, but unfortunately didn't match any other numbers in those groups. The multiplier was a measly 2x so that didn't help our earnings either. Still that boosts our cash reserve back up to $92 and since nobody else the won the jackpot it now climbs to $62 million. We'll be greedy and hope nobody wins it again this Saturday and we'll be in Wednesday for a what will be a jackpot that will no doubt draw tantalizingly close to $100 million.

I continue to tweak the spreadsheet that analyzes the numbers. (If statistical analysis bores you? Skip to the last paragraph.) I'm working on a section that asks the question, "In how many instances does a particular number getting picked within a certain number of drawings?" I already throw out any 5 that have been picked in the previous drawing since statistically that rarely happens - in other words if 10 gets picked it gets picked again in the next drawing (yes I know both 10 AND 11 got picked back to back recently - but again, that rarely happens). Getting rid of just 5 of those, geometrically increases our odds from picking any of the standard 55 numbers. So the more numbers we can potentially eliminate - the better our odds. In other words it's easier to pick 5 right from 50 then it is 55. If I can use the spreadsheet to look back and see if particular numbers don't appear to repeat within 2 or more drawings? Then that's many more numbers I can throw out for our picks.

I was also pleased with the fact that the spreadsheet got the powerball right in two sets. I threw out a full 20 numbers so it definitely had a better chance of picking the right one among 22 then it did 42 numbers for the powerball - and it paid off.

Payments and banked balances are up to date as of yesterday. Thanks! John