Happy New Year KW Lotttery Pool!

Many people didn't get at opportunity to tender their dues - or we didn't know if the jackpot was going to be reset again. Even so, we do have a nice surplus in our winnings pot of $105 - so I'll use that to fund those regular participants for this coming Wednesday's (January 2nd) drawing. You'll see a notation as such in the "Notes" column in the "Pool Financials" link to the right. Please plan to repay that $2 or $5 amount when we got back from the break.

We had a good year in 2007 - winning a total of $562. Our largest single night win was $68 - which we accomplished about a month ago. We fared a little better our first year as a pool in 2006 - winning a total of $748. Our biggest win to date occurred that year with a $331, one number away from winning $200,000 win on October 18th.

If we won more in 2006 than 2007, some might be wondering why I keep changing the spreadsheet and don't go back to the "old" ways of picking numbers because it appeared more lucrative. Though I don't have the exact records to prove it because the 2006 records are not complete I think if we remember that we participated in more drawings at first - every Wednesday and Saturday - plus the fact that we also participated in every drawing regardless of the jackpot level - that could account for the difference in winnings as well. More drawings - more chances to win. Of course that also equates to more coming out of your pocket for drawings. Everybody was required to ante up $5 too - we didn't have a $2 participation level - and we had more initial participants too. We average about 25 to 30 people now. Back then when the pool first started we had up to 50 - sometimes a little more. I think these factors could account for the difference in winnings and not so much whether or not the methods of picking numbers were better.

Something else to remember about our 2007 "season." We also had an unbelievable run of eight straight winning participation weeks in a row - something else that tells me we are heading in the right direction with how the spreadsheet picks numbers.

I'm comfortable with our performance and overall results for 2007 and hope you are too. As always, I'm open to your feedback about the pool. I'm looking forward to our best year in 2008 - crossing my fingers, doing the lucky dance (sorry....no public demonstrations of that), and crunching the numbers to hopefully bring us some big wins for this year. We're an interesting mix of people and I think we'd have some great stories to tell if we hit it big!

Thanks again for your outstanding support of the Kendall-Whittier Lottery Pool the past year two years! Without it the pool simply wouldn't exist!

Sincerely,
John

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

Winning Streak Ends for Pool

Our good fortune and picking skills came to an end this evening - partially thanks to history being made on the drawing. For the last six drawings there was 3 even and 2 odd white balls picked - something that doesn't occur very often. Can you say maybe twice in the past 10 years of draws?

An event that NEVER occurred according to my records was for a seventh straight draw 3 even and 2 odd white balls being picked again. So it was a good bet statistically speaking to throw out any number picks that contained that spread. Sure enough for the first time since in nearly a decade and over 900 drawings the numbers were once again - 3 even and 2 odd. So that threw our picks way out of whack. The closest we got was getting 2 white balls correct on one pick - not enough to bring home any dough.

The powerball was off statistically too. Number 2 was picked and it was the third time in the past 55 drawings - chances are only about 1 in 4 of that happening - so to narrow the pool of 42 to choose from we threw that one out as well.

Banked balances are up to date as of the next anticipated drawing on October 31st.

No jackpot winners for tonight! If the same happens Saturday we'll be back in for the Wednesday draw.

Let's Go For Our 9th Straight Winning Night!

The jackpot continues to be reset and we haven't participated in almost a month so we're going to go ahead and jump back in next Wednesday, the 24th in the drawing. There's a total of 3 Wednesday's over the break from school that we'll participate in.

Please tender $6 or $15 before tomorrow (Oct.17th) if you plan to participate with us - or make sure that your banked balance reflects one of those two levels.

We also have $100 in the pool piggy bank that we'll continue to use to give us a few more picks each session. I will keep those extra picks at low additions and reserve the remainder until the jackpot does climb to more lucrative levels.

We'll be aiming for our 9th straight winning night as a pool - a record in our history. Perhaps before the year's over we'll also eclipse our 2006 total earnings of $748. We're about $300 away from doing that - so that's a tall order before this year is out. Cross your fingers!

John

8th Straight Winning Session for Pool!

The Powerball website is reporting someone won the jackpot last night - so we'll try again in about 3 weeks.

Due to a lousy low 2x multiplier this evening we only won $28. But that was on three successful number pick sets - one containing two correct white balls plus the correct power ball. Odds of doing just that right are 1 in 745 and we still had two more winning sets - making the odds close to 1 in 1000 total that we'd pick those winning numbers right by chance! Yet we did it in 52 picks!

I only threw in an extra $5 from our continuing to grow lottery pool winning bank - now at a total of $100 - so as the jackpot climbs? So will our chances at winning more cash because we'll be selecting more pick sets as it grows higher. And if the spreadsheet continues to consistently generate at least a few right numbers together....who knows, we might get our first big win of the year! Keep your fingers crossed!

Banked balances and payments are up to date and reflect paid status for the drawing on or around October 17th.

John

Nobody Wins Jackpot Over the Weekend.....

....so the pool is IN for this Wednesday's (Sept. 26th) draw. Cash out on the jackpot is about $28 million.

Let's go for an 8th straight winning night and hopefully a big one!

Pool financial are up to date and represent paid status for the drawing on the 26th.

Thanks.

John

It's A Lucky 7th Win!

The Kendall-Whittier Lottery Pool continues to build its cash reserve by pulling in a 7th straight winning night. We won $30 this evening on two winning number sets - getting the powerball 15 right on both. Our total number sets were 48.

Because the jackpot was in the lower range - I only used an extra $4 this evening from our earning reserve. As the jackpot continues to grow this will give us an extra boost of number picks. We have $77 in the bank to use towards future picks and if our winning ways continue - perhaps that figure will even grow higher.

Member banked balances and payments are up to date as of this evening's drawing and represents paid status for next Wednesday's drawing.

Watch this space for updates on jackpot status. Thanks! John

A Record Winning Streak for the Pool - Jackpot Won In Indiana

The pool won $42 tonight. Our sixth straight winning evening - a pool record! With 83 picks submitted we once again got three of the five whiteballs right in one set winning $21 there. Odds of doing that would normally require the purchase of 290 computer pick tickets at a cost of $580. ( Our bill this evening was $166.) Plus we matched the powerball in two other sets - one with a whiteball giving us the rest of our earnings. Combined odds of that are about 1 in 190. So though it wasn't what we'd hoped for we are definitely demonstrating some consistency from drawing to drawing and beating the odds.

Payments and banked balances have been updated to reflect payments for this evenings and the next anticipated drawing. The Powerball website is reporting someone in Indiana got all 6 numbers right so we'll rejoin the drawings when the jackpot reaches $50 million - or close to it - which usually occurs in about 3 weeks assuming the jackpot isn't reset again.

NEWSFLASH! JACKPOT LEAPS TO $300 MILLION! Let's play SATURDAY!

The Powerball website is reporting - relatively early by past standards - that apparently nobody won the jackpot prize which now leaps to $300 million with a cash payout of $140 million! The jackpot is now approaching near record levels and if nobody wins Saturday it will no doubt arrive at that level. The previous record was the $365 million jackpot won by the ConAgra food plant workers in Nebraska.

Due to the unusually large size of the jackpot I will be preparing tickets for the drawing on Saturday. If you are interested in playing with us on Saturday money is due Friday before we leave school - unless you are already paid up.

Banked balances and payments are up to date and represent who is paid (or not) for the next upcoming drawing on SATURDAY!

We Win AGAIN!

For the fifth straight drawing we once again had a winning night! We got back over a third of what we collectively put into the pool by earning $56 tonight on two high-odds number sets. We matched two sets of three whiteball numbers with the odds of doing that by chance on each set being 1 in 290 for overall odds of 2 in 580. That's an awesome performance considering we had 72 chances to win. Tonights earnings represent our highest total in the last 5 Wednesdays we've played!

We blanked on the powerball this evening - which is unusual - otherwise our earnings certainly could have been higher. On THIRTY other number sets - which represents nearly half of our picks - we had one or two whiteballs right. Had we chosen the right powerball and it had joined one of those sets - which it had a one in two shot of doing - then our earnings for each of those sets would have been $12 and $28 respectively. Had it hit our three number whiteball set? Our earnings would have been $400. Still...the powerplay helped this time boosting our $14 play to the $56 level since it was 4x.

Thanks for your continued support and keep dreaming! John

Nobody Jackpots Saturday!

The jackpot is now reaching tantalizing levels as it hits $245 million for this upcoming Wednesday night's draw. This jackpot is now the third highest in Powerball history and is only $10 million away from being the second highest powerball jackpot. In January 2007 the Wilson family of Missouri won $254,000,000 and in February of 2006 the Nebraska meat packers group won the standing record of $365,000,000.

All payments - banked and otherwise - are up to date as of this weekend.

Good luck to us all! John

Fourth Straight Win!

No, we can't quit our jobs yet, but the pool strutted its winning ways once again with three successful pick sets that odds say had a combined chance of one in about 450 chance of occurring! Not bad considering we had a total of 60 picks this evening. We won $28 total and once again, would have scored significantly more had the multiplier not been a wimpy 2x. Those wins came across three diverse pick sets. One powerball with one white ball, one powerball alone and then three white ball numbers picked correctly together. (Odds of doing that alone are 1 in 290! )

So clearly the spreadsheet is doing a particularly good job of picking numbers and with each successful drawing - allowing us a greater pool of number pick sets - which, in turn increases our odds of getting a correct number set right, earning us more money for the next draw and more pick sets. You get the picture. (I hope!) In the event that we have a weird drawing where the spreadsheet totally misses (and we know those days happen) I'm not blowing all our extra dough on one drawing - giving us another chance to win with a more "predictable" set of numbers.

Banked balances and payments have been adjusted to reflect the next anticipated drawing date on the 22nd of August. If nobody wins the jackpot this evening or Saturday? The jackpot should be well over $200 million! Cross your fingers! John

P.S. I appreciate the vote of confidence in my accounting abilities by your participation in the present drawing. I also received no "Boy...aren't you a math screw up!" comments as a result of the hiccup with the banked totals I described in an earlier post. Thanks.

Jackpot Stretches for Record Numbers

The jackpot approaches the $200 million mark with nobody winning the Big One on Saturday. The pool is in for this Wednesday's draws. Banked balances and payments should be up to date. Good luck to us all! John

Record Winning Streak Continues!

Too bad the multiplier wasn't what it's been in the previous two drawings otherwise we would have won close to $100 tonight - but instead we won $26 because of the wimpy 2x multiplier. However, we had FOUR winning number pick sets - which again cleanly beat the odds if we'd randomly chosen numbers. And congratulations to the pool! We just busted the $1,000 in total winnings over the life of our group. Of course we have nothing to show for it but a heckuva lot of extra number picks buy hey, when we're millionaires in the future? It will be all worth it, right?

Sometimes Math Just STINKS!

I'm not sure whether the spreadsheet just didn't save my previous updates or what - but I found the posted member balance were again out of whack. Fortunately, I was able to reconstruct the record based on my most recent notes from when banked balances were posted (to the far right of your name) and the blog record of when we participated in the draw - then subtract the proper dues to get the ending balance.

For those who think Ole' John might be running a scam here and pocketing the difference - here's the the math involved. We'll use Mrs. Higgins as an example. You'll see that I noted that she banked $35 on June 13th. Since that time we've participated in 7 drawings in that amount of time (including this evening's drawing) and the blog below documents those dates: 6-13, 6-20, 6-27, 7-18, 7-25, 8-1, and 8-8. The previous bank showed Mrs. Higgins had a balance of $5 - which is incorrect - because 7 drawings x $5 a draw is $35 - so all her banked funds were used up as of this evening. To correct the error in the overall balance I went through and deducted another $2 or $5 from everyone's individual balance. Now we are squared away.

Also please note that if you previously had for example a balance of $10 and you were a $5 member - your balance is now zero because I deducted the missing draw AND included you in the next upcoming drawing on the 15th (assuming nobody wins the jackpot this evening or Saturday.) So in essence, your bank is zero - but you are PAID for the next drawing.

If you were a $5 member and had a previous balance of $5, your balance is now zero and you DO NOT have funds posted for the next drawing.

Those who paid on a per draw basis were unaffected since they didn't have a balance to show anyway.

Confused? Not surprised. Try doing the juggling of payments for 20+ members every week!

Sorry about that mistake folks - but inevitably errors will crop up which is why I ask that you guys help keep track of your own individual payments. Overall, though - in the past year and a half - I'd say things have been pretty accurate and well documented here. But if you note any errors, EITHER direction in the future - please bring them to my attention!

Thanks, hang in there with us, and cross your fingers! We're on a record winning streak!