Army reservist E. Charles Ellis Jr. from East Haven in Connecticut recently won $150 000 on the Powerball lottery. He won the jackpot by picking lotto numbers using his five sibling’s birthdays. With five brothers and sisters, he had the just the right number to complete his payslip and become a Powerball winner.
He took his sister Erin-Marie Boemmels with him to claim their $150,600 prize at the Rocky Hill headquarters.
The Powerball numbers that make E. Charles Ellis a winner on the third of August were: 9, 11, 27, 66, and 67, Powerball: 2 and Power Play: 3. If you had a lottery ticket for every expert that told you never to use birthdays or anniversaries as inspiration for choosing your lotto numbers, you’d be a Powerball winner too!
While it’s true that relying on a date means you’re eliminating half of the numbers in the playing field, what’s more important is that you pick numbers you feel good about. Many people pick their numbers using this method so it could mean that you’ll end up sharing your prize with others, but that shouldn’t stop you from playing. However, there are some other rules you can follow if you want to improve your chances of winning a Powerball jackpot.
The first thing you should do is aim to pick a balanced combination of even and odd numbers. This will change depending on which lottery you play. If you play the Powerball lottery you need to select a total of five main numbers from 1-69. So you can choose 2 odd numbers and 3 even numbers or 3 even number and 2 odd numbers. Look at past Powerball results and you’ll see why that makes sense.
Now, divide the field in two; one set from 1-35 and another from 35-69. Once again, you need to balance your selection between low numbers and high numbers. That way you’re spreading your selection out and that will improve your chances of picking a winning combination. The final step in picking the winning Powerball numbers is to add them all up together. If the total falls among 130-221, that’s a sign you’re on the right track.
At the same time, there are some numbers and number combinations you should avoid. Even if you believe that seven is your lucky lotto number, avoid picking multiples of seven such as 7, 17, 27, 37, 47 and 57. The chances of that combination being drawn are almost impossible. Even having just 4 numbers with the same last digits comes up in less than two-tenths of one percent of Powerball lottery draws.
You should also give up on the idea of playing consecutive numbers. While it would make for a remarkable win, it’s unlikely that consecutive numbers will show up in a Powerball draw any time soon. It would be a complete waste of a perfectly good lottery ticket.
If you have the time to do a little research, look up the previous winning combinations and make sure you don’t choose a set that has already won before. Lottery draws are so random and there are so many possible winning combinations that it’s unlikely the same combination will win again. One thing you can do is pick a number that appeared in the previous draw. This happens almost 38% of the time, so it’s worth adding a number that appeared in last draw to your lotto numbers.
Of course, the real key to winning a Powerball lottery is to play consistently. If you play the Powerball online you can set up a lottery subscription. Your credit card is automatically billed before the draw and tickets are purchased on your behalf using your chosen lotto numbers. You can cancel the subscription whenever you want. It takes the hassle out of remembering to buy Powerball tickets online every week.
Another advantage of buying Powerball tickets online from an authorised online ticket dealer is that you don’t have to fuss with checking the Powerball results. They take care of checking the tickets after every draw and sending winners a notification via email. You get the winning deposited into your account. There’s no chance that you’ll miss out on a prize because the ticket is damaged or lost.
The convenience of playing the biggest international lotteries has encouraged more people to play lotteries such as the US Powerball. And as a result, the jackpots keep getting bigger. Even E, Charles Ellis Jr’s modest Powerball prize could make a foreigner a millionaire in their own currency.
Ellis Jr. will use the money to pay some bills and help his family with their ranch in North Carolina. He’s proof that picking the winning Powerball numbers has little to do with luck, and a lot to do with family. So grab your calendar and buy your Powerball tickets online for the next draw today.
