A: Powerball, Mega Millions, and other similar games are not pick-6 games, but have 2 separate drawings: one five number drawing and one single number drawing (or for some games one four number drawing and one single, or one five and one two number drawing, etc).

Don't wheel the power ball number

When using a Balanced Wheel® for a powerball type game, Gail recommends that you use a pick-5 wheel from Wheel Five Gold to wheel the main set of five numbers and mark your powerball, mega ball, or other bonus number(s) separately on your ticket(s). Ideally, use Advantage Gold to strategize for the bonus ball and pick a few of the best numbers to scatter on your tickets.

Why we don't offer wheels that include the Power Ball/Mega Ball/Euro Stars Number(s) and why you shouldn't include Power Ball number in your wheel

Including the PowerBall number in your wheels hugely increases the number of combinations required as the entire wheel would have to be repeated for each bonus ball added to the wheel. We want you to get the most for your money, so wheeling the Powerball number is not recommended.

If you do want to include the PowerBall, the best option is Gail Howard's wheeling book designed for Powerball, Lotto Winning Wheels for Powerball and Mega Millions, but even these wheels just have you select a single powerball number and add them to the wheel. There are no wheels in the software designed to accept the Power ball number because few people can buy such large wheels. If you start with a pick-5 wheel that makes 20 combinations and you want to add just 5 powerball numbers to it, your wheel would become 100 combinations.

If you wish include multiple power ball numbers in your wheel, all you have to do is write out every ticket the wheel produces again with each powerball number you want to include.

For EuroMillions, it is even worse. If you want to guarantee you'll get both lucky star numbers right, there are 55 combinations for those 2 numbers. So, you'd have to multiply the pick-5 wheel combinations by 55. For example, your original 20 ticket wheel would become a 1,100 ticket wheel. It should be easy to understand why this is not desirable enough for these type of wheels to be in high demand. Save your lotto budget and strategize to pick a few good Powerball numbers to scatter across your wheeled tickets.

Powerball is not a pick-6 game

Wheel Six Gold is not recommended for Powerball, Mega Millions, and other games of this structure because there is no way to distinguish which of the 6 numbers is intended for the bonus slot. Also, no number from Wheel Six Gold can be repeated in the wheel twice, but Powerball numbers can be the same as a number from the other set of 5 numbers in the drawing.

Games that Use Powerball Type Formats

Some of the games with 2 sets of numbers from different number pools are listed below (click link for free game tips).

Pick-5 + Pick-1 Games (Use a pick-5 wheel) Pick-5 + Pick-2 Games (Use a pick-5 wheel) Pick-4 + Pick-1 Games (Use a pick-4 wheel) Pick-6 + Pick-1 Games (Use a pick-6 wheel) Pick-7 + Pick-1 Games (Use a pick-7 wheel)

How to Pick Powerball Numbers to Add to Your Tickets

See also: How to strategize for the Power/Mega/Bonus ball FAQ

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