Powerball Tips

Powerball revolutionized and changed the structure of lottery games played in the USA. By having five numbers chosen from one set of numbers and another number chosen from a separate set of numbers, the odds are greatly increased in spite of a seemingly low number field. Whereas in a 6/59 Lotto game the odds of winning the first prize jackpot are less than one in 45 million (or one in 22 million at two plays for a dollar), the odds of winning the first prize jackpot by choosing five numbers from 59 plus the Powerball ball from 1 to 39 are one in 195 million.

In early 2009, Powerball changed their format from the old 5/55 + 1/42 number field, adding numbers to the main set and removing some from the powerball number set. The new 5/59 + 1/39 game has increased the jackpot odds from one in 146 million to one in 195 million. To make up for the fact that this game is nearly impossible, Powerball has lowered the requirements to win a smaller prize. The second prize (won by matching five white balls in any order) is $200,000 paid in cash. Getting just the powerball number right will give you a small prize of $3. There are 9 different combinations of regular balls and the red PowerBall that allow you to win something in the Powerball lotto game. The overall odds of winning a Powerball lotto prize in the game are approximately 1 in 35.

So, to play the game, the player chooses five numbers from 1 to 59, and then selects one Powerball Ball from 1 to 39 to mark on their ticket. Get the five white balls but miss the red Powerball Ball, and you beat the odds of one in 5,138,133 and win $200,000. The Match 5 bonus prize feature could even make you a millionaire when the jackpot growth is limited by $25 million increments.

States participating in Powerball are: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

All it takes is a buck and a whole lot of luck and some Smart Luck^® strategies, of course. In spite of the tremendous odds against winning Powerball, there are several things you can do to play smart.

Below are a few strategic lotto tips to help you learn how to win Powerball, but for best results, Gail Howard's book, Lottery Master Guide, explains all of her successful methods of number selection in great detail with examples of patterns shown throughout. Advantage Plus software makes all the charts for this game; and the Wheeling Software to use is Wheel Five Plus.

Gail Howard's Lottery Strategies to Help You Win Powerball

Treat the five white balls as you would any pick-5 game. Wheel them using the Balanced Wheels in the Wheel Five Plus software or the book, Lotto Winning Wheels for Powerball & MEGA Millions. Do not wheel the Powerball Ball. The Powerball Ball number is marked on a separate set of 39 numbers on your bet slip. (If you use the Advantage Plus software, when pressing Alt-B you can see all the charts for the five white balls; or see all the charts for the Powerball Ball by itself. Or see all the charts for all six balls together (which Gail Howard does not recommend). You can also use the powerball ball history file, pb0139.slh to see only charts based on the powerball ball.

Here are a few lottery tips on number selection from Gail Howard's lotto strategy book, Lottery Master Guide, which have been customized to help you learn how to win the Powerball game (additional best Powerball lottery software and books.)

Lottery numbers are randomly drawn. But randomly drawn numbers form patterns that can be tracked and used to our advantage. Having carefully analyzed all the drawings in past lotto results of more than 190 different lotto games worldwide, with histories going back as far as 1955, Gail Howard has verified the following incredibly simple rule:

That which is MOST POSSIBLE happens MOST OFTEN.
That which is LEAST POSSIBLE happens LEAST OFTEN.

The key to Gail Howard's successful lotto number selection methods is playing the probabilities. If you play a pattern that occurs only five percent of the time, you can expect that pattern to lose 95 percent of the time, giving you no chance to win 95 percent of the time. So, don't buck the probabilities.

How to WIN Powerball

ODD-EVEN LOTTO NUMBER TIPS

When you select your powerball lotto numbers, try to have a relatively even mix of odd and even numbers. All odd numbers or all even numbers are rarely drawn, occurring only 4 percent of the time. The best mix is to have 3/2 or 2/3 which means three odd and two even, or two odd and three even. Since the new format change of Powerball, one of these two number patterns has occured in 73 percent of drawings!

HIGH-LOW LOTTO NUMBER TIPS

Winning numbers are usually spread across the entire number field, or across 59 numbers for Powerball. If we take a number field and cut it in half, we have the low half and the high half. In a 59-number game like Powerball, numbers 1 to 29 would be in the low half, and numbers 30 to 59 would be in the high half. All high numbers or all low numbers are rarely drawn, occurring in only 4 percent of Powerball results. The best mix is to have 3/2 or 2/3 which means three high and two low, or two high and three low. For the current powerball results, one of these 2 patterns has occured in 69 percent of drawings, so its a very strong pattern to follow for future powerball drawings.

LOTTERY NUMBER GROUP STRATEGIES

View the Powerball lotto results past history list, and note that most often, one or more of the number groups is not represented. For example, in the combination 2-7-12-25-49-55, there are no 30's. Tracking and studying Number Groups can help you decide which group to omit and which group to give extra heavy play.

LOTTERY GAMES SKIPPED STRATEGIES

List the number of games skipped (games out) since the last hit (win) for each of the winning numbers during the last five games. Then mark the number of times each skip occurred. If any skip from 0 to 5 did not occur, play the Lotto numbers that are out that many games. (Help working with lotto games skipped.)

LOTTO NUMBER SUM ADVICE - PLAY A BALANCED GAME

After you choose five powerball main numbers you want to play, add them together and make sure that the sum of the five numbers adds up to somewhere between 111 and 189. Sums that fall within that range will account for over 70 percent of all lottery jackpots won. Playing a balanced game is one of the keys to how to win Powerball lotto.

REPEAT HITS LOTTERY TIPS

In Powerball, on average, one lottery number will be a repeat hit from the last drawing every other drawing or 40 percent of the time.

HOT NUMBER LOTTERY SECRETS

Numbers that have been out (losers) for six games or less account for about half of the winning numbers. Losing numbers that have been out for 9 games or less account for about two-thirds of all the winning numbers. Losing numbers that have been out for 12 games or less account for about three-quarters of all the winning numbers. This tells us that hot numbers are more likely to hit, but don't forget to include at least one long shot in your group of 5.

COLD NUMBER LOTTERY SECRETS

It is difficult to know when a cold number will end a long losing streak. If you play a number every drawing because you think it is due, you could be chasing it for many months. (Number 45 in New York Lotto sat out 100 drawings before it finally hit.) Although, when a number has been out for 70 games or so, it might be worth chasing.

Lottery Pools and Lottery Syndicates

POOL YOUR WAY TO LOTTO RICHES

Several of the 104 Lotto jackpots won with Gail Howard's lottery systems were won by groups of people who pooled their money. Sharing the ticket cost with others stretches your Lotto budget. By playing with a group, you can afford to buy more lottery tickets—and play larger wheeling systems—than you could (or should) by yourself. Draw up an agreement and have the members of your pool sign it.

How to Get Lucky in Powerball

CASH IN ON THE LUCK OF OTHERS

When you form a Lotto pool, your group is also pooling its aggregate luck. A jackpot could happen because of the luck just one member brings to your pool. Select your partners carefully. Share your luck with winners, not losers. Avoid negative people. Not only are they unlucky, but they dampen enthusiasm and drain energy from others. You want to enhance your own luck, not dilute its strength. One quick way to tell winners from losers is simply to ask them: "Do you think you are a lucky person?" Many people quickly admit, "I'm unlucky. I never win anything." They won't bring good luck to your group either.

CASH IN ON A POSITIVE ATTITUDE

No one should play games of chance out of desperation because they need the winnings. The needy have a greater fear of losing the hard-earned money they gamble with. It is just one of life's dirty tricks that the very fear of losing blocks the winning forces. Thoughts are charged with energy, especially when triggered by emotion. Fear attracts exactly that which one fears. A strong desire for a goal that is charged with positive energy, attracts a positive response, especially when every effort is made to attain that goal.

Lottery Wheels

USE BALANCED WHEELING^® SYSTEMS

Balanced Wheeling^® Systems allow you to bet a large group of numbers (more than 5), play scientific combinations of that group of numbers, and get a specific minimum win guarantee. Balanced Wheels^® force all the winning numbers that are in your group to come together to give you at least one prize if some or all of the winning numbers are in your chosen group.

It's true that the more numbers you wheel, the easier it is to trap the winning numbers in your chosen group. But to get the most leverage for your money, the optimum number of numbers to wheel is not more than four or five numbers over HALF the numbers in your game. For the best way to win Powerball, wheel less than about 34 of the total 59 numbers. Otherwise, you'll be spending MORE money chasing a SMALLER guaranteed prize. You benefit more by wheeling a carefully selected group of lotto numbers.

THE BEST WAY TO WHEEL ALL THE LOTTO NUMBERS IN YOUR GAME

Any one wheeling system that covers ALL the numbers in the game is too spread out, making the win guarantee not worth the wager. There are smart ways to wheel all the numbers in the game by using Trap-by-Overlap and other wheeling strategies covered on pages 137 to 142 in Gail Howard's lotto book, Lottery Master Guide.

Most of Gail Howard's lottery winners used a Balanced Wheel in addition to her Smart Luck^® number selection methods. You can use a FREE interactive lotto Balanced Wheeling System that won multiple jackpots. Read about Gail Howard's lotto winners, too. And when you win a jackpot with Gail Howard's lotto systems, tell us about it so you can be added to Gail Howard's growing list of winners. If you don't want your name publicized, Gail Howard will honor that.

Save Money by Knowing Lotto Numbers to Avoid

Lotto players who select their lottery numbers thoughtlessly or foolishly are destined to lose even before the drawing takes place. By knowing which number combinations and patterns to avoid, you'll have an advantage over such players—and save money, too.

AVOID NUMBER COMBINATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN DRAWN BEFORE

Many players like to bet the numbers that have won someone else a big jackpot, and by doing so, they are almost guaranteed NOT to win one themselves. In Powerball, with two drawings a week, a set of five numbers plus the Powerball number has a chance of being drawn once every 1,875,000 years!!! This should also answer the question Gail Howard is so often asked, "Shouldn't I keep playing the same set of numbers every week because they are due to hit sometime?"

AVOID BETTING FIVE CONSECUTIVE NUMBERS

Even four consecutive numbers is a very rare occurrence that, in most Lotto games, has never happened once.

AVOID BETTING ONE LOTTO NUMBER GROUP

Never choose all five numbers from one number group, such as all single digits, or all teens, or all 20's, etc. All five winning numbers drawn from one group is highly unlikely.

AVOID THE COMBINATION 1-2-3-4-5

The most popular set of numbers most often played is: 1-2-3-4-5. Thousands of tickets are bought with this combination every drawing. The selection is too far out of balance to come up in a random drawing.

AVOID PATTERN BETTING

Pattern betting is an even more popular method of marking bet slips. Patterns of numbers marked in a row to make a straight line, either across the bet slip vertically or diagonally get heavy play—which means sharing the prize with others if the numbers are drawn as winners. Other designs such as patterns of initials or numbers or crosses also get heavy play.

AVOID NUMBER MULTIPLES

Other popular combinations that get heavy play are the number multiples, especially 5-10-15-20-25 and 7-14-21-28-35.

AVOID ALL SAME LAST DIGITS

Many people like to play same last digits, such as 3-13-23-33-43, or all digits that end in seven, or some other favorite lucky lottery number. Even four same last digits occur in less than two-tenths of one percent of all drawings. Winning sets of numbers with no more than one repeated last digit represent nearly 90 percent of all drawings.

AVOID LOW NUMBER COMBINATIONS

The majority of Lotto players like to play the calendar numbers, such as birth dates and anniversaries—and their children's ages. This means that the most heavily played numbers are 1 through 31. Powerball has 59 numbers. If you play only the calendar numbers, you might be sharing your jackpot with dozens of other winners. It's not to say that you shouldn't play your personal numbers if you feel these lucky numbers are good to play. But Gail Howard recommends that you include a couple of high numbers so that just in case your numbers do hit, you win a prize that's worth something.

In Powerball, the Trend is Your Friend

The shortest, easiest way to search for lotto numbers that have the greatest probability of winning is to track the trends. Gail Howard's Smart Luck strategies show you how to understand and use historical data in the Powerball lotto game. Advantage Plus is the best lotto strategy software which has a vast assortment of charts and reports that allow you to examine your lotto numbers in an infinite variety of ways.