Chief Polar Bear has a new toy – but it’s much misunderstood in the North Pole this concept of ‘wheels’.
It works, but sometimes he can’t help thinking the hype is better than the reality.
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[Lottery Quiz] Question 3 – Getting Wheely Good Now
When I was still living in California, I formed a Lotto Pool of friends and relatives using Gail Howard’s wheeling system. We had won some small prizes and we almost hit the Super Lotto jackpot of over 90 million dollars, missing only one number 23 (my wife’s birth date). Yes, wheeling sytems help for as long as you meet the win guarantee and it is recommended for a lotto pool.
Oh, so close 😉
I don’t recommend Gail Howard’s products at all though (her advice on number picking is absolute nonsense yet she’s still churning it out and taking peoples money). The wheeling systems are not so bad, just out of date, as Bluskov’s are generally better optimised.
I used to use her systems. I heard that his was better but I truly need to see this for myself.
When you say they are better optimized, can you give an example of how?
Better optimised = the same win guarantee using less combinations i.e. cheaper to play.
Bluskov is a mathematician – Gail is not 🙂
I have to definitely check that out. I would love to compare it. Honestly Professor William Foster and Gail use similar wheels. So that would mean that Bluskov wheels are better than Prof William Foster as well, no?
All wheels look similar – but the devil is in the detail, as they say. It also depends which wheel you choose. The disadvantage with the Bluskov wheels though is that they only come in book form, whereas Will and Gail provide software to substitute your own numbers in. But it’s not hard to set up a master file for your chosen wheel (TIP: replace the key numbers with letters, i.e. 1 = A, 2 = B etc), then use find/replace to substitute semi-manually.
Do you know of any way that I can mimic a lottery draw? I tried using crumpled up pieces of paper but it just seemed weird and it was messy.
It depends on your reasons for doing so really. If you’re just generating random numbers, then you can just use a computer – even Excel or the free equivalents can do it (but read up on pseudo-random number generation). Although it is more fun to use something mechanical of course. I’ve heard of people using a washing machine filled with tennis balls before – not that I’m recommending you try that one at home ;-). Ping pong balls are a popular choice too.
If you’re trying to mimic a particular game though to gain an insight into the way numbers come out, you’re going to need the exact equipment the lottery company use… which is neither cheap, nor available to the general public.
I just want to mimic my own way to draw the numbers. I wouldn’t be able to use a washing machine but something simple using ping pong balls would be nice. Just something simple to generate my own way draw the numbers but I don’t want a program because I can do things like pick ten balls or numbers and then set them aside and pick other numbers. A program can’t do what I want to do with the numbers.
LG/Kwan H … It seems to me that pre-picking a random set of numbers then expecting them to win the jackpot would be much akin to winning the jackpot this week and playing the same numbers to win the jackpot next week as well… which is perfectly feasible with chance however, highly improbable… :-/ One would likely win more often (albeit smaller prizes) by creating a system/strategy wheeling the 15 prime numbers available in a pick 6/45 lottery… *1,2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31,37,41,43.* … It’s interesting to note that the 15 prime numbers of a 45 number lottery are drawn more than 33% of the time as would be reasonably expected by chance… 😉
You can buy miniature barrels with numbered balls that turn with a handle, using your hand; do it that way. Possibly in kids toys.
Hi LG
I don’t know if the system me and my friends are using is a kind of a wheel or it’s an actual wheel… we choose a range of numbers vs another range i.e. 3-4-5-6-7 vs 31-32-33-34-35, then pair each of those ranges, i.e. 3-31… 3-32… 3-33 so on and so on… is this wheeling?
Hey Paul,
Not really 🙂
Wheeling gets the name because when you look at the list of combinations it looks like the columns are being rotated on a wheel, e.g.
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 7
1 2 3 4 6 7
1 2 3 5 6 7
1 2 4 5 6 7
2 3 4 5 6 7
(you see how 1 becomes 2, then 2 becomes 3 etc)
But the clever part is reduced wheeling systems which is what everyone really uses (because full systems which cover every possible combination of a set of numbers are expensive to play). Well designed reduced systems provide a certain level of prize guarantee, e.g. that if 3 of the balls drawn are in your pool of 12 numbers then you know you have a win of at least one match 3 prize.
If you played the same number of combinations using the same pool of 12 numbers, but just arranged them randomly or in some other way. Then it’s very easy to end up with those 3 numbers spread in such a way that you actually win nothing.
Hi, I always use lotto wheels and it is has worked out well for me. It’s so nice to trap those slippery little lotto balls. But there is an additional, and maybe the most important tool to use with wheeling, and that is FLOODING. Don’t you find, we tend to miss the things right in front of us!
I think I may know what this means. Is it when you overlap the numbers in the wheels so that they appear more than once?
And what is “flooding”?
I agree with you, Ray, but what do you mean by FLOODING ? Seems like I know what you mean but I could be wrong. Thanks.
Hi, ok wheels are good. But they are limiting because we or most of us can’t afford to play a full wheel. The way around this problem is to have a wheel upon a wheel etc. I have made chart that makes easier to understand. However if i.e. you 21 numbers, you exchange one number and run the wheel again, so the positions are slightly changed, and again, say 4 times. Of course I had to prove my theory and had over 90 wins, 2 being 5 from 6. Still needs work. Ray
I’m not sure I 100% understand what you’re doing Ray, but isn’t there a danger with this approach that you miss the major benefit of wheeling? That of securing a known win guarantee in your combinations. Hardly anyone plays full wheels so what most people think of as ‘wheeling’ these days are actually reduced wheeling systems anyway. But if a wheel didn’t come with an appropriate minimum win guarantee for the game I personally wouldn’t use it.
Good luck with the work though – crunching wheeling systems is quite a challenge 🙂
I think what he means is you can play a wheel with a win guarantee and still swap numbers say you have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. You swap 7 for 8 and then you swap 6 for 9 or something like that. In short you would have many reduced wheeling systems that in terms of money would total up to about the same cost as a higher win wheel.
Hi, ok I use a good 3/6 and strengthened it up. Mind you it took me ages, and by trial an error. What I ended up with, was a coverage of 7 for each number x 4 wheels = 28 for each number. I:E NUMBER 1 comes up 28 times. But that is just the start, the easiest part. The most intruiging part was very time consuming. What group of numbers to pick? And was it possible or a waste of time. Being a numbers observer, I found some intruiging facts.
Ah, I think I see now :-). This sounds a bit like the approach Win Lotto Systems takes – using multiple smaller wheels for greater number coverage.
Hi, just one last thing on the wheels I use. Everyone knows if you can trap the first three numbers “guaranteed” you have overcome the biggest hurdle, the last 3 numbers are mathematically easier and due to the variation and multi laying of the wheels (or flooding) being used.
The odds are in your favour. This is how I have won. I hope this is of some value, to you. My info to you is FYI and for you to make of it what you will, Regards Ray.
LG, in your opinion, what would you say would be the optimum amount of numbers to wheel using a wheeling system? 5/39 lottery game. How many numbers would you say would be efficient?
The more numbers the better. But it’s whatever fits your budget really.
But I’d choose a minimum win guarantee to match the game, i.e. not much point in a 2 of 5 guarantee if that doesn’t win anything.