My soon-to-be winning Powerball ticket.

Back in November of 2012, I posted the following on my blog. The odds have changed. There are more numbers now – which is how it has grown to more than a billion. We live in magical times, don’t we – where you can get millions of Americans to drop $10, $20 some people even way more than that – for a roughly 1 in 292.2 million to one chance that you’ll end up with the winning ticket.

There are Powerball dreams and there is reality. It’s 2016. If you change the amount of the drawing, your odds of winning and the topics of the day to missed field goals, El Chapo and David Bowie leaving ground control then everything else is still fairly pertinent.

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November 27, 2012 … With no hurricanes bearing down on the east coast and lacking any current national disasters or tragedies, the media has momentarily shifted its attention to Wednesday’s upcoming $425 million Powerball drawing. http://www.powerball.com/pb_home.asp

All across the country, reporters are heading out to remote gas stations and convenience stores and interviewing people who are now waiting in line to purchase their Powerball tickets. Fresh after Black Friday, they’re now ready to plunk down a few dollars to give them something to dream about, at least until they wake up Thursday morning and find out they didn’t win.

After all, you can’t win if you don’t play, right?

Of course, odds are extremely good that you won’t win even if you do play. The official odds say the chances of winning are 1 in 175,223,510. I read elsewhere that it’s actually closer to 1 in 195,200,000 when you factor in that there isn’t always a winner – but hey, what’s an extra 20 million or so really matter?

Americans don’t really care that Powerball is one of the worst investments on the planet. Some people play every week, others wait for the jackpot to go over $100 million before purchasing a ticket. And when the numbers reach above $200 million, the media comes out to feed the frenzy.

With all that in mind, I thought I’d do my part by passing on a little knowledge I gleamed in my 15 minutes worth of research. All of the following info comes from an article I read based off of Gail Howard’s Lotto Strategy Book, Lottery Master Guide. http://www.smartluck.com/lottery-master-guide.htm

So before you go out and purchase your lottery ticket, you may want to keep the following thoughts in mind.

First off, if you’re doing Quick Picks, you have just as good a chance at winning as you do if you’re picking your own numbers. So purchase away. If you’re going to make your own picks, here’s Gail’s advice.

Choosing all odd numbers or all even numbers rarely happens – only about 4% of the time. Your best mix is 3 odds and 2 evens or 2 odds and 3 evens and then toss in the PowerBall number to balance them out.

All high numbers or all low numbers are also rarely drawn – again, only about 4% of the time. So don’t do that.

Avoid betting five consecutive numbers – it’s never happened. Four consecutive numbers has only happened a handful of times since the drawing began. Even three consecutive numbers is a rarity.

Avoid betting one lotto group – like picking all numbers in the teens. Probably not gonna happen.

Avoid pattern betting – like forming a cross with your picks or picking the four corners and the middle – even if they do win, hundreds, perhaps thousands of clever individuals will have had the same thought.

Avoid number multiples – 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 – again, you won’t be the only one with this brilliant idea so you’ll be sharing the riches.

Avoid all same last digits – 7, 17, 27, 37, 47 – same reason as above.

Some people like to pick birthdays and that’s fine but don’t forget to toss in one or two numbers above 31 just to make sure you’re covered.

Gail has one other guiding rule that makes sense to me: That which is most possible happens MOST OFTEN. That which is least possible happens LEAST OFTEN.

With that in mind, here’s a list of Powerball numbers that have won the most since last January:

guide.htmhttp://www.powerball.com/powerball/pb_frequency.asp

If you’re going to buy tickets in a group, ask everyone if they feel lucky. If the individual says, “I never win anything,” ask him or her to get out of the group – those negative vibes will drag you all down.

With all that in mind, I’m going to take a 45-minute trip to the outskirts of St. Louis, find some hole-in-the wall liquor store and purchase my winning ticket based on my carefully chosen criteria for number selection.

On second thought, I never win anything so I’m automatically disqualified.

Good luck and if you win based on any of the above advice, please pass on some of your winnings to me and I’ll make sure Gail gets a cut, too!