Comment by staindk
4 days ago
If 1 through 6 are drawn you'd probably have to share your winnings with many more people than most other combinations.
4 days ago
If 1 through 6 are drawn you'd probably have to share your winnings with many more people than most other combinations.
Given how much people are avoiding 1 through 6, I think you'd probably be better off picking that.
This is interesting but IMO it's very likely to be chosen more often than average.
If you choose a random number, then for each other player your chance of picking the same numbers as them is the same as your chance of winning: in the case of Powerball, 1 in 292,201,338 = 0.0000000034. If you instead non-randomly choose 123456, then for each player that actively avoids 123456 your chance of picking the same numbers as them only decreases by 0.0000000034 (from 0.0000000034 to 0). But for each player that actively chooses 123456, your chance of picking the same numbers as them increases by 0.9999999966 (from 0.0000000034 to 1).
We could model this more precisely by looking at the other players' choices as semi-random with some combinations weighted higher and some lower, but you see my point: even if lots of people are repelled by 'obvious' sequences like 123456, this can be outweighed by a very small number being attracted to them.
I do see your point, but I doubt this probability analysis was done by the people who say "what? The numbers will never be drawn in a sequence like that". It's not that they want to avoid common numbers.
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