How to win at Pick 3
First of all I want you to know that no person or system can guarantee anyone an automatic pick 3 lottery win, and that this page is strictly for informational purposes.
Your best chance ever at winning with more frequency over the long term is using odds reducing strategies. Not only for Pick 3 and Pick 4, but for all lottery games in general.
To give you an idea of what your chances are, I made this little list below:
- The odds of picking 3 out of 3 in drawing order in a Pick 3 are 1 in 1,000.
- The odds of picking 4 out of 4 in drawing order in a Pick 4 are 1 in 10,000.
- Odds of bowling a 300 game ? 11,500 to 1.
- Odds of being struck by lightning are 576,000 to 1,
- and the odds of being killed by a lightning are 2,320,000 to 1.
- Odds of winning in an average 6/42 lottery (6 out of 42 numbers): 5,245,786 to 1.
- Odds of winning the California lottery: 13,000,000 to 1.
Ever wondered what your odds are of dating a supermodel ? Or the odds of a meteor landing on your house ? At funny2.com you can check out a big list of (funny) odds.
2 examples of odds reducing strategies :
A set of 8 numbers, which if you play all 8, 2 out of 3 digits will hit 70% of the time :
127, 345, 369, 468, 490, 560, 589, 780
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A set of 10 numbers, which if you play all 10, 2 out of 3 digits will hit 80% of the time :
109, 210, 321, 432, 543, 654, 765, 876, 987, 098
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In both examples, a double (three digit number that contains two numbers of the same digit, i.e. 122) or a triple (three-digit number consisting of the same number repeated three times, i.e. 111) will be the party pooper.
These numbers don´t guarantee a win. They are just 2 examples of odds reducing strategies. But depending on your local lottery pay-outs, playing a strategy like this can be very interesting.
Especially when they pay out Pairs (when a three-digit number is bet, and the drawn number includes any one pair of the first two digits, the last two digits and, in some cases, the first and last digit of the player´s three-digit selection).
Or you can play Boxed (a way of betting that pays off if those digits are drawn in any order).
They can also form a solid base to make your own wheeling combinations with "hot numbers".
So make sure to get a recent copy of your game´s history. Study the drawning results. Look for hot numbers. Check out repeating combinations.
I gave you an idea of what your chances are, including also some funny odds to compair with, and gave a few basic examples of odds reducing strategies.
Conclusion so far was that the Pick 3 and Pick 4 don’t have a ten million jackpot, but instead they have winnable odds.
Pick 3 Breakdown
In the Pick 3 there are :
- 720 sets with all single digit numbers (123)
- 270 sets with double (2 identical) digits (233)
- 10 sets of Triple (3 identical) digits (333)
Which makes a total of 1000 combinations.
- 125 Combinations (12.5%) are all odd. Ex.: 135
- 125 Combinations (12.5%) are all even. Ex.: 246
- 375 combinations (37.5%) have 2 odd and 1 even number. Ex.: 136
- 375 combinations (37.5%) have 2 even and 1 odd number. Ex.: 245
Box Play
The digits in a 3-digit number (in a set with all unique digits like 123) can be arranged in 6 possible positions. Example : 123,132,312,213,231,321.
For a total of 720 sets with three different digits, this results in 120 ways to play a 6-way Box.
A view of your games complete history will confirm that sets with three different digits, are expected to be drawn about seven out of ten times (or 70% of the time).
Sets with 2 identical digits & one unique digit (Ex.: 335) can be arranged in 3 possible positions. There are 270 sets of two identical digits & one unique digit, this makes there are 90 possible 3-way Box plays (Example 3-way Box play for the number set 335: 335,353,533).
Number sets with 2 identical digits will show up about three times in ten drawings. Or every third or forth drawing. Check your game history for those patterns. So the time to begin playing them is when they are double or triple overdue.
What about number sets with 3 identical digits, the so called Triples ? I would say they come up 2 or 3 times a year, but of course, that depends on how many drawings your game has in 1 year. So lets say Triples are expected once every 100 draws.
3-Digit Permutation Generator
If you want to play all the possible straights of a number, you can use the 3-Digit Permutation Generator. This is a very useful tool to generate all the possible straights of a 3-digit number. Especially if the lottery game you are playing doesn´t offer combo or box plays.
3-Digit Combinations Generator
If you have four or five digits that look so good you want to combine them, you can use the 3-Digit Combinations Generator. This 3 digit combinations tool generates all possible 3 digit combinations out of up to 10 digits, but without looking at the exact order of the digits. Very useful if the lottery game you are playing offers combo or box plays.
Note : Sometimes 6 digits will look good. But six digits make already 56 combinations if you include Pairs and Triples in the results. Keep this in mind when building your own Pick 3 lottery strategy.
These tools don´t guarantee a win ! They are very useful to pick all the possible combinations or permutations of a given number.
But as you will probably know, you cannot buy a win. 1000 combinations at 50 cents each would cost 500 and you would win only 250.
Good Luck !
