I need help calculating my odds

Reply #19

Stack47 — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:36:29 GMT

It's sort of a trick question because it excludes the winning combos matching 1 to 5 numbers with the bonus number.

Reply #18

Stack47 — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 14:32:19 GMT

The overall chance is exactly the same because you have only one chance to win. A 24 way box has 416.67 to 1 chance of winning something and a 12-way box has a 1 in 833.33.

Reply #17

SergeM — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 00:27:41 GMT

W3*L4 + L3*W4 + W3*W4

Reply #16

SergeM — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 23:34:44 GMT

win one: 0,0010998

win both: 0,0000001

lose both: 0,9989001

checksum 1

Matrix

p3/p4 0,0001 0,9999

0,001 0,0000001 0,0009999

0,999 0,0000999 0,9989001

Reply #15

RJOh — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 08:46:28 GMT

No it's not a typo. When you calculate the odds there are 258,890,850 possible combinations and 12,103,014 combinations of 0+1 which is 12,103,014/258,890,850 = 1/21

Reply #14

jr-va — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 06:07:04 GMT

thanks jimjwright, I thought the lottery had a typo, but your explanation makes sense.

and are the odds expressed as 10999:9989001 the same as saying 1 in 908

Reply #13

jimjwright — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:41:52 GMT

I just told you the probability of winning either pick 3 or pick 4 is 1 - .9989001 or .0010999.

If you want to express as odds then you will be successful 10999 times and unsuccessful 9989001 times out of 10,000,000 trials.

So the odds would be expressed as 10999:9989001

Jimmy

Reply #12

jimjwright — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:24:02 GMT

The odds of getting exactly 0 WB and 1 PB is 1 in 55.

Its possible that you will get a WB along with the PB so that's why its not in 1 in 35.

Match 0 out of 5 white balls and match the Powerball (Payout = $4)

The number of ways 0 of the 5 winning numbers on your lottery ticket can match the 5 white balls is COMBIN(5,0) = 1. The number of ways the 5 losing white numbers on your ticket can match any of the 54 losing white numbers is COMBIN(54,5) = 3,162,510. The number of ways your Powerb... [ More ]

Reply #11

jr-va — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:20:48 GMT

so how is .0010999 described as 1 in how many?

another question, I'm not saying I want the odds of winning both, I'm saying what are the odds of winning anything if I play both

Reply #10

jimjwright — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:15:53 GMT

The odds of not winning a single exact pick3 is 999/1000.

The odds of not winning a single exact pick4 is 9999/10000.

So the odds of not winning both pick3 and pick4 would be 999/1000 * 9999/10000 which is .9989001.

So the odds of winning either a pick3 or pick4 would be 1 - .9989001 or .0010999

Jimmy

Reply #9

jr-va — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 02:22:01 GMT

That has to be a typo. I noticed the same thing on Powerball. For Powerball it says to pick a powerball from 1 to 35 but then it says the odds of getting the powerball are 1:55

So, if you play MegaMillions and buy 15 tickets, each with a megaball from 1 to 15 then your odds are clearly 1:1 aren't they?

In other words if you buy the 15 megaballs then your chances of wining the megaball are 100%, so why do they say 1 in 21

Reply #8

RJOh — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 01:54:13 GMT

Sometimes what seems obvious isn't correct, for example MegaMillions has 15 megaballs so you would think your odds of matching 0+1 would be 1:15 but it's 1:21 when it's calculated.

Reply #7

jr-va — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 21:16:50 GMT

I'm wondering if they can even be combined, since they're separate games.

If they can be combined, what are my combined odds, is it 1 in 11,000 or 2 in 11,000?

If it's 2 in 11,000 since I have two tickets, is that the same as 1 in 5,500

Reply #6

RJOh — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 18:50:30 GMT

In that case your best chance of winning something is 1 in 1,000 and your worst is 1 in 10,000, just combine them to get your overall combined chance.

Reply #5

phileight — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 11:15:03 GMT

no. you have two chances to win. the probability of winning either game does not change. you have 1 chance in 1000 of hitting a pick 3 and 1 chance in 10000 of hitting a pick 4.

so combined you have 1 chance in 1000 of hitting a pick3 str (.001) and 1 chance of hitting a pick 4 str (.0001). when you combine those two terms you have .0011 which is misleading, if you think this means you have increased or decreased you chance of hitting a pick3 or pick 4

Reply #4

jr-va — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 00:22:06 GMT

Are you saying that my combined overall odds are 1 in 11,000 or would it mean 2 in 11,000 since I have a total of two tickets

Reply #3

jr-va — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 00:19:20 GMT

I'm playing EXACT, pick 3 is 1 in 1,000 and pick 4 is 1 in 10,000 .

What are my overall combined chances of winning something

Reply #2

RJOh — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 21:30:44 GMT

Depends on how you're playing. Check your lottery website to see the odds and payouts for winning a straight, a box or a pair.

Reply #1

phileight — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 09:39:10 GMT

1/1000=.001 and 1/10000=.0001 so .001+.0001=.0011

I need help calculating my odds

jr-va — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 00:43:15 GMT

If I play pick 3 (1 in 1,000), AND pick 4 exact (1 in 10,000), what are my overall combined odds of winning something