Snowy said:
the simple rule that all past draws/results are totally irrelevant
Perhaps the set of ALL past draws is irrelevant, but perhaps separating them into groups (weeks that produced winners vs. weeks that did not) is the key...
check out the following...
12-14-27-33-39 + 41
05-14-16-29-53 + 07
02-11-16-21-39 + 42
02-05-06-09-10 + 26
look like a random distribution?
they are the draws in the last 48 MUSL Powerball games that produced winners (since the move to 5/53 from 5/49)
Since 1997, the #20 in the powerball position has come up 26 times, yet only once on a winning ticket.
on average, 170,776 players match just the powerball for a $3 prize, the last time they let 7 come out as the powerball, 2,429,332 matched it. ($7,287,996 paid out just in powerball winners, they don't let that happen too much, of course that was the draw for 12/25/2002 when everyone was playing it)
past drawn numbers are not the only factor to consider... besides, it's a fun way to keep math skills up if you don't do it for a living