How to pick the best Power and Mega ball

The 5 main numbers for Powerball and Mega Millions are usually a combination of HOT AND COLD numbers, so no advantage of playing “only hot” numbers. You’re much better off when you pick a combination with the correct number distribution footprint.

The extra ball is a different animal. You can wait for ever to see a cold number being drawn, so I tend to pick one of the hot numbers but not necessarily “the” hottest number.

The most frequent number drawn can already be over the top.

That’s why I usually pick a hot number with a frequency less than the frequency of the hottest number.

How to figure out the normal frequency?

The normal frequency of the extra ball is the total number of draws divided by the number of extra balls (26 for Powerball, 25 for Mega Millions).

Want an example?

At the time of writing, Powerball’s total number of draws (in its current 5/69 + 1/26 format) is 276.

276 divided by 26 = 10.61, so 10 or 11 is a normal frequency.

Anything less than that is “colder”, anything more than that is “hotter”.

As said, I pick one of the hotter ones.

Here’s the up-to-date frequency chart for Powerball and Mega Millions:
Mega Millions Number Frequency
Powerball Number Frequency

To your awesome success in 2018,

Stefan