Wheeling Techniques @ The Lottery Site - Information on Internet, US, and World Lotteries

Wheeling is simply a mathematical method of combining a set of numbers into desired, planned subsets of all possible combinations of that set of numbers. In addition, wheeling can also be a method of combining numbers in a manner that will maximize your winnings, and be a very powerful tool that can help get you get better coverage when playing the lottery.

Generally, not all combinations are played in any lottery wheel over about 8 numbers in a pick six lottery. Playing all combinations of a set of numbers is called a full wheel. When you want to cover more than about 8 numbers, you can use what is called an abbreviated wheel.

As we said, a full wheel would use every possible combination of your set of special numbers. In a full wheel there are 28 different possible combinations of 8 numbers in a pick 6 lottery That is, if you wanted to cover 8 numbers in a lottery that picks 6 winning numbers, there are 28 different combinations that you would have to buy. For 9 numbers there are 84 possible combinations. Playing 10 special numbers would require 210 different entries. With a full wheel, this number grows very fast after this.

However, with an abbreviated wheeling system, you can play 18 numbers - or even more, while keeping the number of entries within reason.

For example, if one were to use a full wheel to combine 18 numbers from a population of 49 (such as for a 6/49 lottery), it would take 18,564 different 6 number entries to cover all possible combinations. If you did this, you would be guaranteed of having a first prize with 6 out of 6 if the six numbers drawn were in your 18 numbers.

This is obviously prohibitive. So an abbreviated wheel will generate a filtered sub-set of all possible combinations that is designed such that, if the six numbers drawn are from your set of numbers, you will have some specific minimum winner, such as 5 out of 6. This would mean that if your set of numbers contained all six winning numbers, that wheel would guarantee that there was at least one ticket with five numbers correct. Higher winners than the minimum guarantee are always possible, and there are generally numerous other winning tickets.

Because an abbreviated wheel statistically distributes the chosen plays from all possible combinations, you will end up covering the widest spread of numbers for the least amount of money. More coverage for your lottery dollar. Better chances. These wheels are constructed to maximize your winnings, while keeping the required number of entries to a minimum.

Basically, the more numbers there are in your wheel, the more probable you will have the winning numbers. The more entries that use these numbers, the better the chance that these winning numbers will be on one of them.

Wheel Examples

Let's take a look at some real world examples. You can find a lot of different software systems out there. We have reviewed most, and will leave the decision up to you.

However, your software should at least be able to wheel up to 30 numbers or more, in pick 3 to pick 7 lotteries. They should include a Bonus number. There should be provision for entering your own numbers, or for generating random numbers. There should be a provision for checking the entries generated by their wheeling systems.

Associated with each wheel is a minimum wheel guarantee. Depending upon how much of the spectrum of all possibilities that you cover, the minimum wheel guarantee goes from a minimal win with all correct in the wheel's set, to a first prize win of 6 out of 6 if your full wheel's set of numbers includes the winning numbers.

Let's take a look at some sample wheels in a lottery where you are to pick 6 winning numbers. Keep in mind that there are a lot of different wheels possible, and that you will ultimately pick a wheel that fits your budget and purpose.

Numbers Covered		Entries Needed	Minimum Guarantee
8		28	6/6
8		4	5/6
8		7	4/4
9		84	6/6
9		7	5/6
9		12	4/4
10		210	6/6
11		22	5/6
11		36	4/4
12		41	5/6
12		55	4/4
13		78	5/6
14		126	5/5
15		50	4/5
20		107	4/6
20		17	3/6
22		168	4/6
22		155	3/3
26		406	4/6
26		155	3/3
30		74	3/6
30		375	3/3
Notes
4/4	If your set of numbers contains any 4 of the winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 4 correct.
5/5	If your set of numbers contains any 5 of the winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 5 correct.
6/6	If your set of numbers contains the 6 winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with all 6 correct.
4/4	If your set of entries contains any 4 of the winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 4 correct.
3/3	If your set of entries contains any 3 of the winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 3 correct.
4/6	If your set of entries contains the 6 winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 4 correct.
4/5	If your set of entries contains any 5 of the 6 winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 4 correct.
3/6	If your set of entries contains the 6 winning numbers, you will have 1 ticket with 3 correct.

You can see that the better the minimum guarantee that the wheel has, the more entries are required. Also, you can see that you can use a lot of numbers when you use a wheel. Some wheels actually use 35 numbers or more. There is no reason you couldn't use all the numbers in a lottery, but the coverage for anything reasonable would be very meager.

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A first class site that covers prediction and wheeling in more detail is at Lotto Director. You can get some great information about the powers, and limitations, of wheeling systems and predicting numbers, along with free wheeling software. If you are interested in wheeling, this is the certainly the place to go.