Given how much I’d been musing about winning the lottery lately, it shouldn’t be a surprise that I went and got a few numbers for the-then $475 million dollar Powerball jackpot. Sure, with odds of like 1 in 300 million, it’s tantamount to burning cash in hand, but at the same time, you’ll never hit home runs if you never step up to the plate.
Regardless, I found myself in a position to tune into WSB last night right before the 11 pm news, as foolhardy as putting my hopes and dreams into a lottery could be, hoping to see any numbers on any of the sets of numbers show up on little ping pong balls.
The winning numbers for Wednesday’s drawing were 2, 11, 47, 62 and 63 with the Powerball being 17.
The thing about watching a lottery drawing live is that once you get to the first number that doesn’t match anything you have, it’s over; at least when it comes to those dashed dreams of winning the jackpot. And when I saw the number “2” drawn, and I was unable to locate it anywhere on my ticket, the flicker of hope extinguishes as fast as it ignites at the start of the drawing segment.
The best and worst thing about this particular drawing is what’s seen right above – my actual ticket. I actually had a string of numbers that contained four of the five winning numbers but not the Powerball. Which meant that I was 4/6 the way to the jackpot, and 4/5 from “the consolation” $1 million payout for matching the five numbers.
However, according to Powerball rules, I’m still entitled to a $100 prize for scoring on a 1 in 37,000 chance, for getting four of the five winning numbers. That’s a 5X return on my initial investment of $20, and frankly more than I’ve ever won on any lottery before in my life.
Sure, it’ll be nice to not walk away empty-handed, but man is there a slight disappointment in the fact that with 4/6 and 4/5 correct numbers, I was one or two balls away from some vastly superior winnings.
Whatever though, that’s the lottery for you. Sure, there are definitive places, but really, it’s kind of like Ricky Bobby’s dad – if you’re not first, you’re last.
