Tip 11:   Avoiding Filtering Conflicts (Part 1)

About Filtering ...

Often you need to reduce a set of wheeled combinations to fit your playing budget.  A typical way of doing this is by applying "filtering" to them.

Filtering can be used in any kind of game -- Pick-3, Pick-4, or Lotto.

The usual idea is to play a larger set of numbers, to "capture" as many winning numbers as possible.  Every number is a potential winner, and is therefore playable -- but the cost is too high.  The role of filtering is to restrict the way the numbers appear together inside each combination, to lower the cost.

When you choose filters, be aware that sometimes they may conflict.  Two or more filters may be incompatible -- giving you results you never expected.  The reason is always the same:  you're using filters that cancel each other out.

We'll look at several examples here.

Example of a Filtering Conflict

Here's an obvious case of two filters that simply disagree with each other.

We'll use a Pick-6 Lotto with 49 numbers (a 6/49) as an example -- but the principle applies to any game.

Suppose you are filtering your combinations for a 6/49 Lotto game:

• Sums:   You want Sums of exactly 150 -- the central sum in the 6/49 game.



• Even/Odd:   You want a 'perfect' 3/3 split of Even/Odd numbers -- every combination must have exactly 3 Even and 3 Odd numbers.

This filtering is impossible -- try it and see what you get!

Explanation:   In your first filter, you are filtering for a Sum of exactly 150 -- which is an Even number.

The second filter (Even/Odd) requires 3 Odd numbers.  Therefore the Sum of the 6 numbers in each combination will have to be an Odd number also.

• If you add 3 Odd numbers together, you will always get an Odd number.  There are 3 Odd numbers in the combination, so its Sum must be Odd.

The two filters are mutually incompatible, and you will get no combinations.

How to Avoid the Conflict:   An obvious way to "fix it" would be to specify a Sum of, say, 149 or 151 -- or any other Odd value.  Or, you could specify an Even/Odd split of 2/4 or 4/2 -- with either two Odd numbers or four Odd numbers.  Either way, the two filters will now work together.

Another Sums Conflict

Here's another Sums conflict, one that might not seem so obvious.  Suppose you are filtering some Lotto combinations for Sums like this:

• Accepting Sums in Range:   148 to 152.



• Rejecting Duplicate Sums:   Rejecting Sums that have already been drawn in the last 50 draws.

You might make this work, or you might not.  It depends entirely on your game's history in the last 50 draws.

If your game is a 6/49 Lotto, for example, you're using very common Sums.  It would be likely that sometime in the last 50 draws, each Sum in this range (148, 149, 150, 151, 152) would already have been drawn at least once.

If this is the case, you'll get no combinations out of your wheel.

How to Avoid the Conflict:   One way to avoid the conflict would be to shorten the draw range for rejecting duplicate Sums.  For example, you could have Lottery Director test only the last 5 or 10 draws for possible duplicate Sums.

How to Avoid Filtering Conflicts

Most of the time, your filters give you lots of freedom in "tuning" your play to your budget.  For example:

• You can use your Consecutive Numbers filter to get rid of combinations that have (say) 3 or more consecutives, like 9-10-11, or 20-21-22.



• Your Repeat Numbers filters will reject combinations with (say) 4 or more repeats from all of the game's past draws -- or any from range of draws you choose.

Just suppose the last draw's winning numbers were:  9-10-11-20-21-22.  You can still play all six of those numbers in your wheel, together with other numbers you are choosing, and use the two filters above.

The two filters do not have a conflict.  In fact, that's the very reason you might want to use the filters.

Each number (9-10-11-20-21-22) is playable.  You'll accept each number for a new play -- in reasonable quantities, with not "too many" of them together.  For example:

• A combination could pass with 9-10-20 in it -- because it passes both filters.
• A combination could not pass with 9-10-11 in it (too many Consecutives).
• A combination could not pass with 9-10-20-21 in it (too many Repeats).

Remember, you can always re-filter your combinations before you decide to keep them.  Feel free to experiment with your filters -- and see how they work.

Meanwhile, be wary when you're using "tight" filtering -- reducing a large wheel down to a very few combinations.  Especially, choose your filters so they work together, like a team.

Screen Samples

There are dozens of filters for Lotto games, and dozens more for Pick-3/4.

The screens below are some samples of the Lotto Pick-6 filtering menus.

Sums
Duplicate Sums
Even/Odd Sums
Even/Odd Numbers

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