Before we begin, let me say that the true answer to those questions varies from state to state in terms of short-term trends. But I want to explore a method to select pick 3 pairs using simple math. You may be surprised at the results. Let’s see how we can get our pairs together.

We know that the pick 3 lottery has 3 groups of 10 balls numbered 0 to 9. This means that by using each number only once in a pair, the lowest possible 2-digit sum is 1 (0+1), and the highest possible The sum of 2 digits is 17 (8+9). Using the illustration below, you can see the number of possible pairs for each sum.

1 – 1 (0-1)

2 – 1 (0-2)

3 – (1-2, 0-3)

4 – (0-4, 1-3)

5 – (0-5, 1-4, 2-3)

6 – (0-6, 1-5, 2-4)

7 – (0-7, 1-6, 2-5, 3-4)

8 – (0-8, 1-7, 2-6, 3-5)

9 – (0-9, 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5)

10 – (1-9, 2-8,3-7,4-6)

11 – (2-9, 3-8, 4-7, 5-6)

12 – (3-9, 4-8, 5-7)

13 – (4-9, 5-8, 6-7)

14 – (5-9, 6-8)

15 – (6-9, 7-8)

16 – (7-9)

17 – (8-9)

Notice that the sum of 9 has five pairs, while all other sums have only four or fewer pairs. This means that any two digits in the pick 3 draw must be 9 more than any other sum.

Using all 9 pairs of additions (0-9, 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5) gives you a great starting point to create your winning combinations. While you still need to select a third number, there are certain trends, such as the neighbors trend, to help you.

The neighbor trend is that most draws contain at least one contiguous (neighbor) number. For example, a 1-4-2 draw where the 1 and 2 are neighbors. Now let’s see what our five pairs of sum 9 with adjoining numbers look like.

The 0-9 pair would be played as box combinations like this: 0-9-1 and 0-9-8. While 1 is a neighbor of 0 and 8 is a neighbor of 9.

The 1-8 pair would be played as box combinations like this: 1-8-2, 1-8-9, 1-8-0, 1-8-7. While 2 is a neighbor of 1, 9 is a neighbor of 8, 0 is a neighbor of 1, and 7 is a neighbor of 8.

Just do the same thing for each pair of 9 sums and you’ll end up with a list of combinations to play as box bets. Good luck and always remember, never play more than you can afford to lose.