A Maryland man said his new lottery strategy earned him a $5,000 Pick 4 prize and $50,000 Pick 5 prize on consecutive days. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
A Maryland man gave up on his strategy of using family birthdays for lottery numbers and the change in technique earned him $5,000 — and $50,000 the next day.
The Baltimore man told Maryland Lottery officials he had been using family birthdays as inspiration for lottery numbers, but a lack of significant wins led him to try a new tactic for coming up with digits.
“I do it while I’m driving,” the man said. “I clear my mind and then think about numbers. The first that come to mind are the ones I play.”
The player’s new strategy paid off with a $5,000 win in a Nov. 11 Pick 4 drawing and a $50,000 from a Pick 5 drawing the very next day.
“The numbers popped into my head as I was driving to work, one at a time, 2-1-7-3-7,” the player said of when he came up with his Pick 5 numbers. “At the next stop light, I typed them into my phone.”
The man said he was shocked when he learned of his prize.
“I couldn’t sit still. I’d been working since 5 that morning, but the thought of $50,000 filled me with energy,” he said.
The winner said his prize money will go toward his dream of opening his own auto mechanic garage.
“We still have a long way to go, but this puts us so much farther ahead for the year than I ever could have hoped,” the winner said.
