Before I 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 couples together.

We know that the pick 3 lottery has 3 groups of 10 balls numbered 0 through 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 the 9 sum pairs (0-9, 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5) gives you a great starting point for creating your winning combinations. While you still need to select a third number, there are certain trends, like the neighbor trend, to help you out.

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

The 0-9 pair would be played as cell 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 for each pair of 9 sums and you 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.