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Looking for a Powerball edge? Try these numbers

You might want to have 23, 8, 36, 26 or 56 appear on your Powerball ticket ahead of today’s $425 million drawing.

The same goes for 29 in the Powerball spot.

That’s because since January 2012 — when the current numerical matrix for Powerball numbers was set — these are the most commonly drawn numbers.

However, you probably don’t want them all appearing on the same line, because as common as they are, they’ve never shown up together in the same drawing.

Lottery officials eliminated four red Powerballs ahead of the Jan. 18, 2012, drawing to increase lottery players’ odds of winning the jackpot. Wednesday’s drawing will mark the 163rd time this configuration of numbered balls will be in play.

In that time, the white 23 ball has been drawn the most of any of the white balls. It’s been a winner 22 times, or 13.6 percent of the time. The No. 8 white ball has been drawn 20 times, or 12.3 percent of the time. Three white balls — 36, 26 and 56 — have been drawn 19 times each, or 11.7 percent of the time.

When it comes time to drawing the red Powerball, No. 29 is a good bet. It’s popped out of the kettle 10 times, or 6.2 percent of the time.

Conversely, the white balls featuring the numbers 2, 12, 47, 25 and 37 are the least frequently drawn, each of them coming out less than 10 times over the course of the past 162 drawings. And the red Powerballs featuring the numbers 9 and 31 have only come out of the kettle just once over the past 20 months.

That said, mathematicians and oddsmakers agree the disparity between the more commonly drawn numbers and less frequently drawn numbers is more a matter of luck than anything else.

Stores with past Powerball winners lure crowds

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