Lotto Master Professional Release 1.5 Shareware Version User's Guide Program and documentation (C) 1987-88 JPM Computer Products All Rights Reserved LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 1 Copyright Notice This software package and documentation are copyright 1987 by Joseph P. Masching and JPM Computer Products. All rights reserved worldwide. JPM Computer Products licenses users to implement this software for their own use on a trial basis for thirty (30) days to determine its suitability for their purposes. If use continues beyond thirty days a license fee of 25.00 must be paid to the author at the address shown below. JPM Computer Products further licenses users to make copies of this program for transfer to others as long as the program is transferred in its entirety and in its original form, including all documentation files and copyright notice, and as long as no fee is charged beyond a small copying fee. Commercial resale of this product is strictly prohibited without the written permission of JPM Computer Products, P.O. Box 82621, San Diego CA 92138. Telephone number is (619)264-1148 Disclaimer JPM Computer Products makes no warranties as to the contents of this documentation or the LOTTO MASTER PRO program and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event shall JPM Computer Products be liable for any loss of profit or any other loss or damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. JPM Computer Products further reserves the right to make changes to the specifications of the program and contents of the documentation without notice. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 2 INTRODUCTION LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL is a program designed to maintain and track LOTTO bets, check bets against the LOTTO drawings, maintain a history of winning numbers, analyze historical numbers for significant information, generate bets based on statistical history, and support bets based on user-selected numbers with statistical backup. It is an easy to use menu-driven utility for use as an aid to making decisions about placing Lotto bets. While the program was designed originally for use with the California LOTTO 6/49 lottery, it can be used equally well with other six-number lotteries where the number field does not exceed forty-nine. Hardware Requirements and Installation LOTTO MASTER PRO is designed to run on any IBM or compatible computer with DOS 2.1 or higher and 256K of memory. It will run without problems on either a single floppy, dual floppy, or hard drive system. The very first step before running Lotto Master Professional is to make a working copy of the program disk. NEVER run the original program disk. The original should be stored away in a safe place and used only for making working copies To run LOTTO-MASTER PRO on a single floppy disk system, place the working copy of the program disk in drive A and from the A:> prompt, type 'LM' and press enter. To run the program on a dual-floppy disk system, you must first copy the data files from the program disk to a separate data disk. To do this, place the program disk in drive A, and a fresh formatted disk in drive B. From the A:> prompt, type the following commands: copy *.rec b: copy *.dat b: copy *.cfg b: copy *.obj b: copy *.cfg b: If you are starting a brand new game for which you do not yet have history files on the disk, just copy the files LMSUBS.OBJ and LMBETS.OBJ to the disk on drive b. The data files will be transferred to your working data disk. After transfer is complete, label your working data disk to identify the lottery information that it contains. To run the program, the working copy of the program disk should be in drive A, and the data disk in drive B. Make the B drive current by typing and entering the following: b: . Now, from the B:> LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 3 prompt type 'a:lm'. The program will load and from this point will look for all data files on drive B. If the program detects upon loading that you are beginning a new game it will automatically send you to the Game Configuration sub-program. To use the program on a hard drive system, copy the entire program disk to a directory on your hard drive. Each lottery must be on its own directory on the hard drive; the data files cannot be mixed. To run the program, make your Lotto Master directory the current directory and type-in and enter 'LM'. The program will load and run. Again, if you are starting a brand new game, just copy the files LM.EXE, LMSUBS.OBJ, and LMBETS.OBJ to the new directory. After you type LM to start the program you will be presented with a configuration screen where you can describe the new lottery to the program. After configuring, the program will automatically build the data file shells that the program needs and then load and run Lotto Master Pro. The Program Files The LOTTO MASTER PRO program package contains fifty-eight files. They are as follows: LM.EXE The main program LMSUBS.OBJ Program overlay LMBETS.OBJ Another program overlay LM.DOC This Users Guide PRINTDOC.BAT A utility to print the User's Guide HISTORY.DAT The main historical archive HITREC.DAT The main number-history archive README.1ST Update and startup information LOTTO.CFG Where program configuration data is stored 1.REC - nn.REC Subsidiary number-history archives After the program is run the first time, an additional file called LOTTO.DAT will be created that will hold information concerning active bets. Getting Started Getting started is simple. Set up your system by one of the methods described above under Hardware and Installation, type 'LM' and press . You will see the title screen first, followed after a few seconds by the LOTTO MASTER main menu (NOTE: if you are setting up a new game, the program will first ask you for configuration information). LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 4 The Main Menu The main menu offers four options: You can WORK WITH BETS, WORK WITH HISTORY, go to UTILITIES, or EXIT LOTTO MASTER. If you choose to exit you will be asked to verify that you really wish to do so, and upon verification you will be returned to the operating system prompt. To insure that all files are properly closed, you should exit the program only from this menu. HISTORY MANAGEMENT History Management deals with the archive of numbers from all past lotto games that are stored on disk. It allows you to add new drawings to the archive, to edit or delete existing drawings, to generate statistics from the drawn numbers, and to search the history files for information that you consider to be significant. Selecting the WORK WITH HISTORY option from the main menu will bring you to the following sub-menu: Option 1 - Add To History To enter new drawings, select this option. You will be asked how many boards you wish to enter (each board consists of a date and six numbers) and then you will be presented with each board in turn until all are filled in. The date is entered first, in mmddyy format; that is, simply type in the 6 digits representing the date without spaces, slashes, or dashes. For example January 1, 1987 would be typed in 010187. The program will check to see if the date is already on file and, if not, will allow you to continue. If it detects that the date exists it will ask you to enter a new date. Next, type in and enter the six numbers from the drawing for that date. You will only be allowed numbers between 1 and the maximum number specified in the configuration file, and the numbers may be entered in any order. You may exit this option at any time by typing the number zero in the date field or in any number field. After all input has been entered, the program will sort it and return you to the History Management menu. Option 2 - Edit/Delete History After selecting this option you will be asked to enter the date of the drawing you are interested in. Enter the date in the same format as above. Next, you will be shown the record and be given a choice of editing or of deleting it. If you delete, the record will be removed from the files and you will be returned to the menu. If you choose to edit the record you will go into the add mode described above and the old record will be over-written with the new information. Please note that automatic date sorting does not take place in the Edit mode. If you change the date of the record, you may have to use the Sort History File option on the UTILITIES menu to put it into proper order in the file. It is very important to keep the history data in proper date order, so if you do extensive editing it is always a good idea to sort the file before ending your session. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 5 When your edited record has been stored you will be asked for a new record date to look at. If you are finished with the Edit/Delete mode just enter a zero in place of a date and you will be returned to the History Management menu. Option 3 - Display History This option will give you a page-by-page listing in date-order of all past LOTTO drawings on file. The default starting and ending periods are the very first record and the very last record (in other words, the entire file). These periods may be changed by using Option 6 on the menu. The display option is valuable for reviewing historical data for a given period and for selecting entries to edit. To use the option, simply press '3'. You will be shown how many pages are in the listing and, if more than one, will be able to page through the listing in either direction. Option 4 - Statistics And Wheeling This option will calculate and display statistical information on all numbers picked in the lotto drawings. It will allow you to isolate and analyze any period between two valid dates, it will allow you to automatically generate bets, using any of the nine built-in wheeling systems, based on the 'Hot' numbers for any period, and it will allow you generate bets with the wheeling systems from manual input. When you select option 4 from the History Management menu, you are presented with a sub-menu and another series of options. Sub-Option 1 - Quick Game Stats Page one of this option will display a listing of all the numbers in sequential order, a listing of the number of times each number has been selected in a lotto drawing (a 'hit'), and a listing of the percentage represented by the hits. In other words, if a total of 90 games have been played and the number of hits is 20, then the percentage is 22.2%. Which means that that particular number has been 'hit' 22.2% of the time. Page two of this option shows the same information, listed by rank instead of sequentially, for easy identification of the hottest numbers. Page three of this option will present an on-screen report showing the number of games that have passed since each number has been selected in a drawing. This option always relates all of the numbers to all of the games in the file and is not effected by any display period changes that might have been made. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 6 Sub-Option 2 - Quick Number Stats When you select this option you will be asked to enter the number that you wish to examine. After entering the number you will see displays identical to the first two pages provided by Option 1, except that instead of relating all of the numbers to all of the games, this option relates all of the numbers to all of the other numbers. For example; if you select number 20 and look down the listing to number 5 and see that number 5 has received 10 hits for a percentage of 20.0%, it means that number 5 has been drawn in combination with number 20 ten times or a total of twenty percent. In other words, twenty percent of the time that number 20 is selected in a lotto drawing, number 5 is selected with it. The purpose of this feature is to quickly identify numbers that are frequently drawn in pairs, or, 'companion numbers' in the jargon. Page two of this option is identical to page two of Option 1. The same information is displayed in a different format for ease in finding the hottest numbers. Note that on the bottom right corner of the display are the vital statistics of the number being reviewed. These statistics are to remind you of the overall standing of that number in relation to all of the games. Sub-Option 3 - Period Analysis And Wheeling Period Analysis generates statistics that relate only to a user-selected period. This allows you to analyze the statistics for any given period of time, with a view to detecting recurring patterns and trends. A further capability of this option is the ability to generate bets from the statistical information presented. This 'Hot Number' feature will generate a series of bets, using any one of nine wheeling systems, without any active decision-making on the part of the user. However, as the bets are based on statistical data, they constitute more of an 'educated' guess than would a bet based solely on simple random number generation. The bets are formed by combining the top numbers for the period into various combinations, depending on the wheel being used. The wheel is a mathematical model composed in such a way as to guarantee that if a certain number of the same numbers that compose the wheel are picked in the lotto drawing, then you will obtain a minimum win of so many numbers. To make this less LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 7 confusing I will use an example. The 'System 33' wheel uses a base of 14 numbers. If you select this wheel for automatic bet creation for the period currently set, it will pick out the 14 highest hitting numbers for the period and combine them in a way that creates 40 different bets. If any 5 of the 14 numbers that form the wheel are picked in the lotto drawing, you are guaranteed at least one four-number win. In many cases, because of the way the numbers are combined, a five number match would result in a series of three and four-number wins. As you can see, betting this way tends to bend the odds a little more in your favor. Of course some of the wheel bets can get fairly expensive and if you would like to use the wheeling techniques regularly, you might consider joining with other like-minded souls to defray the cost. That's how syndicate betting works. See the section on Manual Wheeling below for a description of the various wheels. Automatic bet creation is accomplished by selecting the option from page 2 of the period display. The bets are created and then displayed for review. If you are satisfied with the bets, then you have two saving options. If you choose the option, the bets will be saved to your bet file and any existing bets will be removed. If you choose the option, then the bets will be added to any bets existing in the bet file. If you do no wish to save the bets, just press the option or the ESC key and you will exit to the History Management menu. A further word should be offered here on the setting of display periods. When entering Period Analysis you are given the opportunity to verify or change the current display period. Try to keep the period as small as possible as this not only speeds up calculations, but offers more meaningful trend information. Lotto Master will examine the entire history file through this option if you wish, and this can be useful for automatic bet generation based on hot numbers derived from the entire history, but more significant information can usually be obtained by narrowing periods down and examining them closely for patterns. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 8 Sub-Option 4 - Manual Wheeling The explanation above of Period Analysis shows one method by which wheeling can be implemented. The alternate method is to select certain numbers, using the various analytical tools provided by the program, and then to enter them manually into the wheel. Once the wheel has been created and displayed, you will have the same save and exit options described above. Here are descriptions of the wheeling systems that the program uses: System 7 7 number base, 7 bets. Contains all possible 6-number combinations of the 7 number base. No guarantee. Exact number match only. System 8 8 number base, 28 bets. Contains all possible 6-number combinations of the 8 number base. No Guarantee. Exact number match only. System 33 14 number base, 40 bets. Guarantees a 4-number match if 5 of the 14 numbers are picked in the drawing. System 37 12 number base, 6 bets. Guarantees a 4-number match if 6 of the 12 numbers are picked in the drawing. System 41 16 number base, 38 bets. Guarantees a 4-number match if 6 of the 16 numbers are picked in the drawing. System 42 18 number base, 42 bets. Guarantees a 4-number match if 6 of the 18 numbers are picked in the drawing. System 43 20 number base, 100 bets. Guarantees a 4-number match if 6 of the 20 numbers are picked in the drawing. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 9 System 55 11 number base, 26 bets. Guarantees a 5-number match if 6 of the 11 numbers are picked in the drawing. System 56 12 number base, 42 bets. Guarantees a 5-number match if 6 of the 12 numbers are picked in the drawing. Sub-Option 5 - Exit This Menu This option returns you from the Statistics And Wheeling menu to the History Management menu. Option 5 - Search History This option allows you to enter any number, combination of numbers or complete bets, and check them for 'hits' against any period of interest. As only the exact number or combination of numbers entered will be flagged as hits, this is an extremely powerful tool for pattern detection, and a method for determining if a potential bet falls within an historically successful range of numbers. You can use this option to check numbers or sets of numbers for current trends (A series of hits clustered together is a pretty fair indication of a trend in progress). An additional use for this option is for 'skip tracing'. Skip tracing is an analysis of the number of games between hits of a given number or combination of numbers. To use this option, simply enter the numbers that you are interested in researching. When you have entered all six numbers, or if you have pressed enter on an empty field, the program will start hunting for the number or combination that you have entered and will flag a hit with a checkmark symbol next to the drawing date where the numbers were found. The program will ONLY FLAG THE EXACT DATA THAT YOU ENTERED. That is, if you entered the numbers 3, 8, and 22, you will only see a checkmark next to the date where ALL THREE numbers were found. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 10 Option 6 - Set Display Period This option allows you to limit the display period, and the period to be analyzed, to any two valid dates in the history file. This feature allows for a very refined trend analysis and speeds up calculations and searches significantly. When you select Option 6, you will be presented with an input screen that asks for both a starting and ending period. To set the starting period to the very first record (the default value) simply press the ENTER key on the blank field. To set the ending period to the very last record, again press ENTER on the blank field. To set either of these periods to any date between the first and last record, simply enter the date in mmddyy format; i.e., 010188 for January 1, 1988. The date need not be exact; if the date you have entered is not a drawing date on file, the program will set the period to the next valid date that it finds. This option should be used when examining data for specific periods through Option 3 (Display History), when searching for patterns through Option 5 (Search History), and for analyzing trends. Sub-Options 1 and 2 under Statistics And Wheeling (Quick Game Stats and Quick Number Stats) are not effected by period settings, but always relate to the entire file. Be very conscious of the period settings. These are presented on most of the screen displays to remind you of the period under scrutiny and you should always check them to verify that the period you wish to examine is the same as the current period set. Option 7 - Exit This option returns you to the Main Menu from where you can either move to WORK WITH BETS, UTILITIES, or exit the program. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 11 Bet Management Bet Management deals with the archive of numbers relating to active bets stored on disk. It allows you to add new bets to the archive, to edit or delete existing bets, to display all bets, and to search the bet file for winning matches when the lotto picks are drawn. Selecting the WORK WITH BETS option from the main menu will bring you to the Bet Management Menu shown below. Options 1-3 These options work identically to those in History Management except that they apply only to your current bets. Your bets can be entered, edited , and viewed. You will notice that dates are not used here and that bets are separated into, and selected by, numbered 'boards'. Option 4 - Clear Bets This option clears the bet file and allows you to enter a new set of boards and numbers. NOTE: Be careful here. If you inadvertently clear the bet file you will have to reconstruct the bets that it contained. Option 5 - Search/Check Bets This option allows you to enter the numbers drawn in the latest LOTTO drawing and compare them to your bets. If a winning board is found it is flagged to catch your attention and you are prompted to check your bonus number where appropriate. After the check is complete, you are given the option of saving the drawing numbers to the history file. The Check for Wins option can also be used to avoid duplication of bets by first running them through this option before saving to the bet file. Option 6 - Exit This option returns you to the Main Menu from which you may exit the program or select another menu. LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 12 THE UTILITIES MENU The Utilities menu offers three main options and an exit option. Option 1 (Set Game ID) allows you to set or change the name of the lottery that you are currently working in and to show the type of lottery that it is. This is important because of the fact that each lottery that you play must reside on a separate disk or directory from every other lottery. Setting the name will eliminate the problem of possibly updating the wrong history file. Option 2 (New Game Setup) will rarely be used. It is intended to force creation of data files in a case where automatic data file creation has for some reason been aborted. Never run this option on a disk that holds active data files. They will be corrupted. To set up a new game, first make sure that only the files LM.EXE, LMSUBS.OBJ, and LMBETS.OBJ reside on the disk or directory. If you are using a two-floppy setup, then follow the instructions outlined in the Hardware And Installation part of this manual. Type LM and follow the prompts for configuring the data files. After configuration is complete, the program will ask you to confirm that you wish to create new files. If at this point you choose to cancel the operation, LOTTO MASTER PRO will load without the data files being created. Use option number 2 to create the data files when ready, but do not add data until you have gone through this procedure or the statistical functions will provide erroneous information. Option 3 (Sort History File) should be used after editing the history file if any date changes have been made that cause dates to be out of order. The time it takes to sort the file will depend on the size of the file and how many changes must be made. Changes near the beginning of the file will take longer than changes near the end of the file. Option 4 (Exit) Returns you to the main menu. SUMMARY Whether you are a serious LOTTO player or just an occasional dabbler, we believe that you will find this program to be useful. Let us know what you think of it, and any suggestions as to how it might be improved will be greatly appreciated. We can be reached at: JPM Computer Products P.O. Box 82621 San Diego, CA 92138 Tel (619) 264-1148 LOTTO MASTER PROFESSIONAL USER'S GUIDE PAGE 13 Registration Form Lotto Master Professional Release 1.5 (SHAREWARE VERSION) Name_____________________________ Date_________ Address __________________________________________ City _________________ State _____ Zip _________ Country __________________________________________ Phone ( ) ____________________ How did you receive this program? (If BBS please state name) __________________________________________________ To be listed as a registered user for assistance and to receive the printed manual, the latest registered version on disk, and free updates, please detach and mail with your check for 25.00 to: JPM Computer Products PO Box 82621 San Diego, CA 92138 California residents please add sales tax. ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of The Public (Software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. Please direct shareware payments and specific questions about this program to the author of the program, whose name appears elsewhere in this documentation. If you have trouble getting in touch with the author, we will do whatever we can to help you with your questions. 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