Quick-pick numbers win big in Feb. 2 drawing
A loyal Powerball player from Hanover who routinely plays a personal set of numbers in his favorite game will sometimes let the terminal randomly quick pick his digits. On Feb. 2, he heeded his intuition that it was time again to try a quick-pick ticket, and he won a $50,000 third-tier prize.
“I have a set of numbers I play constantly,” said the 47-year-old, who is hoping to win an even bigger prize one day so he and his wife can buy their “forever home.” On the day Lottery luck arrived, he bought his ticket at 7-Eleven #40062 located at 8251 Snowden River Parkway in Columbia.
After the Feb. 2 drawing, he checked his $4 ticket using his smartphone and initially thought he won $100 for matching four of the white balls. It turned out that he also matched the Powerball on his ticket, too. The message about his prize directed him to go to a Lottery retailer. Once at a retailer, he tried to scan the ticket in a Lottery vending machine with no luck. “It wouldn’t allow me to scan it,” he said. The store’s countertop ticket checker, however, confirmed a $50,000 prize and he quietly left the store.
“The only person who knows I won is my wife,” said the winner, who claimed his prize this week at Lottery headquarters in Baltimore. “We’re going to pay bills with the prize and keep moving forward,” he said.
The winner also plays Mega Millions, Cash4Life, scratch-offs and just tried his first FAST PLAY ticket. Powerball is his go-to game, however. He plans to keep playing his personal set of numbers in hopes of eventually winning an even bigger Powerball prize. “Once I hit the jackpot, I’m done!” he said.
The Anne Arundel County resident was one of 12 players nationwide who won third-tier prizes in the Feb. 2 drawing. No one hit the jackpot in the Feb. 7 drawing, so the estimated annuity value of the jackpot for the Wednesday, Feb. 9, drawing is $158 million. The estimated cash option is $107.8 million.
