Russell Bowie, of Gaithersburg, is happy X4 after playing the same Pick 5 straight-bet combination four times on the evening of July 16 for wins totaling $200,000.
He doesn’t always buy four of the exact same ticket, a Montgomery County man said Aug. 4 when he claimed a $200,000 windfall from playing Pick 5, but sometimes buying multiple tickets with the same combination feels like the right thing to do.
It was the purchase of four straight-bet Pick 5 tickets for the same drawing on July 16 that ended up bringing him to Lottery headquarters to claim four $50,000 top prizes.
“I play all three Pick games,” winner Russel Bowie explained. “And I have a list of numbers I play pretty regularly.”
Among those, Russell said, is a particular Pick 5 combination based on an old home address.
“Some of them are my favorites. When I play those, I almost always buy four of each,” he said of the favored combinations
Four Pick 5 tickets with the combination 1-1-3-2-0 were in his car when he awoke in the middle of the night on July 16.
“That was a day off, so I’d taken a nap earlier,” he said.
Finding it difficult to get back to sleep, Russell decided to check the results of that evening’s Pick 3, Pick 4 and Pick 5 drawings.
“When I saw my Pick 5 numbers, I woke up my girlfriend. I needed her glasses to be sure of what I was seeing,” he said. Upon confirmation that his eyes weren’t playing tricks, he hurried out to the car to find his tickets.
“Once I had them in my hand, there was no chance of getting back to sleep that night.”
Russell describes himself as a low-key guy, so he didn’t do any celebrating as he contemplated his $200,000 win.
“We sent up some prayers of gratitude, that’s for sure,” he added.
The four Pick 5 tickets were purchased at the 7-Eleven store at 700 Gaither Road in Rockville, so the store receives a $2,000 bonus, $500 for each $50,000 winner.
