vpFREE2 Forums

XVP - Promotional drawing strategy

#1

What is the best way to maximize opportunity in a drawing with this
scenario?
1. Drawing tickets are earned based on play.
2. You and another person are partnered in the drawing and will share
proceeds equally.
3. You and your partner will earn the same amount of tickets each day.
4. Tickets are blank, either name can be put on them before they go in the
drum.
5. Tickets earned one day can be placed in the drum on a later day.
6. There are 3 drawings per day and you can participate 5 days (2 weekend 3
midweek).
7. At each drawing 4 winners will spin a wheel for cash
8. Some winners, depending on amount won, will be invited back for a final
drawing with larger prizes.
9. Winners can win one time per day only.
10. At each drawing, tickets are drawn until four winners are present.
11. The drawing drum is emptied at the end of each day.
Would you place tickets in the drum each day to maximize drawings or would
you accumulate tickets and place all of them in the drum on the final drawing
day to maximize percentage of tickets?
Any other strategies?
Don Forsythe

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#2

DonBoats wrote:

What is the best way to maximize opportunity in a drawing with this
scenario? ... more followed.

Don, others (like Jean) have much more experience in this than I do.
However, putting in my 2 cents.

I'm going to recommend that you divide the tickets over the course of
the 3 midweek days. In saying this, I'm assuming that there will
likely be fewer entries on those days than the 2 weekend days.

This increases your expected win each of those days since you comprise
a larger percentage of the entries. Since your total expected win for
the 5 days equals the total of day daily expected wins, your total
expected win is increased by avoiding those days when your tickets
would be diluted by a greater number of total entries.

I strongly suggest you divide your tickets evenly over the course of
those 3 midweek days. With a limit of only one win each day, once you
manage a win in a drawing, the other tickets dropped become worthless
that day.

However, there's a caveat here. If you don't expect that there will
be significantly fewer entries midweek (say, at least 30% fewer), then
drop them over all 5 days -- perhaps allocating a few more on the days
you expect to be somewhat slower than others. In other words, if you
don't expect that you can boost your percentage of the total entries
on one day vs. any other day, it's more important to focus on
maximizing your shot for multiple wins.

Hope this helps and I'll certainly defer to anyone who has more
practical experience with this.

- Harry

#3

What is the best way to maximize opportunity in a drawing with

this

scenario?
1. Drawing tickets are earned based on play.
2. You and another person are partnered in the drawing and will

share

proceeds equally.
3. You and your partner will earn the same amount of tickets each

day.

4. Tickets are blank, either name can be put on them before they

go in the

drum.
5. Tickets earned one day can be placed in the drum on a later

day.

6. There are 3 drawings per day and you can participate 5 days (2

weekend 3

midweek).
7. At each drawing 4 winners will spin a wheel for cash
8. Some winners, depending on amount won, will be invited back for

a final

drawing with larger prizes.
9. Winners can win one time per day only.
10. At each drawing, tickets are drawn until four winners are

present.

11. The drawing drum is emptied at the end of each day.
Would you place tickets in the drum each day to maximize drawings

or would

you accumulate tickets and place all of them in the drum on the

final drawing

day to maximize percentage of tickets?
Any other strategies?
Don Forsythe

The best, most surefire, foolproof way to win is to treat your
entries with "George's Competing Entry Killer Fluid". When you treat
your tickets with this miracle fluid, a potent gas fills the contest
entry drum, dissolving every entry but your own! A sure-fire way to
tilt the odds in your favor! Only $2,000 for a six-ounce bottle,
complete with applicator, plus sales tax where applicable; please
include $800 shipping and handling.

But seriously, folks...it's basic that in a drawing with a fixed
prize as well as a fixed amount of winners, your EV (expected value)
goes up as the number of participants goes down. Therefore it would
most likely behoove you to dump all available tickets into the drum
on the least busy day; that would probably be Mon-Wed, depending on
the season. The worst possible use of the tickets would be to put
them in the drum on a weekend, when the competing entries are the
most numerous.

However, if you feel that all days are equal (there are the same
amount of tickets in the drum no matter what day of the week it is),
then there IS NO strategy that can increase or decrease your net
chances of a winner. You can either dump 'em all in on one day and
enjoy a large percentage chance of winning that once, or you can
spread it out.

HOWEVER AGAIN: this ignores the benefits of winning TWICE. If all
days are equal (and only if), the dump-em-in strategy is inferior
since it increases the chances that many or most of the tickets will
be "dead", that is, if you are drawn as one of the winners.
Conversely, if you spread them out over 5 days, there is a 4/5
chance that when your winner is drawn, you will still have some
tickets in action later. Putting all the tickets in one drum (again,
if all days are equal) is like buying multiple bingo cards for a
single game; ultimately a self-defeating strategy.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, DonBoats@a... wrote:

#4

rockofjello333 wrote:

The best, most surefire, foolproof way to win is to treat your
entries with "George's Competing Entry Killer Fluid". When you treat
your tickets with this miracle fluid, a potent gas fills the contest
entry drum, dissolving every entry but your own! A sure-fire way to
tilt the odds in your favor!

This approach has a modest downside: When the few hundred people
standing around the drum notice that there are remarkably few tickets
in the drum (and perhaps a few remants of "dissolved" tickets", and
then your name is likely drawn multiple times in the 4 tickets drawn
that round, there's risk of a "Rodney King" being inflicted upon you
as tempers flare.

···

------

Concerning the balance of your reply ... It's nice to see that we're
reading from the same book for a change :wink:

- H.