Lottery player buys 40 Pick 4 tickets with 4-digit combination of 4444. Yes, it worked

A man in Virginia with a complicated name came up with a surprisingly simple approach to winning six figures in the Virginia Lottery.

Wassihun Woldeamanuel didn’t divulge how he got the idea, but it did have a certain logic.

“The Arlington man bought 40 plays ... each with the same four-digit combination: 4-4-4-4,” the Virginia Lottery said in an April 2 news release.

“The prize for matching all four winning numbers in the Pick 4 game is $5,000. Since he had 40 plays with the winning combination, he won a total of $200,000.”

Odds of hitting all four numbers in order are 1 in 10,000, but Woldeamanuel is in a different category after winning 40 times.

When lottery officials asked about his approach, Woldeamanuel said he “knew four is coming.”

A review of winning Pick 4 numbers dating to January 2022 suggests no previous players were inclined to gamble on just one number.

Another thing that stuck out about his win is a decision not to buy all the tickets in one place. He bought 30 at a grocery store in Arlington and 10 at a store in Alexandria, about 8 miles away, officials said.

Woldeamanuel didn’t say how he intends to spend his winnings from the Feb. 20 drawing.

Pick 4 is a game that lets players choose any four-digit numbers from 0000 through 9999.

This story was originally published April 4, 2024 at 8:34 AM with the headline "Lottery player buys 40 Pick 4 tickets with 4-digit combination of 4444. Yes, it worked."