Jim predicts the lottery

This morning Derren Brown announced to the world that this Wednesday night he is going to predict the lottery results before they happen. Everyone’s favourite Jim had an idea, and reckons that he too can predict lottery numbers before they are drawn, using pasta and potatoes. So, here we are. Derren Brown has cast a gauntlet down, which I think I can take. He says he’s going to predict the lottery draw on Wednesday, and almost guarantees that he’ll get five out of six numbers correct. 

Well, I reckon I can predict lottery numbers before they’re drawn, and I KNOW I can get five out of six correct. 

Let’s see how we get on. 

How did I do it?

Provided you’re sufficiently amazed at my psychic abilities, you’ll now be wondering how I was able to correctly guess five out six of the numbers I drew from the pasta lottery draw, it’s a variation on an old ‘mind-reading’ trick, and it’s bloody simple.

I cheated.

Of course I cheated, everyone cheats. There’s no actual way to predict a lottery draw, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

So here’s how I did it.

I only actually had to guess one number, the first number. See if you can guess which number that was… yes… it was 28.
I wrote 28 on the first potato, then put it in the pot.
I then drew the first number in the pasta lottery, which was 24.
I then ‘predicted’ the second number in the pasta lottery, but what I was really doing was writing 24 on a potato.
I then drew the second number of the pasta lottery, which was 9, and I then wrote it on a potato as my prediction for the third number.
You can see the pattern now.
Once all the numbers were drawn I took them out of the sealed potato pot randomly, and announced them to the camera.

Job done.

I must stress though, that I do not believe for one minute that this is how Derren Brown will accomplish his feat on Wednesday, as this is far too cheap. We’ll have to wait and see.

UPDATE

I thought it would be crazy not to, so I bought a lottery ticket with the numbers I drew from the pasta draw. Fingers crossed everyone!

Just in case you didn’t see it on TV, here’s a decent YouTube version:

There are a few theories out there, ranging from sleight of hand (ridiculous) to camera trickery (too easy). I’m intrigued as to how it was done, I don’t know but am looking forward to Friday’s show.