Giving birth to identical quintuplets more likely than nabbing Powerball win

Chances are a lot of people will tune in Saturday to see the results of the U.S. Powerball lottery, including many Canadians.

The largest jackpot in U.S. history is at almost $1.3 billion Cdn, to be paid over 29 years or as a one-time lump sum of around $790 million Cdn.

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However, the odds of winning are "astronomically small" at one in 292.2 million, said Scott Norris, an assistant professor of mathematics at Southern Methodist University.

"It's probably still not going to happen if you buy a hundred tickets or a thousand tickets or even a million tickets," he said.

Jeffrey Miecznikowski, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Buffalo, said the odds are "dare say impossible," adding winning the Powerball is about as likely as flipping a coin and having it land on heads 28 times in a row.

In other words, chances of winning the Powerball lottery are slim.

Here are a few things more likely to happen.

Maple Leafs winning Stanley Cup

According to Vegas, the betting odds for the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup this season is 100 to one — the lowest for any Canadian NHL team — and a slightly better 50 to one chance of winning the Eastern Conference.

If you were to put down $2 US, the cost of one Powerball lottery ticket, on the blue and white to win it all, you would rake in $200, or about $280 Cdn.

The Leafs, who haven't won a Cup since 1967 and have only qualified for the playoffs once since the 2004-05 lockout-shortened season, are currently in thirteenth place in the 16-team Eastern Conference.

Being dealt a royal flush

The chance of playing five-card draw poker and being dealt a royal flush, or five sequential cards from 10 to ace in the same suit, is one in 650,000. The odds of landing the unbeatable poker hand in Texas hold'em are one in 31,000.

Even if you somehow defy the odds and get the luck of the draw, you aren't guaranteed to win a Powerball-like jackpot. An amateur poker player in England once scored two royal flushes in one hour on the same night, but was not able to win the tournament, leaving with just over $300 in winnings.

Rolling up the rim to win a car

The chance of winning a doughnut or coffee in the Tim Hortons' seasonal Roll Up the Rim promotion is one in six. 

​Some have claimed buying larger coffee sizes increase the chances of winning, but a software developer who analyzed about 4,000 winning Roll Up the Rim cases determined the theory to be untrue.

To win a car is much tougher.

The popular coffee chain, which in 2014 started giving customers the chance to roll up twice, said the chance of winning one of those is one in seven million. 

Birthing identical quintuplets

The miracle of birth becomes even more miraculous when it comes to identical quadruplets, but that is exactly what happened to a Calgary couple in 2007.

J.P. and Karen Jepp gave birth to four girls — Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia — at a U.S. hospital, due to Calgary's only neonatal intensive care unit being full.  

Statistically, the chances of giving birth to four identical babies at the same time are one in 13 million, which is still 20 times more likely to happen than winning the Powerball lottery.

John Mellencamp winning an Oscar

"If anyone gives you 10,000 to one on anything, you take it," said accountant Kevin Malone, a fictional character on the comedy show The Office. "If John Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I am going to be a very rich dude."