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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- With a half-billion dollar jackpot at stake many were using the inner mantra, "please let it be me" today.

The powerball jackpot stood at $550 million with a cash value option of more than $360 million. This multi-state game runs in 42 states in the U.S.

Lottery officials are saying this is the second largest lottery jackpot in the world.

Lines were wrapping around stores and gas stations in Colorado Springs today.

One teller welcomed his Powerball purchasers with the exclamation, "Let's get rich!

Everyone with cash in their hand and hopes in their hearts seemed to have a strategy.

For some, it was cross your fingers and buy lots of tickets.

Others relied on the odds, saying someone has to win, so why can't it be me?

Historically just about everyone's strategy fails.

But we wondered if there is any mathematical logic that could help you win, or at least increase your chances on this insanely popular gamble.

So, we headed back to school.

Specifically to Professor Stefan Erickson's math class.

As he chalked up the blackboard with numbers and long division, we realized that figuring out these odds was pretty painful to watch.

The solution he came up with, however, is just painful.

"The probability of winning the powerball is about one in 180 million," he concluded, "and that is an astronomically high number."

Since it seems nearly all of us are losers, we sought out some stats that might make you feel better after seeing tonight's numbers.

Today you are more likely to be posessed by the devil, get hit by an asteroid, or be eaten by a flesh eating bacteria than win this jackpot.

And yes... someone actually came up with those odds.

But is that just because so many people are buying tickets? Erickson says no.

"With more people buying the tickets it doesn't change your odds of winning or losing," he explained, "what it does is it increases your chance of sharing your winnings with somebody else."

He told us there are only so many combinations of numbers, so your probability of getting the right number is actually always the same.

Tonight's numbers?

5-23-16-22-29 and the Powerball is 6.