Brain Game: Pick Three

Herbert served as the neighborhood's local runner; he'd collect money and "Pick Three" lottery numbers from his neighbors and would then buy the tickets all at once. When players won, he delivered the cash and received a percentage for his trouble.

Josephine was a regular, and she seemed to win more than most of Herbert's other customers. "What's your secret?" he finally asked her. "There's no secret," winked Josephine. "I've just been lucky. But all the three-digit numbers I choose do have something in common. You can figure it out."

And she was right. That night, Herbert did some playing around with the six numbers Josephine chose that day and learned her secret. Can you?

Here were Josephine's numbers for that day: 297   429   583   616   704   836

Here is the SOLUTION.

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THE SOLUTION:

Each of the three-digit numbers that Josephine chooses is evenly divisible by 11.

297  / 11 =  27
429  / 11 =  39
583  / 11 =  53
616  / 11 =  56
704  / 11 =  64
836  / 11 =  76