Featuring Big Weave, 2.5 Million Dollar Lotto winner and how his life
changed after that. From lotto to sports investing story.
How did you get into sports investing?
Hey Mike, I’m Ryan but my friends call me Big Weave. A nickname I’ve
unfortunately had, but accepted, since I was a kid. I was born and raised in
Aurora, Colorado. Currently living in Centennial Colorado which is a suburb
southeast of Denver. I’m 30 years and have a four year old son. I happened
by chance to stumble onto zcode through YouTube about a month and a half
ago, before that I had been gambling, playing poker since Chris Moneymaker
won his WSOP bracelet. Heading up the hill to Central City to play hold’em,
blackjack and craps. As a kid, my neighbors dad would take us to the dog
track once or twice in the summer. He would give us each 5 bucks and let us
place bets. At first we went all in and lost and had to sit there bored, but
then we figured out we could bet the two strongest dogs on the same race,
pooling our money, splitting our winnings. At the age of 10 we were coming
up with our own little system. We called it “operation ice cream truck“. We
were two lil fat kids, don’t hate!
2. So lets get back to the 2.5 Million Dollar Lotto win. What are the chances? How did it happen?
Well my son was almost 9 months, I had just started working a new job in
roofing sales and had been at it for a little over three weeks. We had a
great first half of the month, so our boss let us off early on Saturday.
Which was great because working weekends is not fun. My son was at his
grandma’s house and my ex was at work. I had two hours before I needed to
go pick up my lil guy so I did what any good dad would do. I played call of
duty black ops and ordered a pizza. After my coma, it was 7:15, cut off for
lotto tickets was only 15 minutes away. I drove up to the same convenient
store I always went to. Walked in to see a bit of a line. Waited patiently
to pay for my Gatorade’s and get my tickets. I had 12 dollars left over in
cash and decided to play a smaller local game called cash 5. I asked the
attendant for 5 Powerball, 4 lotto and 3 cash 5. She walked up to the
machine and asked me one more time what I wanted. I decided to go for 5
lotto 4 Powerball and 3 cash 5. I paid for my items and left to go pick up
my son. I called his grandma to let her know I was on the way and she told
me they were eating dinner and watching a movie and asked if I had anything
I wanted to do. I decided to go hit a bucket of golf balls. I left the
tickets just sitting on my seat for over an hour while I tried to find my
swing. I made it back over to pick up my son and returned home around 10 pm
to see my ex’s car in the driveway. She was supposed to be at work until at
least midnight so it was strange to see her home. I put my son in his crib
and went to the basement to find her on the computer looking up after hours
urgent care phone numbers. She ended up having a very severe sinus infection
along with strep throat we later found out, this was all minimized though
for the ultimate pimp bomb that was about to be dropped. She went upstairs
to check on our son and to grab her phone. While she walked upstairs she
told me not to get on the computer that she needed the information for the
urgent care. So I did what any loving father of your child would do. I
checked my lotto numbers. Powerball nothing, cash 5 nothing and then to the
Colorado lotto ticket.
I saw the 1st number was 1 and I had that on the bottom three lines. I was
already stoked. As I’m checking she’s walking down the stairs already
complaining that she knows I’m on the computer and get off. She sat down
next to me while I checked the ticket two numbers at a time. 1..9..
11..14.. 23..34 I was speechless. I kept looking at the screen, down back
at the ticket, toward her, then back at the screen and to the ticket again.
I finally muddled “oh my god” and she said what? I looked over at her and
said “Baby I just hit the lotto” she asked what again for clarification? I
said I just hit the flippin lotto. I was expecting her to freak out and then
I would freak out and it was going to be like fireworks and jumping and
Rudy’s in the game, do you believe in miracles, the shot heard round the
world at the same time epicness. She looked over at me and I will never
forget this as long as I live and I swear by it. Her first words were “my
throat hurts” I was like Bitch ill buy you a diamond studded Ricola, I just
hit the mfin lottttooooo! In reality I said “no seriously baby I’m sorry but
I JUST HIT THE LOTTO!” I had to show her the ticket to make her believe but
it didn’t hit her and it didn’t hit me. That magical moment of what could
have been faded and it wasn’t until I talked to my uncle and mother that it
really sunk in. I had just hit the Colorado Lottery for 2.5 million dollars.
A 1 out of 5.3 million chance or the entire population of my home state
Colorado.
Before the recession really took its toll, my family had the amazing idea to
start a company and invest a majority of their life savings. Needless to say
we got our butts kicked but we did everything we could to survive. We had 72
patents including an antimicrobial silver based powder coat surface
treatment that should of set us apart but things happened the way they did
and it was to the point where my mother was being evicted at the end of
August. Most of my family had moved to Arizona to try and salvage what was
left of our soon to be dormant company. No pity party, companies fail all
the time, it’s trying again that counts. I called my uncle who was on the
highway driving home from dinner at my mom’s house. They were having a
pretty serious discussion on what was going to happen September 1st when
they were going to have to leave. When I was younger around 22 I had lived
in Arizona for a short while to try and record a demo at a professional
studio that my best friend started working for. My uncle and I would
always talk about what we would do if we won the lotto and just b.s. like
people do when the mega million gets up to 450 million. It was only fitting
that I called him first to tell him. I asked him to pull over that I needed
to tell him something. He immediately asked if my son was okay which I
replied yes to but I sent him a pic of the ticket and told him to go to the
website. There was silence followed by hysterical laughing and kind of
crying if you can imagine such a thing. He knew what this meant for my
mother and for my son.
He just said I’ll call you when I get back to your moms. Click… I then
called my father who ended up holding the ticket for me until I flew my
uncle and mom in to go to the lotto office to get the check. My uncle
called me back a short time later as he was knocking on my mom’s door. Her
thinking my uncle left something opens up the door to my uncle putting a
phone in her face saying” Ryno (another nickname) needs to talk to you”. She
immediately asks about my son which I replied he’s fine. I asked her to sit
down and told her to pack her stuff and come to Colorado that I was going to
buy her a house and everything was going to be okay! That moment is when I
realized my life was changed forever. The wave hit, the switched flipped
just like it had done almost 9 months before when I saw my son take his
first breath .
I couldn’t sleep at all that night doing the math in my head, trying to
rationalize what just happened, it was surreal. The calls and texts kept up
until midnight. I didn’t see it then but that was the start of the
craziness. I ended up driving over to my ex’s parents’ house and showing
them the ticket before I went over to my dad’s to put the signed and copied
ticket it in his safe. The lotto office wasn’t open until Monday, but I
didn’t even end up turning in the ticket and getting the check till the
Wednesday after I flew my uncle and mom in. Longest 4 days of my life! All
of a sudden, people knew of a realtor or investor or advisor or life coach
or someone that could help me out, friend of a friend status, he’ll take
care of you, you can trust him.. I had to fade the public Cliff hanger
status. At first I talked to and met with a very prominent investment firm
that tried to bully me into investments I wasn’t ready to make. People were
trying to tell me how to handle my stack. On Zcode a hundred people can
place a pick suggesting what you may want to consider or what they’re doing,
but you’re the only one that can place your bet and you’re the only one
who’s responsible for your choices.
I ended up going with a registered investment advisor, who overnighted the
check to a bank in NYC. Unless you’re in California or New York, your local
bank is FDIC and only insured up to $250,000 per account. The bank I went
with Pershing is insured up to a billion on each account. It took 6 days to
verify funds and another 3 before I got a wire transfer to my local branch
bank. The first thing I bought was an akg c414 condenser microphone on sale
at guitar center for $450 w/o the box. Great deal! I got my son a bunch of
clothes and toys, the ex a purse and myself a nice new shiny set of Callaway
razr hawk forged golf clubs..
3 and a half years later now things have finally settled down. I’ve been
through the ringer though. Lost a lot of friendships, The mother of my
child tried to divorce me even though we were never married, not even
engaged. Colorado still allows common law marriages which she exercised and
lost thankfully, but that defeat led to the bitter, vengeful, spiteful she
devil I now deal with who uses my son as a pawn to leverage and try to hurt
me. I have 50/50 custody and it sucks but I’m still grateful though, I could
only get him two days a week. I’ve come to realize that everything happens
for a reason and things have a way of working themselves out if you just do
the right thing and believe in who you are as a person.
broke next year. It was not the case for you. How did you avoid all the
temptation to waste money around and lose yourself? What did you do with the
prize?
The statistic I’ve heard is 70% of people are broke after 2 years and 85%
after 5. I’m coming up on four and am worth more then what I won. So
hopefully there is no line reversal and I’ll make it passed that benchmark.
I invested in Real Estate purchasing 3 homes 2 outright one with a mortgage
to maintain credit. I have them rented out so they provide a passive
residual income. I bought foreclosures that have appreciated over 120k total
in the last 3 years. I found good people to rent those properties that I
trust. The timing couldn’t of been better to hit the lottery as the economy
had bottomed out and we had just started making the long crawl back. Timing
is everything and sometimes it’s better to be lucky then smart because then
you can hire smarter people to leverage that luck. What was left over I put
in a Charles Schwab account and pay a guy who only makes money if I do. I
don’t have all my eggs in one basket. I try to see the angles, do the
homework, read the lines, before I do anything with that money and now I
look at it once a year like a big girl with a resolution. To put it in
perspective Lebron James makes 240k a game. 3 and half games and he’ll make
what I got by sheer luck. My son motivated me that I didn’t want to end up
like one of those curse of the lottery people who had a huge break and
wasted it away. I stayed grounded and humbled. I’m very much appreciative
and while I realize it’s a leg up and a blessing. It would be gone in just
over 2 years if I spent a thousand a day. I broke it down like that and it
scared me. I didn’t want my son to grow up thinking his dad was a douche or
a failure for having it all and losing it for whatever reason. So I went
back to work two days later, and I still have My 99 jeep and 04 maxima that
are paid off and get me through summer and winter. I bought things that
mattered to me that made me and my family happy.
Trial and error, just like zcode, just like life. I talked to people I
really trusted, who had nothing to gain and no alterior motives. You develop
a sense where you can read peoples intentions and body language and know
what they’re all about from the get go. I did my homework and watched
YouTube videos and read books. I talked to other people who had money to see
what they did. Googled everything. I was Aladdin and it was a whole new
world, but it was fun. I learned about construction, design, landscaping,
finance, investing, contracting, used math and equations I hadn’t seen or
used since high school. Learning and experimenting developing my own
personal life system, my own diversified portfolio. The life lessons and
experiences alone are worth more than every dollar I’ve won.
money. how to handle the stress?
Imagine an overwhelming exhilarating yet humbling wave of emotion and
responsibility where you’re catapulted to a CEO position of a company, you
didn’t know was going to exist until the night before. You are being
depended on, and looked to make decisions that are going to affect yours and
your families lives forever. Imagine every dynamic in your life changing in
one instance, the way people treat you, talk to you, talk about you,
everything is different. You’re still the same person but you feel the looks
and hear the whispers. Imagine friends and people you trust hurting you to
the deepest level and people you love wanting you to fail because they can’t
get what they want from you. Imagine the most isolating burden bearing
situation where you’re forced to make a decision that’s going to hurt
someone you care about no matter what while being pulled a hundred different
directions Now imagine financial freedom and the feeling of knowing your
bills are paid, that your son can go to any college he wants and you have a
head start above most people. That the American dream people bust there ass
30 years for you got with a 5 dollar quick pick and some Gatorade. The one
thing I’ve learned with the lotto and just in life is there is a balance.
There is a yang to the ying a yao to the ming. The dark and the light, the
good and evil. I’ve had the highest highs and the lowest of lows. I would
recommend not telling a single person about your new found riches. There is
something about it that makes you want to shout it from the mountain top but
resist the temptation, it only leads to drama and heartache. Stay grounded
and trust who you are. People will say anything to get under your skin or
try to bring you down. It’s only natural for people to get envious and
jealous. Do what makes you happy but understand problems are only amplified
and have more commas and zero’s in them. More money, more problems and
haters gonna hate!
I’ve always played the lotto, love to gamble. This was just the next
inevitable step. I just happened upon zcode watched 3 videos on YouTube
claiming how amazing it was, so then I looked up zcode scam and every review
I saw, said that it was back tested and mother approved and money making. I
saw the charts did a little more research and I knew it was legit, I knew I
had to try it out but just as I stated before I’m careful with my money. I
put 250$ into a 5 dimes account and in a month and a half turned it into
$1200. I am a BELIEVER! Now I should honestly have a sales job with you guys
because I rep zcode everywhere I go. If you make shirts in a XXLT let the
big dawg know.
Since joining zcode, I’ve bet everything from handball to Australian
Cricket. I’m excited for jfen baseball, but primarily bet NHL, NBA,NFL and
College Basketball. I also bet my home teams and would like to think I have
a feel for Denver U all the way up to my anti nuggets that’s been payin out
handsomely as of late. I’m still a Zcode noob, so as for tools mostly copy
and paste if you know what I’m sayin lol. The pros here are unbigweaveable,
I use the message board and read that thing top to bottom, love the
different forum topics, I’ve started analyzing why people are making the
picks they are. If I have a question on an NBA pick I go to the kiss trust
table. I also look line values, hot trends, recommendations and odds. Cliff
has got me watching line reversals and I always go back to the videos to
answer the questions that come up with learning more. Power rankings and
status as well I’m just scratching the surface on the oscillators and
predictors. Almanach is still a scary basement I don’t want to delve into.
Watch the videos, read the message board, click on every button on the site,
read the forum topics, keep track of your favorite pros although they all do
it anyway. watch the videos again rinse and repeat. change your avatar,
that’ll piss some people off. ELO is a person and doesn’t stand for
anything, I don’t think. If you have a question Cliff has a forum topic for
it. Try to listen to the advice you get with the whole starter video. In
reality you’re not going to take two weeks to learn, trial by fire, you want
to get your feet wet. If you have 100 in your bank, don’t make your bets
bigger than a 1 dollar. And don’t risk more the 25% of your bankroll. Unless
it’s a pimp bomb, ftp, legolas, jfen,murdac,valde, greg, steel combo
special. Just follow the pros and learn, this site is freakin awesome! Money
management and discipline is the key, don’t chase losses and celebrate with
the fam in all of our successes, the pros don’t have to but they take the
time to answer the same question a hundred different ways. Appreciate their
time, patience and effort they put into the picks. They’re not always right
but you will make money if you follow just a few. It’s easy to get
overwhelmed but Zcode will be your new addiction
9. My favourite question as usual: what makes great people great?
Does money make you great? Does love and admiration of friends and family
make you great? Does respect or success make you great? Does tony the tiger?
Who wants frosted flakes now? I think greatness comes when we start off
trying to do the right thing in whatever facet that may be and were
subjected to life’s hardships but still succeed in our original efforts with
integrity and peace of mind. Build a legacy, live a dream, be happy and
love! That sounds pretty great to me!
Respectfully,
Ryan
P.S. Upgrade to Zcode VIP Club and Unlock All Winning Picks. Instant Access.
