The winning numbers: 32, 43, 53, 55 and 56, with a Powerball of 6. Saturday's jackpot reboots to $40 million.
That leaves Mega Millions with its $290 million jackpot - $205 million in cash - in prime position to soar, even before Friday night's drawing.
Although no one hit all the numbers drawn Tuesday night - 1, 4, 6, 11 and 14, with a Mega Ball of 30 - a whopping 68 tickets missed only the Mega Ball, including one $250,000 winner purchased at a 7-Eleven on East Street Road in Feasterville, Bucks County, and another at CNBC News in Terminal at Philadelphia International Airport.
Jersey had five such winners, but all well north of Trenton.
Jackpots this big often fuel such frenzied sales that the original estimate gets a premature boost. Last March, a $304 million jackpot was bumped up to $312 million on the Friday of the drawing.
If Mega Millions rolls over again, expect a historic jackpot. In March 2007, a $275 million annuity jackpot exploded to the all-time U.S. record of $390 million.
New Jersey won half of that, as a Cape May County couple and a Georgia trucker split $233.1 million cash.
The cash jackpot is even more likely to set a record, since it's already the fifth biggest all-time. (For list of Top 20, go to http://bit.ly/GI1iaW.)
In Wednesday's drawing, only a single Connecticut ticket won the runner-up prize of $1 million for matching the first five numbers.
For more information, including how to claim a prize, go to www.philly.com/philly/news/lottery, www.njlottery.net. or www.palottery.com.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.
