$27.5-Million Winner Tells How It’s Done : Lottery: The accountant chose numbers that came up often, then designed a computer program to scramble them into combinations. An official just calls him ‘a very lucky man.’

A Sherman Oaks accountant, who persisted for more than a year playing a computerized Lotto “system” based on numbers he said won more frequently, Thursday calmly accepted the news that he had won $27.58 million, the richest single lottery haul in California history.

In addition, Ralph Laird said he had six entries in Wednesday’s game in which he guessed five of the six prize numbers, winning him an additional $16,354 if the numbers are confirmed by lottery officials.

A white limousine, hired for him by lottery officials, waited outside the Van Nuys state lottery building and photographers jostled for pictures of him and his family. But Laird, dressed in a conservative suit, reacted coolly to his bounty and offered no plans for a spending spree.

Laird, 58, matter-of-factly described to reporters the system that gave him the jackpot ticket with all six winning numbers--8, 39, 12, 20, 46, and 22.

Laird said that about a year ago he “just looked at the previous winning Lotto numbers” and chose 10 he said “seemed” to come up more often, then designed a program on his home computer to scramble them into every possible combination.

Lottery spokeswoman Joanne McNabb dismissed Laird’s system, saying he won because “he’s a very lucky man.

“Any statistician can tell you . . . that lottery draws are totally random,” she said.

But each week, Laird gambled between $20 and $30 on Lotto tickets at Al Weintraub’s Wines and Spirits of the World on Saugus Avenue in Sherman Oaks. He spent $26 there Wednesday night, then spread his tickets on the coffee table and watched the televised Lotto drawing.

His wife of 38 years, Carlene, was getting their 3-year-old granddaughter ready for bed in the next room, when she heard her husband say: “The fat lady sang.”

“I knew what he meant,” Carlene Laird said.

“I’ve played Lotto for a long time now, and it was really hard to imagine that we had won,” Laird said quietly.

The Lairds’ big jackpot is worth $1.34 million a year for 20 years, before taxes. Lottery officials said Laird’s first check--for $1,103,200 after a deduction for partial payment of federal taxes--will arrive in about a month.

The largest California jackpot, $68.5 million, was divided between four winners in February.

Laird, as composed as if he were discussing a client’s portfolio, announced that he will retire from his job as a financial analyst, invest his money and use it to help his three grown children further their careers and buy homes. The money probably will allow him to spend more time at Mill Station, the Chardonnay vineyard he co-owns in Sonoma County, he said.

Carlene Laird said she plans to retire from her job as a legal secretary for the Century City law firm of Gendel, Raskoff, Shapiro and Quittner. Asked what type of law she specialized in, she giggled, “Bankruptcy!”

The biggest splurge contemplated by the Lairds: remodeling a bathroom in the four-bedroom Sherman Oaks home they have owned since 1969.

Mostly, the Lairds said they want to make life more comfortable for their parents and for their grown children: David, 36, a golf pro in San Diego; John, 33, a psychology student; and Diane, 27, a fifth-grade teacher at Overland Avenue School in West Los Angeles.

Diane Wingfield and her husband, William, 25, said that they have been scraping together money for a down payment on a home since their marriage a year ago. The Lairds said that now they can help with that, as well as assisting David in getting his career established.

John Laird said he had just completed his master’s degree in psychology. “I want to go on for my Ph.D., but it’s real expensive,” he said during the news conference.

“But, big deal,” he added with a grin.

The Lairds said that they are not a particularly lucky family. “I won two mops at a Stanley party one time,” said Carlene Laird.

Ralph Laird said that despite the computer program that worked for him, he doesn’t consider himself a lottery wizard. He has not, in fact, decided how to fit his strategy to the new Lotto game, beginning Saturday, in which winners must pick six prize numbers out of 53 numbers instead of 49.

“I’m not mathematical enough to understand the difference between 49 and 53,” he said.

Weintraub, whose liquor store sold a second-place ticket last year, said the Lairds came into the store Thursday morning to tell him about their jackpot.

“I said, ‘Oh, baloney,’ because they were so calm,” Weintraub said.

Weintraub promptly called the state lottery headquarters and learned that his store had indeed sold the jackpot ticket, netting him $137,900.

Paul Nochenson, San Fernando Valley district lottery manager, said most jackpot winners are not as subdued as the Lairds, but nearly all are in shock when they learn of their instant fortunes. Eventually, the news sinks in, he said.

“Sometimes it takes a day, sometimes it takes a week, but it sinks,” said Nochenson.