Steve's Stat Chat

Author: Steve

Magic City Short-Meet Doubles Tournament Down to the Wire!

Posted on April 14, 2022April 14, 2022 by Steve

Sunday, April 17^th marks the final day of the 2022 short-meet Pelota games Doubles Tournament and 5 of the 12 tournament teams are still in contention for first or second place prize money with only two doubles games remaining. Tournament cash prizes are awarded to the top two teams with the most wins.

Currently, the team of Ikeda-Bradley with 9-wins has a 2-win lead over second place contenders Juice-Manu with 7-wins who have a shot at a tie for first should they win both games 5 and 7. The teams of Carballo-Kubala and Jeden-Goixerri each have 6-wins and a shot at outright 2^nd place should one of them win both games; or a possible tie for 2^nd should they win one game. Robin-Ben with 5-wins still have a shot at a tie for 2^nd should they win both games 5 and 7.

Tuesday is the final day of the short 10-week Pelota game meet and even though this first doubles tournament of 2022 ends on Sunday, there will still be doubles games on Monday and Tuesday, however a few of the teams will feature different doubles pairings on those days. There will be a short break in the exciting Jai-Alai action until the Magic City Jai-Alai Pelota and H2H games resume on Sunday, May 1^st.

The table below shows the top teams in contention for the first 2022 Doubles Tournament, post numbers (PN) the teams are playing from for both doubles games 5 & 7 along with comments on their possible outcomes. Should there be any ties, Magic City COO Scott Savin will be weighing in with the tie-breaker decisions.

World Super Court 2nd Qualifier Results – Erik-Manu did not disappoint!

Posted on April 13, 2022April 22, 2022 by Steve

Despite not having played competitively on US soil since Dania closed in November last year, the team of Erik-Manu had a strong showing at Magic City in the 2^nd World Super Court qualifying event at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami today. The team of Erik-Manu (also known as the top doubles team of Erik-Ladutxe from Dania) won all 3-matches in straight-set victories over their opponents to capture the top 2^nd qualifier prize of $2,000 along with one of the 8-spots in the $50k World Super Court finals at Magic City on October 13^th where the first place team wins $25,000 and second pays $12,000!

Erik-Manu handily outscored the Filipino team of Robin-RonRon 6-0, 6-0 in the first round match and won 6-5, 6-2 against Jairo-Nicolas in the second round. The first set against Jairo-Nicolas was won by Erik-Ladutxe after Jairo lost his footing when they were tied at 5-5. That first set was a 21-minute set which is one of the longest sets in H2H style Jai-Alai matches where there’s 3-sets to a match, with sets to 6-points (first team to 6-points wins the set), and the first team to win 2-sets wins the match.

The Magic City Jai-Alai brother’s team of Inaki-Julen (also known as Goitia-Julen, Goitia the name Inaki played under at Dania) faced off against Erik-Manu in the final match of the 2^nd WSC Qualifier after they had beaten Bueno-Nicolas and Carballo-Arta. This was another great match for viewers and did not come easy for Erik-Manu who won the first two sets 6-3 and 6-5, almost going to a 3^rd set. Inaki-Julen also advance to the WSC Finals at Magic City on October 13^th and won the 2^nd place prize of $1,000 for their incredible effort today.

The 3^rd match in today’s first round was an outstanding match of abilities between Dania’s Zulaika-Arrieta and Magic City player Carballo paired with Arta and is a must see match for fans around the world of all types of Jai-Alai. The Magic City team of Carballo-Anderluck was initially slated to play, but was changed early in the week to Carballo-Arta when Anderluck scratched for the 2^nd WSC event. The 6’3” Arta had played at Dania in both front court and back court positions in early games and in the last month has done judging for Magic City Jai-Alai. The Carballo-Arta team had little practice together and lost a hotly contested first set 6-5 against Zuliaka-Arrieta, both late game Dania players, however, Carballo-Arta won the next two sets 6-3, 6-5, winning the match to proceed further in today’s qualifier. They lost their next match in 2-sets, 4-6 and 1-6, to the Magic City brother’s team of Inaki-Julen. Teams that won their first round sets today are eligible to compete again in future qualifiers if there are open spots.

The Erik-Manu team has vast experience playing together and is considered one of the best, if not the best, Jai-Alai doubles teams in the world. Their late game doubles team record playing in pari-mutuel games at Dania from September of 2018 through November of 2021 is impressive when one considers there are 8-teams in each pari-mutuel game played. The late game team record is 151-53-29-20 for an incredible 35.1% wins while an average team would have 12.5% wins, thus Erik-Manu were 2.8-times better than the average late-game team at Dania.

Today’s two qualifying teams will join the two brother’s teams of Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny who qualified at the 1^st WSC Qualifier event at Magic City on February 16^th. The 3^rd Qualifier is at Magic City on June 8^th at 3-pm EST and the 4^th Qualifier is expected to be at a location in Spain in September, exact date/time TBD, at a court similar in size to the Magic City fronton short-court (120’ long x 40’ wide).

To view the replay of the WSC Qualifier II on watchjaialai.com, CLICK HERE

Here is a detailed scoring of all the matches for this 2^nd WSC Qualifier event, compliments of SayHiLi.com’s Battle Court / H2H Jai-Alai Sports Writer Jabracadabra (aka Joel A.):

Magic City Jai-Alai 2022 Week 8 Update – Carballo, Carballo, Carballo!

Posted on April 6, 2022April 8, 2022 by Steve

Another incredible week of Magic City pelota games concluded on Tuesday, April 5^th at Magic City Jai-Alai at the Magic City Casino in the Magical City of Miami, Florida. The exciting Jai-Alai action keeps getting better and better!

Carballo won the Golden Cesta Award for week 8 for the most singles wins for the week, scoring wins in 3 of his 8-singles games. This is his 7^th GCA in his Magic City Jai-Alai career and that secures him the spot of 3^rd most GCA’s right behind Douglas with 34 and RonRon with 16. Click Here to view the Golden Cesta Award history for Magic City Jai-Alai.

The team of Carballo-Kubala also scored victories in 3 of their 4-doubles games for week 8 in the first doubles tournament of 2022. This is significant as they now have 6-team wins in this big money tournament and are only 1-win behind the teams of Ikeda-Bradley and Juice-Manu which have 7-wins each. Since this tourney ends on Sunday, April 17^th there are only 4-days left in the tourney which means each of the 12-tourney teams has only 5 or 6 chances left to win a doubles victory. The first place team wins $10,000 while the second place team splits $5,000. Click Here to view the complete doubles team chart for the first tourney for 2022.

Carballo leads the 2022 singles championship for the player with the most singles wins for the year. He currently has 15-singles wins and Bueno is on his tail with 14-wins. Third place with 11 wins is Goixerri. Click Here to view the complete singles wins chart for 2022.

The combined singles and doubles records is shown below for those fans who like to mix the talents of the Magic City roster. This chart also shows Carballo, Carballo and Carballo for most wins, top % Wins and top % ITM, plus an amazing 48.2% in-the-quiniela!

All Games 2022 thru 04-05-2022 at Magic City Jai-Alai

Steve M.

World Super Court 2nd Qualifier is April 13th: Here’s the Matches!

Posted on April 5, 2022April 11, 2022 by Steve

The $50K World Super Court 2nd qualifying event will be held at the Magic City Casino Jai-Alai fronton on Wednesday, April 13th at 3-pm. Here are the teams for the first 4-matches which were drawn today for the first round of the qualifier event on Wednesday:

Erik-Manu vs Robin-RonRon

Jairo-Nicolas vs Jeden-Ben

Zulaika-Arrieta vs Anderluck-Carballo

Inaki-Julen vs Bueno-Kubala

These matches will be played using the H2H format and can be seen on watchjaialai.com. There will be a total of 7-matches on Wednesday. The top two teams will advance to the WSC Finals where they will join the teams of Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny who qualified at the 1st WSC Qualifier. The 3^rd Qualifier is on June 8^th at Magic City and the 4^th Qualifier is slated for a date TBD in September in Spain on a court of similar size to Magic City. The World Super Court Finals featuring the top 8-teams is October 13^th at Magic City. The World Super Court Finals first place team wins $25,000 while the 2^nd place team wins $12,500. World Super Court can be viewed on all platforms except YouTube’s The Jai-Alai Channel which is reserved for Magic City Pelota (pari-mutuel games).

Steve M.

Magic City Pelota Stats thru Week 7

Posted on March 31, 2022March 31, 2022 by Steve

Ikeda won the Golden Cesta Award for Week 7 for the Magic City Casino pelota games (aka pari-mutuel games) by scoring 3-victories in his 6-singles games. Three other players were tied with 2-wins; Bueno, Carballo and Manu. This was Ikeda’s 5^th Golden Cesta Award since joining the Magic City roster (Click Here for Golden Cesta stats)

Bueno, Carballo and Douglas had the highest %ITM for the week in singles with 66.7% each. Overall highest singles win % for the year in singles is held by Carballo with 28.6%. Carballo also has the highest % ITM and and % ITQ (in the quiniela or win/place combined). Current leaders of the 2022 Singles Championship are Bueno and Carballo with 12-wins each followed by Goixerri with 10-wins and Douglas with 9-wins. The latest week ending singles stat chart is shown HERE (under Wagering Info, Entries Results Stats & More, Magic City Singles Championship). The Singles Championship ends in November.

The doubles team of Juice-Manu had the best record for the week with two wins and a place in their four appearances while Anderluck-Benny were next best with one win and two places in their four appearances. Overall in this first doubles tourney for 2022 which ends 4/19, the teams of Ikeda-Bradley and Juice-Manu are tied for the lead with 7-wins each. Next best is Jeden-Goixerri with 5-wins followed by Anderluck-Benny and Robin-Ben with 4-wins each. Each team has just 12-games left to play before this first tournament ends, so we expect some more great action-packed doubles games till the end. The stat chart for the first tourney through 3/29 is shown HERE (under Wagering Info, Entries Results Stats & More, Magic City Doubles Tournaments).

Overall singles and doubles stats are shown below. Carballo leads with 16 total wins and 4-players are tied with 15; Bradley, Bueno, Goixerri and Ikeda. Ikeda leads with 23.1% for the highest win percentage and also has the highest % ITM with 55.4%. The combined stats are shown below:

The Jai5 Jackpot was nailed by one lucky bettor on Monday’s pelota games for $12,426 so the Jackpot wager started out anew for Tuesday with the $2,000 minimum guarantee. The mandatory payout for the Jai5 and the Mighty Ocho is the last day of the 2022 initial short meet on Tuesday, April 19^th.

Steve M.

Wall Street Journal Article on Magic City Casino’s Jai-Alai

Posted on March 30, 2022March 30, 2022 by Steve

READ IT HERE

Magic City Jai-5 Jackpot Hit for $12,426!

Posted on March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 by Steve

Jai-5 Will-Pays for Game 7 at Magic City on 3/28/2022

One lucky bettor nailed the $1.00 Jai-5 Jackpot wager at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami for a cool $12,426 at Monday’s pelota performance on Monday, 3/28. This was the second largest payoff in Magic City history since the challenging Jackpot wager began in 2019. The Jackpot had swelled to $9,690.80 going into today’s performance and had gone 15-performances without a single winner since last won on February 20th for $2,000.

The winning numbers were 7-1-2-6-8 for games 3-7. Ikeda, a crowd favorite and strong mid-games singles player, won both game 3 and game 4 singles to kick-off the sequence. Game 5 doubles game was won by the team of Juice-Manu from the lucrative 2-post. Game 6 late game singles, a feature game with the strongest players, was won by Douglas in a perfect runout style from post 6. The game 7 finale, another doubles game, was also a perfect game runout by the team of Anderluck-Nicolas from post 8. Anderluck was substituting for Diaz in the front court who was scratched for today’s games.

All posts were covered for a 5 of 5 winner except for post 7, the team of Bueno-Julen, which would have paid $71.90 for a 4 of 5 consolation payoff had they won the game. Posts 1 and 4 had multiple tickets with 5 of 5 winners had they won. The Jackpot Jai-5 would have carried-over to Tuesday’s performance had the 1,4 or 7 post won the game. The Jai-5 Jackpot wager rules dictate there must be a SINGLE winning ticket with 5 of 5 winners for the entire jackpot to be paid out. Had post 1 won the game it would have paid a consolation payout of $683.80 to 2-different winners while post 4 would have paid a consolation payout of $455.80 to 3-different 5 of 5 winners. Posts 2,3,5,6,8 were all single winning ticket will-pays for $12,426 each. A total of $3,419 was wagered on the Jai-5 for Monday’s performance.

The Jackpot wager starts out at $0 for Tuesday’s pelota performance at 1:30-pm EST, however, it has a minimum guaranteed Jackpot of $2,000 should there be a single winning ticket with 5 of 5.

SayHiLi.com website shows a complete listing of all the BIG PAYOFFS during the history of Magic City Jai-Alai for both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho Jackpot wagers.

Steve M.

Magic City Jai-5 Wager Could Pay Over $12,500 Today!

Posted on March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 by Steve

The $1.00 Jai-5 wager at Magic City Jai-Alai pelota games could pay over $12,500 at the Monday matinee today should a single winner hit all 5-winners correctly! Currently, the jackpot carryover for the Jai-5 stands at $9,690.80 and if Monday’s bettors pour in another $3,553 like they did on Sunday’s Jai-5, the wager could pay the 2^nd highest price ever in Magic City history. There were (6) winning tickets at Sunday’s pelota games that paid a consolation payoff of $236.80 each for having 4 of 5 winners correctly picked.

Sunday marked the 15^th consecutive performance where no bettor successfully won the ONLY winning ticket with 5 of 5 winners. There were no live tickets 4 of 4 going into the game 7 wager finale on Sunday for the Jai-5 wager which is games 3-7. The previous record number of performances without a winner was 16-consecutive performances back in 2021 from 2/28 – 4/4. The record Jai-5 paid $27,348 to one lucky winner the following day on 4/5/2021.

The 2^nd largest Jai-5 payoff in Magic City history was $12,220 on 11/13/2019 and today’s Jai-5 looks like it could break that record if someone scores the big win today. The 3^rd largest Jai-5 payoff was $11,746.40 on 8/17/2021. SayHiLi.com website shows a complete listing of all the BIG PAYOFFS during the history of Magic City Jai-Alai for both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho Jackpot wagers.

The Jai-5 wager is a “low takeout” wager with 20% of the total amount wagered for the performance going to the house for expenses and state fees, 40% going to consolation payoffs and the other 40% getting added to the Jackpot carryover. Typical takeout rates for most Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagers are 25% (excluding win/place/show bets which are lower yet), however Magic City offers the low takeout rate of 20% for Daily Doubles, Pick 3’s, plus the Jai-5 and Mighty Ocho (the$1.00 Pick 8 Jackpot wager). When a bettor holds the ONLY winning ticket 5 of 5, they get the carryover jackpot plus 80% of what was wagered on the Jai-5 for that performance.

Stay tuned for more on this rapidly growing Jai-5 Jackpot! Only at Magic City Casino and Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida!!

Steve M.

Odds of Jai-5 Getting Hit for a Single Winner Sunday?

Posted on March 27, 2022March 27, 2022 by Steve

Here’s some Jai-5 statistics since its debut in August 2019:

2019 – 2021: 454 Jai-5 events

29x multiple 5/5 winners (6.4%)

120x single 5/5 winner (26.4%)

2022: 17 Jai-5 events, harder to win with more balanced roster

1x multiple 5/5 winners (5.9%) hit on 1st day of season

1x single 5/5 winner (5.9%) hit 3rd day of season with only $488 total wagered

Based on these 471 Jai-5 events overall from 2019 thru 2022 to date, it’s approximately four times more likely there will be a single winner 5/5 vs multiple winners 5/5.

471 total Jai-5 events produced (30) multiple 5/5 winners and (121) single Jackpot winners.

Based on 2022 history to date, it’s unlikely the Jai-5 Jackpot will be hit tomorrow, but should it be hit it’s more likely to pay closer to $10k than $9k to a single winner as the carryover is $8,269.60 and 80% of what’s wagered gets added to the carryover if there’s a single winner. Through the grapevines I’ve heard there will be some significant action on Jai-5 Sunday, but I would still be surprised if 5/5 is hit with the talent level change for 2022 making it more challenging compared to the past. It’s definitely a very high risk wager because the most you can collect if you aren’t the single winner 5/5 is 40% of what is wagered if you hold ALL of the consolation tickets for 3/5 or 4/5 (very doubtful it pays 2/5). In the unlucky event you and one other person each have 5/5, the most you can collect for the 5/5 consolation is 20% of what is wagered that day.

Another point of interest is consolations with 3 of 5 winners paid out on 21.4% of events for 2020 – 2021 while 2022 so far has paid on 3 of 5 winners for 21.4% of events.

Steve M (aka straymar)

Magic City Pelota Stats & CRB Wins Golden Cesta Award Week 6!

Posted on March 23, 2022March 23, 2022 by Steve

Another great week of exciting Magic City Jai-Alai concluded Tuesday, March 22nd with CRB capturing the Golden Cesta Award for the most singles wins for the week. His two wins in his six singles games along with a 66.7% ITM was enough to edge-out the victory against Carballo who also had 2-wins and tied with highest win percentage, but fell short on the ITM tie-breaker with 50%. Congratulations to CRB for his solid play which paid-off in week 6!

Here are the singles stats for 2022 through March 22nd for all players. The %ITQ stat (in the Quiniela) has been added to the far right column to assess top two finishes for the players. Three players are tied with 10-wins in the 2022 Singles Championship which is won by the player with the most wins for the year; Bueno, Carballo and Goixerri. Carballo has an incredible 58.3% for top two finishes while Goixerri is 2nd with a respectable 47.1%

The action-packed doubles games (games 5 & 7) also referred to as “Dodging Death” at Magic City Jai-Alai continue to be led by Ikeda-Bradley with (6) team wins while Juice-Manu have closed-in with (5) team victories through Tuesday. Jeden-Goixerri are third with (4) wins and three other teams have (3) wins each. Here is a snapshot comparing all 12-teams in this first 2022 Doubles Tournament.

This next data snapshot combines singles and doubles games for all players and currently two players are leading with 14-wins; Carballo and Goixerri.

The Jai-5 Jackpot wager was not won during Week 6 and has $8,269.60 in the jackpot carryover for Sunday’s March 27th performance when exciting Pelota Games with pari-mutuel wagering returns for Week 7 at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami. The largest Jai-5 in Magic City history was won by one lucky bettor for a whopping $27,348 last year! You must be the ONLY winner to score the entire jackpot on this popular wager. CLICK HERE for the BIG JACKPOT PAYOFF HISTORY at Magic City Jai-Alai.

Steve M (aka straymar)

Chris Cote – Owner of Cesta Cyclones! Check out this article!

Posted on March 21, 2022March 21, 2022 by Steve

The owner of the winning Battle Court squad earns $50,000 for the charity of their choice. READ MORE HERE!

Magic City Pelota Games Wrap-Up Another Fantastic Week of Jai-Alai Action!

Posted on March 17, 2022March 17, 2022 by Steve

Week 5 of the 2022 pelota games 10-week short-meet just concluded on March 15 at Magic City Casino. The Magic City 10-week short-meet started on February 14 and concludes on April 19^th, however there is much more exciting Jai-Alai that continues through November. Here is the latest scoop and stats on these pelota games, also known as the pari-mutuel wagering games, which are Sunday through Tuesday with eight action-packed games each day at 1:30-pm EST.

Jai-5 Jackpot ($1.00 Pick 5 wager) is now at $5,436.80 and hasn’t been won for 11-consecutive performances. This jackpot bet is starting to get some big action. The entire jackpot can only be paid out when there is a single winner with all 5-winners correctly selected from games 3-7. One bettor had the 6-post live in game 7 on Tuesday’s performance, the team of Ikeda-Bradley, to take down the entire jackpot. Ikeda-Bradley needed to win two more double points (4-points more) in this game for that bettor, but were unable to score the win so the jackpot survives for Sunday, March 20 and could possibly pay over $7,000. There were three winning tickets paying a consolation payoff on 4/5 winners for a healthy $313.40 each on Tuesday.

Juice scored his first singles game win for 2022 and treated fans to one of his famous back-flips; gotta love the energy and excitement when Juice wins! There are still three players who have yet to win their first singles game win for 2022; Kubala (0 for 28), Nicolas (0/26) and El Barba (0 for 12). El Barba only recently returned two weeks ago after missing the first three weeks while recovering from a knee procedure in the off-season.

The Golden Cesta Award, a non-monetary award to the player(s) with the most singles games for the week found the first time occurrence of 3-players who each had 2-wins, were all tied with the highest win % (33.3) and tied with the highest % ITM (50.0). Those players were Goixerri, Jeden and Robin. Goixerri was eliminated on a 3rd tiebreaker of place % as Jeden & Robin each had a place, but Goixerri didn’t but had a show finish. Congratulations Jeden and Robin! Golden Cesta Award summary and weekly results are shown here on SayHiLi site: Link for Golden Cesta Awards

The 2022 short-meet Singles Championship is currently being led by Bueno with 10-wins (10 of 37). Goixerri is second with 9-wins (9 of 28) and Carballo is third with 8-wins (8 of 30). Magic City superstar Douglas is currently fourth with 7-wins (7 of 28). Bueno is an above-average mid-games player who plays in games 3 and 4. Bueno had been benefiting on singles wins by filling in for El Barba in early game singles (games 1,2) due to Barba’s late start at the beginning of the meet and by substituting for Cool Fitness in those same early games because of Cool’s hamstring injury. Bueno has scored half of his 10-singles wins in early games (5 of 11 in early games).

Note that the entries for the upcoming week do not have Bueno listed as playing in games 1 or 2 nor is he listed as a substitute for those games. Mid-game players Anderluck and Kubala are playing in games 1 and 2 for Cool Fitness and mid-game players Bradley and Ben are listed as the program subs for those games in this coming week. The return date for Cool Fitness is TBD.

Juice not only scored his first singles win in Week 5, but the doubles team of Juice-Manu were the only team to score two victories in the first 2022 doubles tournament which spans the 10-week short meet. Each of the 12-teams plays four times during the six doubles games each week. The Ikeda-Bradley team still lead the tourney with 5-wins after getting off to a quick start early in the season. Second place is held by Jeden-Goixerri with 4-wins. Third place is a 3-way tie between Anderluck-Benny, Carballo-Kubala and Juice-Manu. The only winless teams are Diaz-Nicolas (0 for 17) and Cool Fitness-Aratz (0 for 7). Cool Fitness and partner Aratz only had 7-appearances when Cool suffered his hamstring injury.

Here are some more stats for the short-season to date:

Singles games % ITM leaders: Carballo 66.7%, Goixerri 60.7%, Ikeda 53.8%

Doubles games % ITM leaders: Inaki-Tennessee 55.0%, Ikeda-Bradley 52.6%, Jeden-Goixerri 47.4%

Overall games % Wins: Goixerri 27.7%, Carballo 23.5%, Ikeda 22.2%

Overall games % ITM: Carballo 58.8%, Goixerri 55.3%, Ikeda 53.3%

Don’t forget to get your FREE fantasy contest entry in for the 15-Battle Court H2H matches for Sunday through Tuesday for the coming week! Should you get all 15-winners there’s a $1,000 cash prize (split if multiple winners). Also, attend the live performance on Sunday for pelota games and the awesome H2H matches where H2H attendees get a FREE shot at the “5 AT 5” contest where contestants who pick all 5-match winners split $1,000. Plus, don’t forget about the big Jai-5 Jackpot for Sunday’s pelota games!

Steve M.

Join El Barba and Paulie for H2H Matches and Live-Chat on Twitch!

Posted on March 15, 2022March 15, 2022 by Steve

Magic City’s Scott Savin now reaches even more Jai-Alai viewers through Twitch, an interactive livestreaming service for content spanning gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more. Fans can watch and listen to pelota game player, El Barba (Dennis Dalton), along with former Jai-Alai announcer, Paulie, and chat with them while watching live H2H sports betting games at Magic City. Paulie is the originator of the Jai-Alai announcing phrase “the pad is bad.” Paulie is also known for saying “macho picchu” when shots hit OB into the upper screen.

I signed up for Twitch yesterday morning to join the chat for Monday’s H2H games to find out more. The FREE sign-up was easy and after going to https://www.twitch.tv/watchjaialai.

The duo is featured in a small screen on the bottom left of the H2H live-match screen where fans can watch the matches, watch them and hear them, while still hearing Stu and Andrew announcing at a lower volume in the background. Viewers who have signed-up can even join the chat and ask El Barba and Paulie questions and get answers. This is your opportunity to ask this Twitch Jai-Alai announcing duo your Jai-Alai questions and read what the other chatters are saying. Yesterday was National Pi Day and El Barba even gave his top 10 types of pie in a countdown from 10 to 1 during the broadcast. The pair is also evaluating the best doubles match plays in an interesting way and you will have to check-in to find out more about that! Turns out El Barba even knows a lot about Bitcoin.

All in all I found it interesting and today El Barba will be announcing the teams for the 2^nd World Super Court qualifier at Magic City on April 13^th at 3-pm EST.

Steve M.

Six Tough Matches for Battle Court H2H Sports Betting this Week

Posted on March 12, 2022March 12, 2022 by Steve

Sunday Match 2 – Ben vs Jeden

Betrivers has Jeden favored to win (-127 vs +103). Jeden plays the early games for the pelota games while Ben is a mid-game player. Ben makes some amazing catches and won most-improved player for Magic City’s 2021 meet. Not surprised if Ben upsets in this match.

Sunday Match 5 – Joseph-Manu vs Robin-Ben

Betrivers has Robin-Ben favored to win (-155 vs +125). Manu is former Dania player Ladutxe, one of the top back-court Jai-Alai players in the world and he’s been adjusting better to the Magic City short-court in his recent games. This match is closer than the betting line indicates and should be a good one!

Monday Match 1 – Julen vs Robin

Betrivers has Julen favored to win (-125 vs +100). Look for a possible upset here as Robin, a former Dania player, is a shot-maker looking to end the point quickly with his kill shots. Even though Julen is a late-game Magic City pelota player and Robin is a mid-game player, Julen is one of the weaker late-gamers while Robin is in the upper half of mid-gamers.

Monday Match 4 – Goixerri-Kubala vs Inaki-Nicolas

Betrivers has a slight edge for Inaki-Nicolas (-118 vs -106). This should be an awesome match to watch and is almost a virtual tie on the betting line. The Goixerri-Kubala team showed great teamwork in their last match and will be a tough cookie to crumble. Goixerri had the most overall wins in the Magic City pelota games last week and is tied with the amazing Douglas for most wins in the feature pelota singles games (games 6&8) for 2022 to-date. Both Inaki and Nicolas have been finding their groove and playing better too. Flip the coin on this match.

Tuesday Match 2 – CRB vs Jeden

Betrivers gives the edge to Jeden (-134 vs +108). CRB is currently in the top two players for early game pelota games at Magic City and has been out-performing Jeden in those games (games 1&2). Jeden’s strength sometimes finds him making unforced errors. This match is much closer than the betting line indicates.

Tuesday Match 5 – CRB-Douglas vs Jeden-Manny

Betrivers gives the edge to CRB-Douglas (-125 vs +100). CRB-Douglas are also teamed for the Magic City pelota games first doubles tournament for the 2022 short-meet. They are ranked 11^th of 12 teams for ITM finishes (in-the-money) so far since the Feb 14^th opening day and have been struggling. Douglas is a top player at Magic City while Manny is perhaps one of the best catchers, waiting for opponents to make a mistake. This match will be one to watch with the amazing court-positioning abilities of both Douglas and Manny. Flip a coin on this doubles match too.

Are You Ready for Some Jai-Alai? Pelota Games & H2H Matches!

Posted on March 11, 2022March 11, 2022 by Steve

Magic City’s popular Pelota games and Battle Court H2H Jai-Alai matches continue with Week 5 of the incredible action on Sunday at 1:30-pm EST for Pelota games (aka pari-mutuel wagering games) and 5-pm EST for the Battle Court H2H matches. H2H Jai-Alai matches are Head-to-Head matches between two singles players or two doubles teams and represent the new and exciting sports betting version of Jai-Alai wagering that has been spreading and increasing in popularity. Both of these versions of Jai-Alai are played at Magic City Casino on Sunday through Tuesday and live customer viewing is allowed on Sunday only with doors opening at 1-pm.

Jai-Alai Pelota wagering can be done at the Magic City Sports Club or in the Jai-Alai fronton area on Sundays, numerous simulcast sites and with on-line ADW betting services watchandwager.com and mywinners.com (some state restrictions apply).

Sports betting at this time is exclusively through Betrivers.com and is currently approved and operating in the states of AZ, CO, IA, IL, NJ, PA, VA. Betting on Jai-Alai is similar to betting on tennis, or even ping-pong. You can bet on match winners, as well as set winners, point winners, point totals, take advantage of sports betting bonuses, and more. Here’s the variety of Jai-Alai betting markets on BetRivers for H2H games:

Match Winner odds (Moneyline)
Set # Winner (Moneyline)
Point # Winner (Moneyline)
Over/Under Points in Set # (Total)
Set Betting, i.e. 2-0, 2-1, 1-2 or 0-2 (Moneyline, index style)
Set Score Handicap (Spread)
First to get 3 points in a Set (Moneyline)

Stay tuned to SayHiLi.com for the latest Magic City news, stats, jackpot carryovers and more.

Steve M.

Jai-Alai Makes Its Last Stand in Florida

Posted on March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Steve

Here’s a good read in USBETS on Magic City Jai-Alai, 2/15/2022 article

Magic City Pelota Stats thru Week 4 – Loads of Stats!

Posted on March 9, 2022March 9, 2022 by Steve

The exciting Magic City pelota games concluded another week on Tuesday, March 8. Bueno captured the Golden Cesta Award for back-to-back weeks now by winning 3-singles games in his 8-appearances for week 4. The award goes to the player winning the most singles games for the week. This is Bueno’s 6^th GC award since joining the roster at the start of the 2019 season. He joins an elite group of four other players with 6-GC Awards in their Magic City careers; Anderluck, Ben, Carballo and El Barba. Douglas leads with 34 awards and RonRon is second with 16 awards. Currently, the pelota game players compete in 6-singles games each week if there are no scratches. Note that “Pelota” is a distinction used by Magic City which started this year to distinguish between the Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel games (pelota games) and the H2H games with sports wagering.

El Barba is back and plays in early game singles (ga 1,2). He lost a game point for a win but did manage to place in one of his 6-appearances, but was struggling on his first day back from knee surgery plus was trying to break-in a new cesta. RonRon was back and has been featured in doubles games only for starters. The team of Vuelo-RonRon played in 5-games and had a respectable win and a place. Their place came on RonRon’s first game back since being out since July 27^th of last year (back issues). Cool Fitness was scratched for week 4 and is not listed in the week 5 entries due to his hamstring injury.

Bueno currently leads the Singles Championship with 8-wins with Douglas and Goixerri on his tail with 7-wins, fighting it out in the late feature singles where the two best late players have a combined 14-wins in 22 late singles feature games for 2022 (a combined 63.3% wins in games 6/8). Ikeda-Bradley continue to lead the first 2022 Doubles Championship with 5-wins, a two win lead over the second place teams of Anderluck-Benny and Jeden-Goixerri with 3-wins each.

Pari-mutuel betting pools continue their rise in popularity for 2022. Trifecta pools are averaging nearly $2100 per game for the week and exacta pools have grown significantly too. The average exacta pool for week 3 was $430 with a record high of $610 for Tuesday’s game 8 feature game. The trifecta average $1 payoff was a respectable $217 for week 4 over the 24-games, down from the week 3 average but the average $1 trifecta price for 2022 remains a whopping $261.60! Sunday’s late Pick 3 pool was a 2022 record at $883 where one lucky winner scored for $705.60 for the $1 ticket! Don’t forget that Magic City Jai-Alai offers $0.50 trifecta wagers and $1.00 Quiniela/Exacta/Win/Place/Show betting, plus the low takeout rate of 20% on their Pick-X wagers which includes the $1 Mighty Ocho (Pick 8 Jackpot game 1), $1 Jai-5 (Pick 5 Jackpot game 3), $1 Pick 3 (two of them, games 2 & 6) and the early $2 Daily Double game 1. The late Daily Double was dropped from the Magic City wagering menu.

Here are the players leading the pelota game stats for 2022 thru week 4:

All Singles and Doubles Games Combined for 2022 – highest win %:

Goixerri 27.0%
Ikeda 25.7%
Bueno 23.8%
Bradley 23.4%
Carballo 23.1%

All Singles and Doubles Games Combined for 2022 – highest ITM %:

Ikeda 60.0%
Goixerri 56.8%
Carballo 56.4%
Inaki 50.0%
Bradley 44.7%

Singles only for 2022 – highest win %:

Douglas / Goixerri 31.8% (7 wins in 22 ga)
Bueno 28.6% (8 wins in 28 ga)
Carballo 27.3% (6 wins in 22 ga)
Ikeda 20.0% (4 wins in 30 ga)
Bradley 19.4% (6 wins in 31 ga)

Early Game Singles (ga 1,2) – highest win % (excludes mid-game sub players):

Tennessee 18.2%
CRB 13.6%

Early Game Singles (ga 1,2) – highest ITM % (excludes mid-game sub players):

Cool Fitness and CRB 50.0%
Jeden 36.4%

Mid Game Singles (ga 3,4) – highest win %:

Carballo 27.3%
Bueno / Ikeda 20.0%

Mid Game Singles (ga 3,4) – highest ITM%:

Ikeda 65.0%
Carballo 63.6%

Late Game Singles (ga 6,8) – highest win%:

Douglas / Goixerri 31.8%
3-players tied 9.1%

Late Game Singles (ga 6,8) – highest ITM%:

Goixerri 63.6%
Douglas / Inaki 50.0%

Doubles Tourney #1 (ga 5,7) – highest win %:

Ikeda-Bradley 33.3%
Jeden-Goixerri / Vuelo-RonRon 20.0%
Anderluck-Benny 18.8%
Bueno-Julen 14.3%
Robin-Ben 13.3%

Doubles Tourney #1 (ga 5,7) – highest ITM%:

Ikeda-Bradley 53.3%
Inaki-Tennessee 50.0%
Jeden-Goixerri 46.7%
Carballo-Kubala / Diaz-Nicolas 43.8%
Juice-Manu / Vuelo-RonRon 40.0%

Doubles Tourney #1 – Most Wins:

Ikeda-Bradley – 5
Anderluck-Benny / Jeden-Goixerri – 3
3-other teams – 2

Singles Championship for Early 2022 Meet – Most Wins:

Bueno – 8
Douglas / Goixerri – 7
Bradley / Carballo – 6
Ben – 5

Get ready for Week 5 of exciting pelota game action from Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida on Sunday, March 13^th at 1:30-pm EST. Fans will be on edge to see if El Barba scores his first win in his second week back from knee surgery. He’s definitely getting off the court quicker now! Fans are allowed in the Jai-Alai fronton area only for Sunday’s games and also for the incredible Battle Court H2H games which follow at 5-pm EST. Should you reside in south Florida or planning a trip there be sure to take advantage of the Sunday H2H promo “5 At 5” where you could win up to $1,000 for correctly selecting the 5-winners of the Battle Court H2H matches at 5-pm and it’s FREE to enter. Don’t forget to enter the FREE online H2H contest for the 15-matches from Sunday thru Tuesday where the top cash prize is $100 if you are the only winner with the most correct selections.

The Jai-5 jackpot wasn’t won in week 4 and has grown to $3,468 for the Sunday, March 13 opener for week 5. Big jackpot fans won’t want to miss out on this!

Steve M (aka straymar)

Manu Wins both Late Singles on Sunday’s Opener, Betting Pools on the Rise!

Posted on March 7, 2022March 7, 2022 by Steve

Magic City Jai-Alai player Manu, formerly known as Ladutxe from Dania, won his first singles game for the new meet, not only winning game 6 but also game 8 singles for the pelota games (aka pari-mutuel wagering games). Manu had struggled at the start in the late feature singles games 6 & 8 against the likes of Douglas and Goixerri who have been dominating the late singles with a combined 11 wins in the 18 feature singles games so far. Manu, the undisputed best back-court player from the Dania fronton, was signed-on to the Magic City Jai-Alai roster after the close of Dania Jai-Alai in 2021.

Ladutxe left the Dania fronton on its closing day in true champion-style by winning the last four games of the Dania meet finale and overall winning five of his seven appearances plus a second place finish in another game on November 28^th 2021. That was perhaps the best finish for Ladutxe in his Dania career for one performance. His most wins in a Dania performance in the previous two years was when he won four games of his five appearances for the October 12 Saturday matinee program in 2019.

Trifecta pools continue to grow for 2022 at Magic City Jai-Alai with Sunday being the largest average daily trifecta pool yet for the year since opening on February 14. Trifecta prices continue to pay great with an average $1.00 trifecta price of $274 for Sunday’s eight pelota games. The popular Jai-5 Jackpot wager also swelled above the $2,000 guaranteed minimum for the first time this year to $2,713 on Sunday as there again was no single winning ticket with all five winners correct. Monday’s Jackpot wager could easily exceed $4,000 to one lucky winner.

Magic City’s schedule is eight pelota games starting at 1:30-pm EST for Sunday through Tuesday and five Battle Court / H2H matches at 5-pm the same days. The fronton area is open for live viewing for pelota games and Battle Court / H2H on Sundays.

Steve M.

Magic City Pelota Stats thru Week 3 – Bueno Wins Golden Cesta Award

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Steve

The exciting Magic City pelota games concluded another week on Tuesday, March 1. Bueno captured the Golden Cesta award by winning 4-singles games in his 9-appearances. The award goes to the player winning the most singles games for the week. This is Bueno’s 5^th GC award since joining the roster at the start of the 2019 season. He benefited by securing spots in three early games this week and won two of those games. Early game singles players are featured in games 1 and 2. Bueno along with several other mid-game players have been filling in for El Barba in early games since he’s been recovering from a knee procedure during the off-season. Also the scratch of Cool Fitness from early games on Monday and Tuesday (hamstring injury) has given some mid-game players more opportunities in early games. Mid-game singles players are featured in games 3 and 4 each performance while the top singles players at Magic City Jai-Alai compete in the late pelota games which are games 6 and 8 each performance. Currently, the pelota game players routinely compete in 6-singles games each week. Doubles games are played games 5 and 7. Note that “Pelota” is a distinction used by Magic City which started this year to distinguish between the Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel games (pelota games) and the H2H games with sports wagering. References to Battle Court H2H apply to the team aspect of H2H games which is also new and will be featured only through mid-April.

Good news for die-hard El Barba fans is the return of El Barba on Sunday March 6^th where he will see pelota game action in early games 1 and 2. Also, the long awaited return of RonRon is slated for Sunday where he will play initially in doubles games only with his tournament partner Vuelo. RonRon will play in singles games when he’s been cleared to compete in those. RonRon has been out since July 27^th of last year and recovering from back issues. SayHiLi welcomes back both players!

Pari-mutuel betting pools continue to be up more than 50% for 2022 compared to the last month of 2021, which is great for the sport and shows promise. Trifecta pools hit the highest daily average for 2022 on Tuesday, March 1 and exacta pools have been comparable to those typically seen at Dania. Caliente Casino in Mexico which also operates a greyhound track with daily simulcast greyhound races just added Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagering to their simulcast menu starting on March 1 which should boost wagering pools once the word spreads as that includes other Mexico sites affiliated with the Caliente Casino.

The Jai-5 jackpot has been growing and will exceed the minimum guarantee of $2,000 for the first time in 2022 for Sunday’s pelota performance. Big jackpot fans won’t want to miss out on this opportunity!

Here are the players leading the pelota game stats for 2022 thru week 3:

All Singles and Doubles Games Combined for 2022 – highest win %:

Ikeda 32.1%
Bradley 28.6%
Bueno 23.2%
Douglas / Goixerri 22.2%

All Singles and Doubles Games Combined for 2022 – highest ITM %:

Ikeda 60.7%
Inaki 57.1%
Carballo 50.0%
Bradley 48.6%
Diaz 46.4%

Singles only for 2022 – highest win %:

Douglas 37.5%
Goixerri 31.3%
Bueno / Carballo / Ikeda 25.0%

Early Game Singles (ga 1,2) – highest win % (excludes mid-game sub players):

Tennessee 18.8%
Cool Fitness 8.3%
Vuelo 7.1%
CRB / Diaz / Jeden 6.3%

Early Game Singles (ga 1,2) – highest ITM % (excludes mid-game sub players):

Cool Fitness 50.0%
CRB 43.8%
Vuelo 42.9%
Diaz 37.5%
Jeden 31.3%

Mid Game Singles (ga 3,4) – highest win %:

Carballo / Ikeda 25.0%
Bradley / Robin 18.8%
Bueno 14.3%

Mid Game Singles (ga 3,4) – highest ITM%:

Ikeda 62.5%
Carballo 56.3%
Robin 43.8%
Bueno 42.9%
Bradley 37.5%

Late Game Singles (ga 6,8) – highest win%:

Douglas 37.3%
Goixerri 31.3%
Inaki 12.5%
Aratz / Benny / Julen 6.3%

Late Game Singles (ga 6,8) – highest ITM%:

Douglas / Goixerri / Inaki 56.3%
Manu 37.5%
Aratz 31.3%

Doubles Tourney #1 (ga 5,7) – highest win %:

Ikeda-Bradley 41.7%
Anderluck-Benny 25.0%
Bueno-Julen 20.0%
Carballo-Kubala 16.7%
Jeden-Goixerri / Juice-Manu / Robin-Ben 9.1%

Doubles Tourney #1 (ga 5,7) – highest ITM%:

Diaz-Nicolas / Ikeda-Bradley / Inaki-Tennessee 58.3%
Juice-Manu 45.5%
Carballo-Kubala 41.7%

Doubles Tourney #1 – Most Wins (cash prizes based on # wins):

Ikeda-Bradley – 5
Anderluck-Benny – 3
Bueno-Julen / Carballo-Kubala – 2
4-other teams – 1

Singles Championship for Early 2022 Meet – Most Wins (cash prizes based on # wins):

Douglas – 6
Bradley / Bueno / Goixerri – 5
Carballo / Ikeda – 4
Ben / Robin / Tennessee – 3

Get ready for Week 4 of exciting pelota game action from Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida on Sunday, March 6^th at 1:30-pm EST with the return of the passionate bearded one (El Barba) and the amazing RonRon. Fans are allowed in the Jai-Alai fronton area only for Sunday’s games and also for the incredible Battle Court H2H games which follow at 5-pm. Should you reside in south Florida be sure to take advantage of the Sunday H2H promo “5 At 5” where you could win up to $1,000 for correctly selecting the 5-winners of the Battle Court H2H matches at 5-pm and it’s FREE to enter.

Steve M (aka straymar)

Magic City OnLine Handicapping Contest – $1,500 Prize Up for Grabs Each Week!

Posted on February 25, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

Magic City H2H Jai-Alai matches have a $1,500 max prize up for grabs each week for the games at 5-pm on Sunday through Tuesday. Contestants correctly selecting the winners of 15 of 15 H2H matches for the week will split the $1,500 grand prize. If only one contestant has all 15 correct they win the entire prize. This prize pool is $1,000 higher than what was offered last year.

Should no contestant have all 15 winners correct, the contestants with the most winners correct split $100. No matter how many winners are tied with the most winners correctly selected, the minimum prize for contest winners will be $25 per contestant.

The first contest for the 2022 season ran from 2/20 through 2/22 and there were two winners who had 14 of 15 winners correct. El Corazan and Reverse Two Wall are the contestants who picked 14 winners and won $50 each for their handicapping skills. Five matches are played each day Sunday through Tuesday with three of them singles matches and the other two doubles matches. All you have to do is pick who wins each match.

Check under “Other Links” on the menu bar on SayHiLi.com or click here Rules & Info for details on this FREE contest. It’s an on-line contest and anyone over 18 can enter.

Remember it’s FREE and FUN to compete with other Magic City Jai-Alai fans for these prizes! Don’t miss out on this great promo!

Steve M.

Douglas Wins 1st Golden Cesta Award for 2022 at Magic City Pelota Games

Posted on February 23, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

Douglas won his 34^th Golden Cesta Award of his career by winning the most singles games for the first 5-performances at Magic City Jai-Alai in 2022. Those wins came in the pelota games, formerly referred to as the pari-mutuel wagering games. Douglas had won this award the final week of 2021 action by winning 50% of his singles games then and picked up where he left off by winning 50% of his ten singles games to start the 2022 meet, and this feat was accomplished against even tougher competition from some Dania players that joined the Magic City roster. Douglas has more than double the amount of Golden Cesta Awards than any other player. RonRon has second most awards with 16.

Ikeda got off to a great start by winning four of his 10-singles pelota games for 40% wins and an amazing 80% ITM (in the money). Three other players were tied with 3-wins each; Carballo, Goixerri and Tennessee. The best ITM for the week was Ikeda with 80% while Douglas and Goixerri were tied for second best ITM with 70% each. Nine players of the 23-players starting the meet have yet to score their first win.

The first doubles tourney for 2022 has been dominated by the Ikeda-Bradley team who have surged to a huge early lead by winning five of their eight games with two second places (62.5% wins, 87.5% ITM). The second place team of Anderluck-Benny has two wins while three other teams have one win each. Six of the eleven starting teams are winless and one team has yet to record an ITM finish. The 12^th team of Vuelo-RonRon will join this first tourney when RonRon returns soon.

The Magic City pelota game roster is 26-players, however three of them are currently sidelined for medical reasons. El Barba had a knee procedure during break and should be back soon and RonRon (back issues) should also be returning soon. Spinner had a serious injury last year and is expected back this summer.

The pelota game betting handle remains well above the 2021 meet at this point. Trifecta wagers are the most popular by far, as usual for Jai-Alai games, and the trifecta pool average in 2022 is running 53% higher than the last month of the 2021 season and 35% higher than the average trifecta pool for all of 2021. Average trifecta prices for 2022 are also starting out big with the $1.00 trifecta averaging $280.50 over the first 40-games compared to $221.50 for all of 2021, thus a 27% increase.

Be sure to watch and support the Magic City pelota games every Sunday through Tuesday at 1:30-pm EST. Sign up to wager with watchandwager.com to place wagers on pelota games or with mywinners.com for CT residents. Some state restrictions on wagering apply. Watch and wager live in the Jai-Alai fronton area only for Sunday’s games. You can also watch and wager on Magic City pelota games at this List of Other Sites shown on SayHiLi.com.

Steve M.

Magic City Pelota Jai-Alai Games off to Phenomenal Start!

Posted on February 17, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

Magic City Pelota games, formerly known as pari-mutuel Jai-Alai wagering games, got off to a phenomenal start for 2022 with the first two performances on Monday & Tuesday, February 14-15. While the pari-mutuel wager options for the Pelota games have not changed from last year, the 2022 roster has changed and it’s bigger and better! The Pelota roster grew in size to 26-players with the addition of six former Dania players and this has resulted in more competitive games and larger payoffs.

There were two large trifecta payoffs on Monday’s opener; the tough 4-6-7 trifecta paying $1,188.70 for the $1 ticket and the 7-6-5 trifecta paying $1,656.00 for the $1 ticket. Overall for the first two days of Pelota games the average $1 trifecta payoff was a whopping $314! The smallest trifecta for opening day was the common 4-3-2 trifecta combination paying $94.00 for the $1 ticket. Wagering pools were also much larger than they were when the 2021 season ended. The trifecta pools for the first two days of 2022 were 50% higher than the November 2021 average trifecta pools. One of the exacta pools was even larger than $500. These are all good signs showing that pari-mutuel wagering on the Magic City Pelota product is on the rise.

So far after the first two days of play, singles games win leaders are Carballo and Ikeda, both with 50% wins by each winning two of their four appearances in games 3 and 4. Games 3 and 4 are referred to as the mid-games singles players. The early game singles (ga 1,2) along with the late games singles (ga 6,8) have resulted in 8-different players winning these games for the first two days. The popular Golden Cesta Award for most singles wins each week will be extended 3-more playing days until Feb. 22, per Andrew Blechman, as the 2022 inaugural week was not a full week of games. The first Golden Cesta Award of 2022 should be quite a “Pelota” Battle!

Vuelo, an early game player, back for 2022 after taking a break from playing in the later half of 2021, got off to a quick start in early singles games with a win, place and a show in his four appearances, leading the early game players with 75% ITM (in the money). Vuelo is also a ref in the Battle Court H2H games. Douglas and Goixerri are the current late game singles ITM leaders with 75% each for their four appearances.

Doubles games (ga 5,7) are even more competitive this year. There are currently 11-doubles teams until RonRon returns to play and will be teamed with Vuelo for a total of 12-Pelota game teams. Ikeda-Bradley got off to an early lead in this first singles tournament for 2022 with two wins in their first 3-games. They had a place in their other game and are the only team with 100% ITM. The other two teams with one win each are Anderluck-Benny and Jeden-Goixerri. Five of the eleven teams are currently 0% ITM at this very early stage, however, that will soon change.

Spectators are allowed to watch Pelota games on Sundays only for the 1:30 pm EST performance and fronton doors open for seating at 1:00 pm. Pelota games are played at Magic City Casino and Jai-Alai at 1:30 pm EST on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday each week with the new and exciting Battle Court H2H matches following at 5:00 pm EST. Be sure to tune in to YouTube’s The Jai-Alai Channel for Pelota games only and watchjaialai.com, along with other viewing options for the Battle Court H2H games.

Battle Court H2H games now feature the new Squad aspect with includes six singles game players and four doubles teams for each of the four Battle Court H2H Squads with six team members per Squad. The four Squads are named the Cesta Cyclones, Chula Chargers, Rebote Renegades and Wall Warriors. Two Squads square-off each Battle Court H2H day with 3-singles games and 2-doubles games. Check out a previous Battle Court H2H blog post along with Jeff “Laca” Conway’s pelotapress.com for more details. Fans can check out the current Battle Court H2H Squad point totals on the Magic City Casino website. Sports wagering on Battle Court H2H games is currently being done through BetRivers.com in 7-states (AZ, CO, IA, IL, NJ, PA, VA).

Be sure to support the Pelota version of Jai-Alai by wagering on this pari-mutuel version of these Jai-Alai games. You can do the pari-mutuel wagers from many states through watchandwager.com and mywinners.com. Check out those sites for more details.

Steve M (aka straymar)

Magic City World Super Court Qualifier Today – “Effing Incredible”

Posted on February 16, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

The first qualifier for the inaugural year of the $50,000 World Super Court professional doubles championship tournament was held today at 3-pm at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida with 8-teams participating. There were a total of 7-matches and the volleys were long and the action was sizzling hot with the matches ending after 3 hours and 40 minutes. The matches were all played under Magic City’s H2H sports betting format.

The final 2-teams guaranteed a spot in the October 13^th finals at Magic City after today’s qualifier are Goixerri-Aratz and Douglas-Benny. Goixerri-Aratz won the final match over Douglas-Benny and pocketed $2000 for the team while the 2^nd place prize for Douglas-Benny was $1000. The final match was a hotly contested match between these teams of brothers, all on the Magic City 2022 roster. Goixerri-Aratz won the first set 6-5 while Douglas-Benny dominated the second set 6-3. The final match went back and forth and reached a 5-5 tie where the winner of the next point determined the 1^st place winners, Goixerri-Aratz. All players were amazing and Goixerri played practically flawlessly and the team appeared unstoppable. Goixerri will definitely be a major force to be reckoned with at Magic City Pelota games (aka pari-mutuel games).

The play was incredible by both teams and one needs to watch the matches to grasp the extremely high level of professional play at this event. It’s also hard to comprehend the amazing talent exerted by young Benny who just started his pro career last year at Magic City. The event should be available for follow-up viewing soon on watchjaialai.com. Personally, this event provided a level of Jai-Alai play I’ve never witnessed before and I’ve watched many thousands of Jai-Alai games in Florida at nine different frontons, including national tournament events at the Palm Beach and Tampa frontons in the early 1980’s. I’ve never uttered the words “f…ing incredible” more times in my life than what I uttered today watching these matches.

Here’s the scoop on all the scores from today’s incredible event:

Round 1:

Douglas-Benny beat Ikeda-Manny: 0-6, 6-5, 6-1 (Ikeda-Manny won the first 8-points of this match and Douglas-Benny still won the match). Outstanding match, you need to see this!

Arrieta-Zulaika beat Jeden-Jairo: 4-6, 6-3, 6-0

Inaki-Julen beat Foronda-Amigorena: 6-3, 6-3

Goixerri-Aratz beat Bueno-Kubala: 6-1, 6-0

Round 2 Semi-Finals:

Douglas-Benny beat Arrieta-Zulaika: 6-5, 6-1

Goixerri-Aratz beat Inaki-Julen: 6-4, 6-2

Finals:

Goixerri-Aratz beat Douglas-Benny: 6-5, 3-6, 6-5 (Note: 1-more point won by Douglas-Benny overall 16-15)

The top two teams from today advance to the WSC October 13^th finals at Magic City while the other two teams that won in Round 1 but lost in the Round 2 semi-finals will be eligible to play in the 2^nd Qualifier on April 13^th at Magic City. The 3^rd Qualifier is on June 8^th at Magic City and the 4^th Qualifier is slated for a date TBD in September overseas. The World Super Court finals with the top 8-teams are October 13^th at Magic City. The World Super Court Finals first place team wins $25,000 while the 2^nd place team wins $12,500. World Super Court can be viewed on all platforms except YouTube’s The Jai-Alai Channel which is reserved for Magic City Pelota (pari-mutuel games).

Steve M.

REMINDER!! World Super Court 1st Qualifier at 3-pm Wed Feb 16 on watchjaialai.com

Posted on February 15, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

This exciting tournament can be seen on watchjaialai.com at 3-pm EST per Andrew Blechman of Magic City Jai-Alai. These matches will however be played using the H2H sports betting format.

Check past blog posts on World Super Court for the teams playing in this first qualifier.

Steve M

Magic City Pelota Entries & Programs are Available Now! Plus More Updates

Posted on February 11, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

Entries and programs for Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagering games, now referred to as “Pelota” are available on the Magic City website and on links on the SayHiLi website for the Monday & Tuesday 1:30-pm performances next week.

Note that 4-players names have changed for the Battle Court H2H games to their last names, however, their previous Pelota season names will not change for Pelota games. Anderluck, Cool Fitness, Juice and Tennessee will play under those names for Pelota but will be playing as Correa, Williams, Joseph and Roque for Battle Court H2H. The BC H2H change for the four players is to accommodate the new sports betting fans with improved player recognition while still maintaining the original names for the Pelota fans who are used to their original playing names since 2018. Stu perhaps can wordsmith this better but this is what I’ve gleaned from the conversation Thursday afternoon.

As of Thursday, the start date for El Barba in Pelota games has been delayed and he is now expected to be safe for a March 1 start. The delayed start for El Barba is why Bueno, Bradley, Ben and Anderluck each have been back-filled into spots in Monday and Tuesday’s early Pelota games 1 & 2. Currently the Pelota doubles games feature 11 doubles teams with an additional team of Vuelo-RonRon expected to take the floor by March 1 when RonRon returns from his back injury. All 11 current Pelota doubles teams will make their debut in games 5 and/or 7 during Monday’s 2022 season opener. Check the entries for the teams.

Also, be sure to mark your calendars for the World Super Court 1^st qualifier event which features 8-doubles team on Wednesday next week. The first match will start at 3-pm EST and you can watch this on watchjaialai.com.

Now, here’s some info on Magic City Pelota and Battle Court H2H schedules including a quote from Stu Neiman. Some fans don’t understand the days and times so here we go. H2H games are the future of Jai-Alai. Magic City asked the sports betting partner, BetRivers, what days and times Jai-Alai would have the best chance of succeeding and thus the 5-pm time slot on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday came to be. Competing against NFL is a huge disadvantage so the Sunday plan changes to Saturday later in the year when NFL starts up again. Also, some fans are curious as to why the Pelota games are before H2H at 1:30-pm instead of after the 5-pm H2H games. Here is the direct quote from Stu, “Pelota is a better warm-up for H2H.”

Be sure to tune-in on Monday at 1:30-pm for the kick-off of Pelota games with the new and exciting Battle Court H2H games at 5-pm where the team concept comes into play. As previously stated, the popular weekly FREE handicapping contest returns on week 2 on February 20^th. Listen to Andrew during the broadcasts next week for details.

Also, be sure to check Pelotapress.com regularly for more info and blog stories involving Magic City and the world of amateur Jai-Alai.

Thank you Magic City Jai-Alai!! I’m looking forward to a fantastic year!!

Steve M.

SayHiLi Welcomes New Blog Poster “Jabracadabra”

Posted on February 10, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

New blog poster, Joel A, going by the name “Jabracadabra” has joined SayHiLi as a new blog poster for info and stories about Pelota and H2H Jai-Alai at Magic City.

Joel is relatively new to the sport of Jai-Alai, having come across Magic City Jai-Alai in early 2021 when searching the web for active sports during Covid times when sporting events were limited. Joel and his wife traveled to the Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai from out-of-state for a weekend in 2021 where they witnessed a live performance and met players, JR, Stu and Andrew. Joel even hit all the winners of the H2H 6-Picks contest during his visit to Magic City.

Joel has become a huge fan of Jai-Alai and SayHiLi is proud to have him on board to support the website and the sport of Jai-Alai.

Steve M.

World Super Court 1st Qualifying Event is February 16th at Magic City Jai-Alai at 3-pm EST

Posted on February 10, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

The first of four qualifying events for the World Super Court Finals in October is being held at Magic City Jai-Alai on Wednesday, February 16^th at 3-pm EST. The four qualifying dates are 2/16, 4/13, 6/8 (these dates at Magic City), and one day in September for an overseas qualifier with a date TBD. This year is the inaugural year of Magic City’s big money Jai-Alai doubles tournament open to Jai-Alai professionals of all nationalities called “World Super Court.”

Each of the four qualifying events will start with 4-matches of doubles teams, thus 8-doubles teams are involved. The matches will be played using the H2H format. All players must have recent professional Jai-Alai experience. The top two teams from each qualifying day will be entered into the Thursday, October 13^th finals where the eight teams will compete for the World Super Court prize money. The day before the finals, Oct 12, is slated as a practice day for the finalists.

Here are the 8-teams for the first qualifying event on Wednesday next week and the first round matches that will be played for this event:

Benny-Douglas vs Ikeda-Manny
Zulaika-Arrieta vs Jeden-Jairo
Inaki-Julen vs Foronda-Amigorena
Goixerri-Aratz vs Bueno-Kubala

According to Stu Neiman, the April 3^rd qualifying round currently has 3-players of the 16 who are officially signed-up at this time; Erik, Robin and RonRon.

The qualifying events can be seen on The Jai-Alai Channel on YouTube.

Steve M.

New Battle Court H2H Debuts on Feb 14 at 5-pm EST!

Posted on February 5, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

The new and exciting take on H2H Jai-Alai at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai, called Battle Court H2H, makes its debut on Monday, February 14^th at 5-pm EST following the first PMW games of 2022 where the Cesta Cyclones take on the Chula Chargers. Battle Court H2H is essentially a team concept for H2H that involves four Squads of 6-players per Squad that will compete against each other in singles and doubles H2H games.

On a Battle Court H2H day (following PMW games), a Squad will compete against another Squad with five events; 3-singles games and 2-doubles games. A singles win is worth 1-point and a doubles win is worth 1.5 points. Points are accumulated for the Battle Court season from Feb 14 through April 10 and the two Squads with the most points will square-off in the Battle Court Championship on April 12. There is a bonus of $6,000 per player on the winning Squad.

The names of the four Squads are the Cesta Cyclones, Chula Chargers, Rebote Renegades and Wall Warriors. There is one Captain per team, designated by (C) after the captain’s name. The squads were able to formulate their own doubles teams. No player could play on more than two teams and each player had to play on at least one team. According to Stu Neiman, “The players are excited, it’s fun and the interest has been wonderful. New synergies, sponsorships, exclusivity agreements and other sources of potential revenue are already opening up. Which, in essence, means that the fixed odds, sports betting model is already working because it’s about far more than what is bet on each match. BetRivers has even opened a line on which team will win the whole thing.”

Scratches will be handled differently for Battle Court H2H. A lower ranked player can fill in for a scratched player in singles or doubles, however, if a scratch occurs during a match, that match will be forfeited as in the past. Rankings are 1-6 for singles (S1-S6) and 1-4 for doubles teams (D1-D4) within each Squad. A singles S1 player competes against other S1 players in other Squads and likewise for the other singles ranks. It’s different for doubles as D1 & D2 ranked teams can compete against each other and D3 & D4 ranked teams can compete against each other. Here are the Squads with players, rankings and captain designations:

Cesta Cyclones: S1 – Manu, S2 – Manny (C), S3 – Carballo, S4 – Ikeda, S5 – Jeden, S6 – Joseph

D1 – Carballo/Manu, D2 – Ikeda/Manny, D3 – Jeden/Manny, D4 – Joseph/Manu

Chula Chargers: S1 – Douglas, S2 – Jairo, S3 – Benny, S4 – Correa, S5 – CRB, S6 – Roque (C)

D1 – Douglas/Benny, D2 – Jairo/Benny, D3 – CRB/Douglas, D4 – Correa/Roque

Rebote Renegades: S1 – Goixerri, S2 – Aratz, S3 – Robin, S4 – Kubala, S5 – Ben (C), S6 – Williams

D1 – Goixerri/Aratz, D2 – Goixerri/Kubala, D3 – Robin/Ben, D4 – Williams/Aratz

Wall Warriors: S1 – Inaki (C), S2 – Nicolas, S3 – Julen, S4 – Bueno, S5 – Bradley, S6 – Diaz

D1 – Inaki/Nicolas, D2 – Inaki/Julen, D3 – Bueno/Nicolas, D4 – Diaz/Bradley

H2H Sports Betting is now expanded into seven states under BetRivers.com and is also approved in Nevada, however there is no partner yet (like BetRivers) to carry it. The seven states now with Magic City H2H sports betting through BetRivers are Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Steve M.

Magic City Jai-Alai Pari-Mutuel Wagering Kicks-Off Feb 14 at 1:30 pm EST

Posted on February 5, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

The 2022 Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagering (PMW) season starts on February 14^th with an expanded roster. Manu (Ladutxe), Inaki (Goitia), Nicolas (Yeche), Goixerri, Aratz and Robin will be playing in the short-court Magic City Jai-Alai PMW games. Jairo has also been added to the MC roster but won’t be playing PMW games as he will be judging PMW games. Manny, aka Manuel, the top Calder player, will continue judging PMW games and both he and Jairo will be competing in the Battle Court H2H games this year.

The PMW games have no changes in number of games or bet types offered. There will be 3-categories of singles games this year; early (games 1,2), middle (games 3,4) and late (games 6,8). Vuelo is back and will be playing in early games. RonRon will still be sidelined at the start due to his back, but is expected to start playing in PMW games at the end of this month. Spinner is still recovering from his injury but could be back in May/June. Both Vuelo and RonRon will be judging Battle Court H2H games. Norge Alvarez (played at Calder) will continue judging both PMW and H2H at Magic City. He’s been judging since 2018. Doubles games will continue being games 5 and 7.

The scouting report on Magic City Jai-Alai has been 100% great news. Practices are high-energy and for the first time the Magic City players have picked-up where they left off the previous year. Nicolas has been standing out and Manu has been adjusting well to the smaller court. Both Stu and Andrew have used the same word in describing the practices at Magic City so far; FANTASTIC!

There are (4) name changes on the roster for previous Magic City players (now using their last name); Juice is now Joseph, Anderluck is now Correa, Tennessee is Roque and Cool Fitness is Williams. The one and only El Barba is still playing under the name El Barba. He had knee surgery over the break and is expected to be playing in PMW games next week in the first two singles games.

The highly popular $1 Pick 5 Jackpot wager called the Jai-5 is expected to be more difficult to hit this year with the addition of new players making singles games more competitive. A bettor can only win the Jai-5 jackpot if they have the only winning ticket correctly selecting all five winners of games 3-7. The minimum jackpot is $2,000 if you are the only winning ticket. Likewise, the Mighty Ocho, a $1 Pick 8 Jackpot wager for games 1-8 will also be more difficult to hit. Last year the first ever Mighty Ocho was won by a lucky bettor and they were paid the minimum $5,000 for that score. The largest Jai-5 in Magic City history was a whopping $27,348 last April to one lucky winner.

Be sure to watch Magic City PMW games the day after the Super Bowl, one week from Monday! Battle Court H2H makes its debut at 5-pm following the PMW performance Monday the 14^th. The popular H2H handicapping contest will continue and start on February 20th. Stay tuned for blog posts on Magic City Battle Court H2H and World Super Court qualifying rounds!

Steve M.

WANTED: Jai-Alai betting tickets

Posted on January 5, 2022March 2, 2022 by Steve

I’m trying to complete a Jai-Alai betting ticket collection and need tickets from the following (5) US Jai-Alai frontons as I don’t have a single ticket from any of these:

Palm Beach, Newport, Orlando, Melbourne (aka Brevard), Kings Court

I have other Jai-Alai memorabilia for barter for your tickets (including programs, postcards, brochures, matchbook covers/matchbooks, bumper stickers, license plates, caps, pens, photos, advertisements and more) or can pay good ole cash if the prices are reasonable. I also have more of the same type of greyhound racing memorabilia along with horse track betting tickets if you wish to barter for those type of memorabilia items.

If you should have any older betting tickets (1936 through 1960’s) from any of the early Jai-Alai frontons, please contact me. I’m only looking for very good to excellent quality tickets where the print is all very clear to read (not a fan of tickets with faded or incomplete print). I’m not interested in admission tickets and not Tote test tickets either; only actual pari-mutuel betting tickets. I’m always on the lookout for more tickets and ones of different tote styles and wager types too. I don’t have any tickets for a Jai-Alai Pick 6 bet and some of those would be nice to own. There are some frontons where I only have several tickets (i.e. Hamilton) and would like to acquire more. I do have a pretty ample supply of Big Bend and Ocala betting tickets. I would like to acquire enough extra Jai-Alai betting tickets to donate a complete set to Jeff “Laca” Conway’s Jai-Alai & Baseball Museum in Seminole FL so they can be enjoyed by visitors. Any help would be much appreciated!

Please contact me through the following website email address if you can help and include your name. I can’t respond immediately, but will be monitoring at least once a day for responses so please bear with me. Please only legitimate responses to this request will be entertained. I will only deal with continental USA and Canada for shipping/receiving items. Here is the contact email: [email protected]

Thanks again! Steve Martin (aka straymar)

Help keep US Jai-Alai alive by supporting Magic City Jai-Alai

Latest Magic City News – Court Change & Expanded Customer Base

Posted on December 29, 2021March 2, 2022 by Steve

Recently I had a pre-holiday phone call with Stu Neiman and received some interesting news. The Magic City Jai-Alai court has been stained black. The intent of this is to make the pelota easier to track for H2H Jai-Alai fans, many new to the sport, thus enhancing the H2H viewing experience. Now this is not “painting” as some might think, staining the indoor concrete floor is completely different. The OB line is still red, just like before.

I asked Stu if there were any new additions to states approved for H2H and was pleasantly surprised with the news that Nevada is now approved. Nevada should be huge exposure for Magic City short-court Jai-Alai with the numerous sports books throughout the Nevada casinos and with Vegas/Reno still being popular vacation destinations. This now makes (4) states approved for H2H: Iowa, Illinois, Arizona and now Nevada. More states are expected to follow suit for sports betting approval for the exciting H2H games in 2022.

Also, during this off-season for the players and staff, Magic City management has been relentless in its continued push for expanded customer base for the pari-mutuel games. There is super high interest in the Philippines to carry pari-mutuel wagering and according to Stu the fans are crazy for Jai-Alai there. It will also be interesting to see how much the Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagering pools spike with the closure of the Dania fronton as die-hard Jai-Alai fans will certainly want to watch and wager on some of the Dania players at Magic City.

Seven Dania players will be playing in Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel games, H2H games or a combination of both types of games. Those players are as follows (by their player names known to fans): Goixerri, Ladutxe, Jairo, Yeche, Goitia, Aratz and Robin. Goixerri did not play the final fall meet at Dania as he was recovering from injury but did compete in some overseas partidos. Ladutxe has been the best back-court player at Dania in recent years. Jairo had been the highly dominant Dania player in early game singles. Yeche had some outstanding play in the final meet at Dania (both early and late games) and that was perhaps his best meet ever. Goitia played towards the end of the final Dania meet as he was recovering from an injury during the 2^nd Annual USNJAC tourney at Magic City. Goitia plays extremely competitively on the Magic City short-court.

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Magic City meet with the expanded roster which starts on February 14^th with pari-mutuel performances on Sunday through Tuesday at 1:30-pm and H2H games which follow at 5-pm EST. It’s been boring and difficult to fill the void with no US Jai-Alai during this downtime, but I understand the need for players and staff to have some well-deserved time off. Also, the World Super Court doubles tournament which debuts in 2022 should be a big hit with a display of some amazing talent, big prize money and no restrictions of “US Citizens only” as there is for the USNJAC singles and doubles annual tournaments.

Thanks to Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai for helping to keep the sport of Jai-Alai alive in the USA and a special thanks to Stu for the updates!

Steve Martin (aka straymar)

29-Nov-2021

Magic City Jai-Alai 2022 Updates – Roster & World Super Court

Posted on December 2, 2021March 2, 2022 by Steve

On December 2nd, 2022 Stu Neiman confirmed the following additions at Magic City. “Manu Ladutxe, Jairo Baroja, Robin Flores, Nicolas Eyheragaray, Inaki Goitiandia, Aratz Mendizabal & Ekaitz Mendizabal will join the roster in 2022. Each will play either parimutuel games, H2H matches or both.”

“Based on the success and enthusiasm surrounding our annual U.S. National jai-Alai Championship we will host the inaugural “World Super Court” Doubles Championship at Magic City in October of 2022.” Details are still being finalized but this event will offer $50,000 in total prize money and will be open to all nationalities.

Magic City Jai-Alai 2021 Wrap-Up and What’s New for 22!

Posted on November 25, 2021March 2, 2022 by Steve

Exciting short-court Jai-alai action at its best concluded on November 23^rd at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami with (8) games of exciting PMW (Pari-Mutuel Wagering) games and (4) nail-biting H2H Doubles sports betting matches which followed at 5-pm. Be sure to watch the replays of H2H games on the new exclusive H2H website at watchjaialai.com

The PMW game replays are still on The Jai-Alai Channel on YouTube.

Here is the complete list of Non-Monetary and Cash Awards for the 2022 Magic City Jai-Alai Regular Season (May 1 thru Nov 23)

Non-Monetary Awards (Apple product awards):

Most Improved Singles Player – Ben
Most Improved Doubles Player – Cool Fitness
Coach’s Award – Tennessee

Cash Awards

Singles Championship:

First – Douglas with 64 wins (30.3%) $15,000
Second – Ben with 59 wins (16.0%) $10,000
Third – Julen with 58 wins (15.8%) $5,000
4^th and 5^th were Benny (52 wins, 14.5%) and El Barba (50 wins, 15.0%)
6^th were Anderluck and Ikeda tied with 43-wins each
The remaining players were 37 wins or less

The complete Singles Championship stats can be found on SayHili.com under Wagering Info

2021 Doubles Tournament #3

First – Kubala-Benny with 26 wins (25.5%) $10,000
Second – Diaz-Douglas with 18 wins (20.7%) $5,000

The complete Doubles Tournament stats for all teams can be found on SayHili.com under Wagering Info

November 23^rd Jackpot Force-Out Info

Jai-5 ($1 Pick 5 Jackpot Wager) – (2) winning tickets with 5/5 correct winners paid $1,000 each
Mighty Ocho ($1 Pick 8 Jackpot Wager) – (3) winning tickets with 6/8 correct winners paid $1,666.60 each

Regular Season Singles Stats (top 5 highest Win % and ITM %)

Win %: Douglas 30.3, RonRon 23.6, Ben 16.0, Julen 15.8, Spinner 14.7
ITM %: Douglas 59.7, RonRon 55.7, Spinner 48.7, Benny 47.2, Bueno 42.6

2022 Schedule (PMW and H2H games)

Here are the 2022 pari-mutuel wagering season and H2H sports betting match dates known at this time (last updated 11/14):

February 14 through April 19: PMW (pari-mutuel wagering) on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday at 1:30-pm and H2H matches at 5-pm
May 1 through August 14: PMW on Sunday, Monday & Tuesday at 1:30-pm and H2H matches at 5-pm
break for the 2022 USNJAC Tournament
end of August through November: PMW on Saturday, Monday & Tuesday at 1:30-pm and H2H matches at 5-pm

Other Info and Roster Will Be Expanding

The players have December off and will have a team meeting on January 15 with practice starting on January 17. There will be some roster additions of Dania players (to be announced after the conclusion of the final Dania season, closing day Sunday 11/28). All contracts have been executed. Stay tuned for the roster additions. I understand that roster additions are due to the expansion of H2H with more matches expected to be available for sports betting in 2022.

A few players will also be Jai-Alai Judges. Note that if a player Judges in PMW games they won’t be playing in PMW games, and likewise for H2H games. Some players will only play in PMW or H2H games; however the majority of the 2022 roster will participate in both PMW and H2H.

We’ve been “teased” by Stu that there could be changes to PMW doubles game tournaments with more teams? Stay tuned for more info on this.

Amazing Singles Point During Game 4 of PMW on November 23^rd Closing Day

You must see this incredible long point played between Ben and Ikeda. Check out the replays on The Jai-Alai Channel if you missed this one! This could be the longest singles point I’ve ever witnessed since watching Jai-Alai games in 1978. Lots of great catches and shots by both players!

H2H Jai-Alai Match Sports Betting Now Legal in 3-States

Magic City Jai-Alai H2H sports betting is now legal in three states (Iowa, Illinois, Arizona) with more states expected to get approved soon. I’m told that state approvals can happen pretty quickly and hopefully more will be ready for the February 2022 H2H games. Currently the Jai-Alai H2H sports wagering is done through BetRivers.com.

Background Info on the Reduced SayHiLi Content Since September

Blog stories and info on SayHiLi were greatly reduced from September through the end of the meet. I apologize for that and want to explain. Starting in November 2020 I had several strokes, one a mini-stroke and another much more serious one in mid-April this year (actually on a Friday night after the conclusion of watching Dania games). This led to lots of testing to try to find out what was causing the strokes. In September I was diagnosed with a severely hardened aortic valve which needed replacing. I had to undergo several procedures to help determine the best way forward and then on November 9^th I had the TAVR procedure for that valve replacement. I was released from the hospital the following day and have been recovering the last two weeks.

When I first awoke after “coming to” after surgery, the first thing I said was “I think I was just at a Jai-Alai match.” Of course I then realized “Oh shit” the recovery room nurses probably think I’m crazy and have no idea what I was mumbling about and I felt the need to explain what “Jai-Alai” was. When my wife was allowed into the hospital room I was moved to, she said I was “rambling on” about Jai-Alai to those nurses when she walked in. Hopefully, God willing, I will be able to continue helping to support the SayHiLi website in an increased capacity going forward. I’m grateful that Magic City short-court Jai-Alai survives and hope more Jai-Alai fans make the transition to watching these games and wagering on PMW games to help keep the PMW games alive.

The Magic City 2022 season will be the best season yet and the quality of play at Magic City Jai-Alai keeps on getting better. To the current “nay-sayers” of Magic City I would say, please watch and give it the fair chance it deserves. This is all we have left now and your support is needed! The Magic City short-court Jai-Alai games are the fastest and most exciting Jai-Alai games I’ve ever seen, trust me on this, you won’t be disappointed!!

Happy Holidays!!

Steve M.

Magic City Jai-Alai Awards! Jackpots Forced-Out on Tuesday the 23rd!

Posted on November 21, 2021 by Steve

The 2021 Magic City Jai-Alai year closes out on Tuesday, November 23rd where the Mighty Ocho Pick 8 Jackpot wager and the Jai-5 Pick 5 Jackpot wager will both be forced-out to the winners with the most correct winners. Jackpots of a minimum $5,000 for the Mighty Ocho and $2,000 for the Jai-5 will be split among ticket holders correctly selecting the most winners. Should the Jai-5 Jackpot not be hit by a single winning ticket on Monday, that Jackpot will be far in excess of $2,000 for the Force-Out on Tuesday.

Saturday’s Pari-Mutuel Performance brought the distribution of the non-monetary awards at Magic City Jai-Alai. Here is a list of those awards and the 2021 recipients:

Most Improved Singles Player for 2021: Ben

Most Improved Doubles Player for 2021: Cool Fitness

Team Unity Award for 2021: Tennessee

We don’t know what this award (Team Unity Award) is officially called, however it’s for the player that goes above and beyond on the court and in the locker room. Tennessee continues to win this award every year. He’s the fellow bringing in snacks for the team, he’s out there wiping sweat off the floor when someone takes a spill and he’s there to help anyone when needed. Tennessee is an all-around Mr. Nice Guy and respects everyone.

Tuesday’s closing day will bring the distribution of the cash awards for the Singles and Doubles Championships. The team of Kubala-Benny have locked-up 1st place in the Doubles Championship with Diaz-Douglas the 2nd place winners. In Singles with 4-games left for the leaders to compete, Douglas leads with 62 wins, Ben is 2nd with 58 wins and Julen is 3rd with 57 wins, so 1st could still be a tie if Julen wins all 4-games and the battle for 2nd is still up for grabs. Expect some hot competition in the singles games in the final two days!

SayHiLi would like to give honorable mention to Spinner who has been a great addition to the Magic City roster. Spinner has done a great job mentoring Magic City players. The team of Cool Fitness-Spinner was in contention for the Doubles Championship when Spinner suffered an achilles tear during an H2H match recently. Spinner will return approximately mid-season in 2022. SayHiLi wishes him the best! Magic City fans will be glad to see the return of Spinner and RonRon in 2022.

Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel games and H2H games will resume in 2022 on February 14th and run through November. SayHiLi expects the pari-mutuel betting pools to be significantly larger at Magic City Jai-Alai in 2022 with the closure of Dania Jai-Alai. Dania’s last pari-mutuel performance ever will be held in one short week on Sunday, November 28th. Be sure to visit there soon if you haven’t already done so.

Be on the lookout for announcements coming out after November 28th on roster additions for Magic City Jai-Alai!

Update on Spinner’s Injury

Posted on November 4, 2021November 7, 2021 by Steve

Spinner had a season ending Achilles injury on Monday, November 2nd, during H2H doubles games. He was assessed and treated on Tuesday and Wednesday. He is currently recovering and will begin rehab. He is expected to return to active play at Magic City the summer of 2022.

SayHiLi and Magic City fans wish the best for Spinner and a speedy recovery.

Note: 11/6/2021 update per Stu Neiman during live pari-mutuel performance. Spinner’s return to be sometime in 2022.

Jai-Alai News on the Horizon – Coming Soon! Stay Tuned!!!

Posted on September 22, 2021September 23, 2021 by Steve

There is some great and exciting Jai-Alai news on the horizon. Stay tuned to SayHiLi.com to get the latest Jai-Alai News!

Also, for more Jai-Alai news, amateur Jai-Alai info and great Jai-Alai articles be sure to visit Jeff “Laca” Conway’s PelotaPress.com

Magic City Jai-Alai Resumes Saturday, September 11 with Changes

Posted on September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 by Steve

This September 11th marks a vivid reminder in American history with the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack in the US where 2,996 people were killed and more than were 6,000 injured in the falling of the Twin Towers at The World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon and in the crash of United Airlines Flt 93 outside Shankville, PA. SayHiLi.com asks all of those reading this to take pause and ask yourselves if all the partisan bickering, hate and division in this country is really worth it? We can’t let one former president’s big lie about his election loss and a simple refusal to concede his loss become another 9/11 in our great country! We should have learned on 9/11/2001 how bad terrorism can be and we simply cannot allow the spread of domestic terrorism from a former disgruntled president to cause “the fall of Rome.” We are supposed to be the greatest nation in the world? It’s time to accept the election facts, not conspiracy theories, look in the mirror, reverse course and ALL Americans need to start acting like REAL American patriots again! What ever happened to “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself?” Enough of the crazed death threats, it’s gotten so fucking ridiculous that Americans would allow OUR democracy to turn into something so moronically chaotic because of one disgruntled person and compulsive liar who has been spoiled his entire life! This simply can’t continue or this country is doomed to fail. There will be no “winners.”

Let’s celebrate Jai-Alai this 9/11 on Saturday with the return of Magic City short-court Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida where the Magic City roster decisively proved on August 29th this year at the USNJAC they have the best short-court Jai-Alai players in the USA! SayHiLi.com thanks Magic City Jai-Alai for keeping the long accepted short-court version of the Jai-Alai sport alive!

Here are the latest updates for Magic City Jai-Alai:

New 2nd generation player Lander joins the roster. Lander is the son of Aramendi who played at Palm Beach/Newport.

Vuelo is off the roster for the rest of 2021. He may return to play in 2022, however he will start his debut as a Magic City referee on Saturday, 9/11. Good luck to both Lander & Vuelo in their new endeavors!

Manuel will continue to judge pari-mutuel games but he will be playing in Doubles H2H Games as #60 Manny and be paired with Juice who was previously paired with RonRon. Manuel just finished playing at Calder Jai-Alai and was the wins leader.

RonRon’s injury (back & knee pain) is more severe than thought and he will not be returning to play in 2021, but is expected to return in 2022. SayHiLi wishes the best for RonRon and his family!

Lucky fans who are able to get to Magic City Jai-Alai to watch the H2H Singles Games on Saturday have a great opportunity to win the 6-Picks Promotion where winners of all 6-games split the $6,000 carryover. This is a one FREE shot at picking all of the 6-winners of the H2H matches and you must be present to win. The H2H games start at 5-pm.

Sunday pari-mutuel games have been discontinued to preserve players for H2H games. Magic City’s H2H games have led to new sports wagering opportunities on Jai-Alai which started with BetRivers.com in the states of Iowa and Illinois in mid-August with more states to be added soon.

Matt Langhans Classy Instagram Post

Posted on August 30, 2021August 30, 2021 by Steve

mattlanghans Yesterday was something I’ll never forget. I’m at a lost for words. To be able to play against some of the best players in the US and take home the top spot is surreal. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner @bennylanghans! Playing against players that you’ve looked up to and tried to learn from is awesome. All players involved couldn’t have been more humble, congratulating and everyone was without a doubt a class act. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved and can’t wait to do it again next year! ??

2nd Annual USNJAC – It’s a Family Affair! Langhans Brothers Dominate Pro Tourney!

Posted on August 29, 2021August 31, 2021 by Steve

It was a historic day in the making at the 2nd Annual USNJAC Tournament at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida today. The Langhans brothers, Douglas and 18-yo younger brother, Benny, turned the USNJAC into a family affair by Douglas winning the Singles Pro Championship and Douglas-Benny team winning the Doubles Pro Championship. They defeated much more experienced top Dania professionals in doing so and the Tiger’s Board Magic City short-court naysayers/haters are now placed on permanent “IGNORE” for their ramblings…..enough said!

Benny-Douglas beat Dania’s best team of Erik-Ladutxe by a score of 9-7 in the Doubles finale. They were behind by as much as 3-points at one time, with a score of 3-6, and then went on to win 6 of the next 7 points to clinch the victory by a score of 9-7. Young brother, Benny, who turned pro at age 17 had a solid performance catching in the back-court while Douglas covered the front-court. This was no doubt a match favored by the highly experienced Dania duo of Erik-Ladutxe, however, the persistence of the Langhans brothers paid off by staying the course. Congratulations Douglas-Benny and father/trainer/former pro James Langhans and family!!

Dania’s Goitia, also a part-time ref at Magic City in the Dania off-season, managed to pull the upset of the day by solidly beating Erik in the semi-final round of the Singles Pro Championship by a score of 7-4. Goitia threw an unbelievable chula to go ahead of the huge favorite Erik by a score of 6-4 before polishing off Erik. Douglas had beaten Spinner by a score of 7-1 and then Carballo by 7-1 to get to the finale with Goitia where the Magic City wonder boy Douglas prevailed in the match against Goitia, winning by a score of 9-4.

Douglas took home $7,500 for 1st place prize in the Singles Pro Championship while Goitia received $2,500 for 2nd place honors. The Langhans brothers split the $10,000 1st place prize for the Doubles Pro Championship and Dania’s Erik-Ladutxe split a respectable $5,000 for their 2nd place finish.

SayHiLi congratulates the Magic City professionals for their incredible victories! Scott, Lindsay, Stu, Andrew, JR and crew are to be commended for putting on a sensational event this year! Be sure to watch the event match replays on The Jai-Alai Channel for some great exciting short-court Jai-Alai action. Check out all the tournament scores right here on SayHiLi.com, including the Master’s Division finale scores for more info (scores here). This author has to take a much-needed break from tracking and reporting on the 3-days of short-court action at Magic City.

We are sure that Jeff Conway’s PelotaPress.com site will provide a write-up on the Master’s Division of the USNJAC, and we don’t want to duplicate effort, but complete USNJAC scores can be seen on the SayHiLi blog article about the USNJAC Scores. The Singles Masters Division finals was yet another Langhans in this event, Douglas I, who is James Langhans, former pro player and father of Matt and Benny Langhans. Douglas I had an impressive showing in the finale against Matt (playing under name Goya this year), also a former pro player and owner of the only remaining active Jai-Alai court in the northeast where Benny trained earlier this year before turning pro and joining the Magic City roster. Douglas I lost to Matt in a closely contested match by a score of 6-7 and took home $500 for his efforts. This truly made it a Langhans Trifecta with all three family members in the money! Congratulations guys!! Watching James in this Masters Division of the tournament made it quite clear the Langhans sons had a truly remarkable coach & trainer in their corner! Thanks James for passing along your Jai-Alai legacy to your sons and helping Jai-Alai fans to be entertained and awed with the once-in-a-century incredible abilities so rapidly developed by your sons Matt & Benny! You deserve a special award for this amazing accomplishment!

Magic City Jai-Alai games resume on Saturday, September 11th with 8-pari-mutuel games at 1:30-pm followed by six exciting H2H singles matches at 5-pm! Residents of Iowa and Illinois can now do sports betting wagers on Magic City Jai-Alai H2H games at BetRivers.com, the USNJAC tournament sponsor for this 2nd annual USNJAC event. Specialized sports wagering on Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel games can also be done on PrizePicks.com in many states including Florida, except for AZ CO CT DE HI ID IN IA LA MD ME MS MO MT NV NH NJ OH PA TN VA WA.

Day 1 Pro Division of 2021 USNJAC a Huge Day for Magic City Players! Other Tourney Re-Cap

Posted on August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Steve

Saturday, August 28th proved to be a huge day for Magic City in day 1 of the Pro Division of the 2nd Annual USNJAC at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida. Reigning singles champion of the 1st USNJAC (Dec 2020), Dania’s Jairo, was eliminated by Magic City’s Julen by a score of 3-7. To top that off, the icing on the cake came when Dania’s Arrieta from the 2020 USNJAC winning doubles team of Goitia-Arrieta was eliminated by Magic City’s Spinner by a score of 3-7 in their singles match. These were huge upsets in the eyes of Dania fans. Magic City Jai-Alai fans couldn’t be prouder of their on-court accomplishments Saturday. It’s a win-win regardless of the final outcome on Sunday’s final events.

Dania’s Erik, eligible for the 2nd annual event as he became a U.S. citizen in the last year, did not disappoint for Dania. Erik bested Frank in his opening round by a score of 7-4 and then proceeded to win against Dania foe Zulaika in the next round by a score of 7-3. Erik has been Dania’s top player in recent years and considered one of the best front-court players in the world. Dania fans expect him to be the singles USNJAC tourney favorite.

James Langhans, playing under the name Douglas I, and father of Magic City stars Douglas and Benny, earned his way into the Pro Division Singles tourney by making the finals in the Master’s Division which was played on Friday, the first tourney day of the three-day USNJAC. Douglas I did not disappoint the Langhans family by winning his first two matches in the Pro Division, besting Dania’s Urbieta by a score of 7-3 in Round 1 followed by a Round 2 win of 7-3 against Magic City’s Bueno (Chris Bueno), son of Dania Player Manager Benny Bueno. Douglas I has some solid talent and superb form and looks great on the court with his serious set of specialty shots. His next match is against Erik on Sunday morning and should be a good one. It’s no wonder sons Douglas (Matt) and Benny have developed their skill sets so quickly with a coach like former pro player James! Dania’s Goita narrowly squeaked by Magic City 18-yo phenom Benny, younger brother of Douglas, by a score of 7-6 in a tightly contested 2nd Round match or it would have been a “Langhans Trifecta” making it to the final 8 for the Sunday showdown.

Connecticut player Goya (Matt, owner of the short-court practice fronton facility in CT) did not disappoint in the Masters Division and was the other player making the finals. Goya advanced to the Pro Division by making the final two but was ousted in Round 1 against Goitia by a score of 2-7. Tourney fans were in awe of Goya’s talent for his age. He’s a former professional Jai-Alai player from 40-years ago and certainly did not disappoint fans from the northeast. Goya plays in the Master’s Division Singles final Sunday morning against Douglas I and is also in the Master’s Division Doubles final match of Beach-Goya vs Mickey Mo-Suits. Jai-Alai fans won’t want to miss these Master Division finals!

The final 8 in the Pro Division singles tourney finals to be held on Sunday, 8/29 are: brothers Julen vs Goitia, Douglas I vs Erik, Spinner vs Douglas, and Ladutxe vs Carballo. Magic City players are in three of the four matches and represent half of the players in the final showdown of these eight players. There were (7) Pro Division Singles matches on Saturday where Magic City players faced off against the seasoned Dania players. The Magic City players out-played their far more experienced Dania opponents in those singles matches by a combined point score of 39-37, even with one of those matches including an early games Magic City player. These (7) 7-point matches of Magic City players vs Dania revealed another interesting statistic. All Magic City players scored at least 4-points in the 7-point matches while the seasoned Dania players scored just 3-points in three of the seven 7-point matches against Magic City. Sounds like another win for Magic City. SayHiLi.com is sure Scott Savin, Stu Neiman and Juan Arrasate could not be any prouder of the Magic City players and how far they’ve come in such a short time. Congratulations Magic City for making an event like this possible!

The Pro Division Doubles tourney has been pared-down to (8) remaining teams. Only the first round was played on Saturday with finals on Sunday. The 1st Annual USNJAC doubles winners Goitia-Arrieta were the last doubles match of the day and faced off against the winner of a round-robin match of the losing round 1 teams. They were victorious against the team of El Nino-Gallo by a score of 7-3 to advance to the final eight teams. The doubles match of Frank-Johnny vs Anderluck-Bradley was perhaps the most exciting match Saturday with a comeback victory by Anderluck-Bradley. They were down by 5-1 and then 6-3 and survived 4-game point attempts by Frank-Johnny to claim a hard-fought victory of 7-6 and make the final eight teams. Congratulations Anderluck-Bradley for sticking it out and earning that hard-fought victory.

The final 8-teams for Pro Division Doubles with the Sunday pairings are as follows: Goitia-Arrieta vs Ubilla-Zulaika, Benny-Douglas vs Anderluck-Bradley, Carballo-Spinner vs Brodie-Kubala, and Erik-Ladutxe vs Jairo-Urbieta. The Dania fan favorite team of Erik-Ladutxe won against Mickey Mo-Suits by a score of 7-2 in Round 1. Mickey Mo-Suits team earned their shot in the Pro Division by making it to the final two teams in the Masters Division on Friday.

Magic City wonder boy, Douglas, played in 3-matches on Saturday (two singles and one doubles) and did not disappoint his huge fan base. Douglas was sitting out for the last week of pari-mutuel play at Magic City, having rolled his ankle in mid-August. His tourney debut was astonishing yesterday as he won 21-points and lost only 1-point for the day, besting all other tourney players by a country mile in that category.

All tourney matches and scores can be seen in the blog post for USNJAC scores.

2nd Annual USNJAC Scores Here!

Posted on August 26, 2021August 26, 2021 by Steve

Here are the 2nd Annual USNJAC match scores from Magic City Jai-Alai for August 27-29, 2021. Click here for Tourney Info.

Last Modified: August 31, 2021 7:09 am

2021 USNJAC

DIVISION	DATE	S/D	RND	PLAYER(S)	SCORES	WINNER
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Garby vs Geno	1-6	Geno
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Suits vs Chewy	6-2	Suits
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Big Z vs Lenny	4-6	Lenny
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Jefe vs Jay	6-2	Jefe
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Borechip vs Douglas I	2-6	Douglas I
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Jimmy Jam vs Bob	6-2	Jimmy Jam
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	The Goat vs Rule	0-6	Rule
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Okie vs Phat Boy	6-5	Okie
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Kullster vs Alex	6-5	Kullster
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Adam vs Lorenzo	6-4	Adam
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	David vs Gach	David forfeits	Gach
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Richie D vs Mikey Mo	6-2	Richie D
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Matt vs Gizmo	6-1	Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Petro vs LJS	6-1	Petro
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Cachin47 vs Ant	5-6	Ant
Masters	08/27/2021	S	1	Richardson vs Casio	0-6	Casio
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Geno vs Suits	5-6	Suits
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Lenny vs Jefe	4-6	Jefe
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Douglas I vs Jimmy Jam	6-0	Douglas I
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Rule vs Okie	6-1	Rule
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Kullster vs Adam	6-0	Kullster
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Gach vs Richie D	3-6	Richie D
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Matt vs Petro	6-2	Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	S	2	Ant vs Casio	3-6	Casio
Masters	08/27/2021	S	3	Suits vs Jefe	6-1	Suits
Masters	08/27/2021	S	3	Douglas I vs Rule	6-3	Douglas I
Masters	08/27/2021	S	3	Kullster vs Richie D	2-6	Richie D
Masters	08/27/2021	S	3	Matt vs Casio	6-5	Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	S	4	Suits vs Douglas I	3-6	Douglas I
Masters	08/27/2021	S	4	Richie D vs Matt	0-6	Matt
Masters	08/29/2021	S	5-Finals	Douglas I vs Matt	6-7	Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Casio-Geno vs Kulster-Lenny	6-3	Casio-Geno
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Ant-Petro vs Alex-Cachin47	6-1	Ant-Petro
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Big Z-LJS vs Gach-Jefe	6-4	Big Z-LJS
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Beach-Matt vs Garby-Rule	6-2	Beach-Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Bonechip-Richie D vs MikeyMo-Suits	6-2	Bonechip-Richie D
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Gizmo-Okie vs Bob-Jay	6-4	Gizmo-Okie
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1	Chewy-Jimmy Jam vs Adam-Douglas I	2-6	Adam-Douglas I
Masters	08/27/2021	D	1-Playback	(7) Rnd 1 Losers in round-robin rotation to 6-pts (top 2 move on)	6-1 Micky Mo-Suits vs Gache-Jefe	Micky Mo-Suits
Masters	08/27/2021	D	2	Casio-Geno vs Ant-Petro	6-2	Casio-Geno
Masters	08/27/2021	D	2	Big z-LJS vs Beach-Matt	2-6	Beach-Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	D	2	Bonechip-Richie D vs Gizmo-Okie	6-1	Bonechip-Richie D
Masters	08/27/2021	D	2	Adam-Douglas I vs Mickey Mo-Suits	3-6	Mickey Mo-Suits
Masters	08/27/2021	D	3	Casio-Geno vs Beach-Matt	2-6	Beach-Matt
Masters	08/27/2021	D	3	Bonechip-Richie D vs Mickey Mo-Suits	1-6	Mickey Mo-Suits
Masters	08/29/2021	D	4-Finals	Beach-Matt vs Mickey Mo-Suits	7-4	Beach-Matt
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	bye vs Jairo	n/a	Jairo
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Julen vs Gallo	7-2	Julen
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Peugot vs Benny	1-7	Benny
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Matt vs Goitia	2-7	Goitia
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Douglas I vs Urbieta	7-3	Douglas I
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	El Nino vs Bueno	6-7	Bueno
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Zulaika vs Bradley	7-4	Zulaika
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Frank vs Erik	4-7	Erik
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	bye vs Arrieta	n/a	Arrieta
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	T Bone vs Spinner	3-7	Spinner
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Jeden vs El Barba	7-3	Jeden
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Johnny vs Douglas	0-7	Douglas
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Ladutxe vs Tennessee	7-4	Ladutxe
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	CRB vs Anderluck	3-7	Anderluck
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	Ben vs Brodie	7-2	Ben
Pro	08/28/2021	S	1	bye vs Carballo	n/a	Carballo
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Jairo vs Julen	3-7	Julen
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Benny vs Goitia	6-7	Goitia
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Douglas I vs Bueno	7-3	Douglas I
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Zulaika vs Erik	3-7	Erik
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Arrieta vs Spinner	3-7	Spinner
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Jeden vs Douglas	1-7	Douglas
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Ladutxe vs Anderluck	7-4	Ladutxe
Pro	08/28/2021	S	2	Ben vs Carballo	1-7	Carballo
Pro	08/29/2021	S	3	Julen vs Goitia	5-7	Goitia
Pro	08/29/2021	S	3	Douglas I vs Erik	0-7	Erik
Pro	08/29/2021	S	3	Spinner vs Douglas	1-7	Douglas
Pro	08/29/2021	S	3	Ladutxe vs Carballo	6-7	Carballo
Pro	08/29/2021	S	4	Goitia vs Erik	7-4	Goitia
Pro	08/29/2021	S	4	Douglas vs Carballo	7-1	Douglas
Pro	08/29/2021	S	5-Finals	Goitia vs Douglas	4-9	Douglas
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Goitia-Arrieta vs El Nino-Gallo	7-3	Goitia-Arrieta
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Ubilla-Zulaika vs Ben-Bueno	7-2	Ubilla-Zulaika
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Benny-Douglas vs Beach-Matt	7-0	Benny-Douglas
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Frank-Johnny vs Anderluck-Bradley	6-7	Anderluck-Bradley
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Carballo-Spinner vs El Nino-Gallo	7-5	Carballo-Spinner
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Brodie-Kubala vs CRB-Tennessee	7-5	Brodie-Kubala
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Erik-Ladutxe vs Mickey Mo-Suits	7-2	Erik-Ladutxe
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1	Jeden-Julen vs Jairo-Urbieta	5-7	Jairo-Urbieta
Pro	08/28/2021	D	1-Playback	(6) Rnd 1 Losers (excl Beach-Matt, forfeited their spot) Playback, Winner plays Goitia-Arrieta	n/a	El Nino-Gallo
Pro	08/29/2021	D	2	Goitia-Arrieta vs Ubilla-Zulaika	7-3	Goitia-Arrieta
Pro	08/29/2021	D	2	Benny-Douglas vs Anderluck-Bradley	7-3	Benny-Douglas
Pro	08/29/2021	D	2	Carballo-Spinner vs Brodie-Kubala	7-4	Carballo-Spinner
Pro	08/29/2021	D	2	Erik-Ladutxe vs Jairo-Urbieta	7-5	Erik-Ladutxe
Pro	08/29/2021	D	3	Goitia-Arrieta vs Benny-Douglas	2-7	Benny-Douglas
Pro	08/29/2021	D	3	Carballo-Spinner vs Erik-Ladutxe	3-7	Erik-Ladutxe
Pro	08/29/2021	D	4-Finals	Benny-Douglas vs Erik-Ladutxe	9-7	Benny-Douglas

2021 U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship at Magic City Jai-Alai. This is the 2nd annual event with prize money over $25,000.

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 17 Summary Report

Posted on August 24, 2021August 31, 2021 by Steve

Golden Cesta Award (GCA):

Carballo wins with 3-singles game wins (42.9%) over Bueno with 3-wins (30.0%) on win % tiebreaker, his 6th GCA of his Magic City career and now tied for 3rd most GCA’s ever with EL Barba. Congratulations Carballo and a shout-out to Bueno! Douglas is 1st with 28 GCA’s and RonRon is 2nd with 16. See GCA history HERE.

2021 Regular Season Singles Championship (# of wins):

Ben – 42

El Barba/Julen – 41

Douglas/Benny – 40

Next best is Anderluck with 34

What a competition, great going guys!!

2021 Doubles Tourney #3 (# of wins):

Cool Fitness-Spinner – 10

Kubala-Benny – 8

Diaz-Douglas – 6

Anderluck-Bradley – 5

2021 Doubles Tourney #3 Week 17 Wins:

Cool Fitness-Spinner – 2 (note Cool Fitness was scratched Monday)

(3) teams tied with 1-win for the week for this short week

2021 Regular Season % Wins – All Singles Games (top 4):

Douglas – 27.8% (did not play Wk 17)

RonRon – 23.6% (still out with injury, back 9/11)

El Barba – 17.3%

Spinner – 16.8%

2021 Regular Season % ITM – All Singles Games (top 4):

Douglas – 56.9%

RonRon – 55.7%

Spinner – 51.4%

Benny – 47.7%

2021 Regular Season Week 17 % Wins – Singles Games (top 4):

Carballo – 42.9%

Cool Fitness – 33.3%

Bueno – 30.0%

Spinner – 28.6%

2021 Regular Season Week 17 % ITM – Singles Games (top 4):

Carballo – 71.4%

Bueno – 70.0%

Cool Fitness – 66.7%

Kubala/Tennessee – 50.0%

Other Magic City Jai-Lites:

USNJAC is next on agenda. Watch live on The Jai-Alai Channel at 10-am EST Aug 27-29th. Amateurs are Friday and Professionals are Saturday/Sunday. GO Magic City players!! Magic City Jai-Alai fans know you can do it!!

Next pari-mutuel performance is Sat, Sept. 11 following a short well-deserved break after USNJAC. No schedule changes for Magic City, still Sat thru Tue at 1:30-pm. Get ready for the “Jai-ly” popular mandatory payouts of Jai-5 and Mighty Ocho at the end of Edgewater Meet on September 21.

Lander Aramendi to make his professional debut at Magic City Jai-Alai on Saturday September 11. The only other roster change we know of is that Vuelo will not be playing for the remainder of 2021 but could return in 2022. RonRon expected back on 9/11 too.

Jai-Alai sports betting continues in Iowa & Illinois on H2H matches thru BetRivers.com with more states to be added soon. Thanks Magic City Jai-Alai for your dedication at keeping the sport of Jai-Alai alive and kicking in the USA!

Saturday Sept. 11 6-Picks Jackpot is $6,000 for this FREE H2H contest for live fans at Saturday H2H games at Magic City. WOW, you gotta be kidding me! Only at Magic City Jai-Alai!

New H2H 18-Picks contest for all fans debuts on Saturday Sept. 11. Fans must re-register for this new contest on fantasizer.com. This 18-Picks contest replaces the fantasy contest for the pari-mutuel games. SayHiLi’s owner Say-HiLi Susie was the winner of the fantasy contest for 2021 with 4-weekly wins. Congrats Susie for kicking the guys azzez! She is a huge fan of the sport!

Dania slated to re-open on Wed. Sept 1 at this time. No other info available at this time or how long they will continue to offer Jai-Alai. Remember the Big Payoffs are at Magic City Jai-Alai! Magic City Jai-Alai serves excitement with its faster version of the sport and top talent! Thanks Magic City fans for your continued and dedicated support of pari-mutuel games and H2H matches!!

Steve

Side note from contributor Steve. Cardiologist says I definitely need a heart procedure and it’s serious. Undergoing additional tests soon and decisions by the experts on what kind of surgery. Should you see no updates on site scratches, carryovers and weekly reports, there is a good reason and hope to be back soon!

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 16 Summary Report

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Steve

Golden Cesta Award (GCA):

Bueno wins with 4-singles game wins (28.6% wins), his 4th GCA of his Magic City career – Congratulations Bueno!

2021 Regular Season Singles Championship (# of wins):

Julen – 41, Ben/Douglas/El Barba – 40, Benny – 39

Next best is Anderluck/RonRon with 33

2021 Doubles Tourney #3 (# of wins):

Cool Fitness-Spinner & Kubala-Benny – 8

Diaz-Douglas – 6

Anderluck-Bradley – 4

2021 Doubles Tourney #3 Week 16 Wins:

Kubala-Benny – 3

(4) teams tied with 1-win for the week

2021 Regular Season % Wins – Singles Games (top 3):

Douglas – 27.8%

RonRon – 23.6%

El Barba – 17.5%

2021 Regular Season % ITM – Singles Games (top 3):

Douglas – 56.9%

RonRon – 55.7%

Spinner – 51.8%

2021 Regular Season – Week 16 % Wins (top 3):

El Barba – 50% (3-wins in 6-games), scratched Mon/Tue

Bueno – 28.6%

Douglas/Ikeda/Spinner – 22.2%

2021 Regular Season – Week 16 % ITM (top 3):

Benny – 83.3%

Douglas – 66.7%

Bradley – 62.5%

Other Magic City Weekly Jai-Lites:

Juice get his 1st singles win since back from injury

Tuesday Jai-5 paid $11,746.40 to (1) lucky winner

Jai-Alai sports betting started in Iowa & Illinois on H2H matches – history in the making! Congrats Magic City!

Saturday Aug 21 6-Picks Jackpot is $5,000 (last day for FREE 6-Picks contest for fans on site)

BetRivers to Debut Magic City Jai-Alai H2H Sports Betting Today!

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Steve

Jai-Alai sports betting history in the USA makes its debut today at 5-pm EST with (4) Magic City H2H singles matches on the sports betting menu on BetRivers.com for Iowa residents. BetRivers has sports betting in the states of IA, IL, IN, CO, MI, PA, WV, VA, NJ so other states are expected to be opened up soon in addition to Iowa once their individual state approval process is completed. Approvals can take place pretty quickly for sports betting of new sports, so stay tuned.

This history breaking announcement came during the pari-mutuel performance at Magic City Jai-Alai on Monday, August 16, 2021 after the 7th game had finished. Watch the Jai-Alai Channel on YouTube to hear the full announcement as all past performances can be seen after the live games. This is exciting news for Magic City as they have explored various ways to introduce Jai-Alai into the sports betting market and have a strong desire to keep the sport of Jai-Alai alive in the USA. Jai-Alai was first introduced to the USA nearly 100-years ago in the city of Miami, Florida.

Congratulations Magic City Jai-Alai on this historical announcement!

Magic City Jai-Alai Jai-5 Jackpot Getting Super Jai!

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Steve

The Jai-ly popular Jai-5 wager at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida has now gone (8) consecutive performances without a single winning ticket on this elusive $1.00 Pick 5 Jackpot Wager offered on the Jai-Alai pari-mutuel performances. Monday, August 16 the Jai-5 Jackpot will pay the 3rd highest payoff in Jai-5 history if there is a lucky bettor with the single winning ticket.

There have been no Jai-5 bettors live for a single winning ticket jackpot payoff going into game 7, the final leg of the wager, in any of the last 3-performances. After Sunday’s performance with no jackpot winner, the pot soared to $6,603.20. Based on recent history, the jackpot on Monday will easily exceed the 3rd largest Jai-5 payoff from 11/22/2019 which paid a cool $7.941.60. The 2nd largest payoff was $12,220 which was hit on 11/13/2019. That payoff stood as the record for nearly a year and a half until the current record payoff of $27.348 was won on 4/5/2021 this spring after going a whopping (16) consecutive performances without a single winning ticket with all 5-winners correct.

Good Luck to those Jai-5 bettors pursuing the Jai-5 challenge! Get your longshots ready!

Pre-USNJAC 6-Picks Live Fan H2H Contest – $5,000 Carryover for Sept 21!

Posted on August 15, 2021August 28, 2021 by Steve

The Saturday Doubles H2H Live Fan Contest at Magic City Jai-Alai has a HUGE $5,000 6-Picks carryover for August 21 to be split among live H2H fans successfully picking all 6-winners of the H2H games. Saturday August 14 found 4-fans live with 5/5 match winners correctly selected going into the final match of Bueno-Ben versus Kubala-Benny, however, all 4-free fans had 6-Picks tickets with match loser Bueno-Ben on their tickets. Kubala-Benny polished off Bueno-Ben in quick order in two sets with scores of 6-1 and 6-1.

There are only 64-possibilities for selecting all 6-match winners, however, lately with RonRon scratched due to injury which creates a forfeit for the Juice-RonRon team and automatic win for their opponent, some of the H2H contests on Saturday have been effectively reduced to a 5-Picks and even 4-Picks contest once due to another injury, vastly improving the odds for selecting all match winners. The first two weeks of the 6-Picks contest there were single winners for $1,000 each time. The last three Saturday contests there have been fans live going into the final match and they have all missed on the final match. Saturday August 21 multiple winners of all matches will split the $5,000 carryover prize.

Saturday August 21 is the last 6-Picks contest until Saturday, September 11th where again each live H2H fan gets one free selection to be submitted 5-minutes before the first match. Live fans participating be sure to read and follow the rules to collect in the event you select the correct match winners. The 2nd Annual USNJAC tourney at Magic City is played from August 27-29, a 3-day event this year instead of 2-days. When the tourney concludes, there is a short break at Magic City before the Jai-Alai action resumes on Saturday, September 11. Note that before the USNJAC tourney, Monday the 23rd is the final day of Magic City Jai-Alai for the week. When play resumes on September 11 after USNJAC, there will also be a another H2H contest offered for H2H fans called 18-Picks which includes the fans at home and covers all (18) weekly H2H games. Note that 18-Picks replaces the popular weekly fantasy league on pari-mutuel games. Complete 18-Picks contest details are still being finalized and will then be fully released. We have heard that fan(s) correctly selecting the most weekly H2H winners for 18-Picks will split a $100 prize, the same as the current fantasy contest, and we think there is a carryover if nobody correctly selects all 18-winners. Stay tuned for full details!

Steve

Magic City Week 15 Re-Cap, Ben Nails Golden Cesta Award!

Posted on August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 by Steve

The super exciting fast-paced short-court Jai-Alai action concluded for week 15 of the regular season on Tuesday, August 10th with good-guy Ben, nailing his 4th Golden Cesta Award of his career joining the ranks of 4th most GC awards with Anderluck and Carballo. Ben won 4 of his 12 singles games and was 50.0% ITM in his 12 games and had the highest % Wins of the week with 33.3%. Congratulations Ben on your great Jai-Alai play! Douglas took honors for highest ITM of the week with a respectable 66.7%. The doubles teams of Anderluck-Bradley and Kubala-Benny were win leaders for the week with 2-wins each despite Anderluck-Bradley missing action the first half of the week. Currently, Cool Fitness-Spinner lead the 3rd doubles tourney of the year with 7-wins while Diaz-Douglas and Kubala-Benny are tied for 2nd with 5-wins each. Anderluck-Bradley are next best with 3-wins each. Teams Cool-Fitness and Diaz Douglas are both tied for 2nd in ITM with 56.6% each. The highly touted and respected H2H doubles team of Jeden-Julen are still struggling in pari-mutuel games while tied for 5th in wins with 2-wins (8.3% wins and 29.2% ITM).

The Singles Championship remains super-heated with 4-players tied for first with 38-wins (WOW! You don’t get this at Dania!). Those players are Ben, Benny, Douglas and Julen followed up by El Barba with 37 along with RonRon (currently out with injury) and Anderluck with 33 wins. The next best total singles wins is a group of 3-players led by Tennessee with 26, Spinner 25 and Kubala 24. This group of three is then followed by others with 16-wins and less.

Week 16 of the regular season kicks-off on Saturday, August 14th, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at an incredible cash prize of $4,000 on Saturday with the 6-Picks Promotion. There was another $1,000 added to the previous $3,000 carryover making this jackpot $4,000 since nobody again selected all six H2H doubles games correctly on Saturday August 7th. One contestant yet again had the first 5-matches correct and missed on the final match. Generally, the person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches and each participant gets only ONE chance, so this is not impossible by any means. This 6-Picks Jackpot continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches (multiple winners of all matches split the Jackpot). So far there have been lucky winners the first two Saturdays, July 10th and July 17th. Those winners each took home a cool $1,000 cash. Be sure to understand all the rules for this promotion if you are participating in this on-site contest at Magic City Jai-Alai and get your entry in before the deadline. We do know you must be present at the conclusion to collect if you are a 6-Picks winner. Please note that this contest ends on August 21st and will be replaced with a new contest allowing fans at home to participate and entails all three H2H game days. The new contest is called 18-Picks! The 18-Picks also replaces the weekly fantasy league. The 18-picks contest makes it’s debut after the 2nd Annual USNJAC tourney when Magic City Jai-Alai H2H and pari-mutuel games resume on Saturday, September 11.

Don’t forget to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in for week 16 before the start of Saturday’s game 1! Contestants need to be mindful of the recent entries change on Saturday’s live performance where the late-game players now play an extra feature game in addition to game 6 & 8. These late-game players get to fascinate the fans by competing in middle game 4 on Saturdays only. The Jai-5 is at an huge $4,696.40 carryover going into Saturday’s performance so don’t miss out on your chance at a big pot which could top $7,000 to a single 5 of 5 winner on Saturday.

The week 16 entries are expected to be scratch-free for the start of the week. RonRon continues to be out with knee/back pain and should be back after the break in action after the conclusion of the USNJAC tourney (Tourney is Aug 27-29th, don’t miss this).

Lander Aramendi Joins Magic City Jai-Alai Roster!

Posted on August 10, 2021August 10, 2021 by Steve

A new roster addition is coming to Magic City Jai-Alai in September. Lander Aramendi has joined the Magic City roster and will make his professional debut on Saturday, September 11 in the early games. He will be playing under his first name of “Lander.”

The name Aramendi is not new to Jai-Alai. Lander is a 25-yo second generation Jai-Alai player. His father played under the name Aramendi at Palm Beach Jai-Alai and quite likely played significant time in Newport too. This author has seen Aramendi on the Palm Beach court hundreds of times and remembers he was an excellent player. The complete bio on Aramendi at Palm Beach is not known at this time, but we suspect it won’t take renowned Jai-Alai historian, Ralph Butts (aka “Tiger” of website tigerhili.com), long to track down the full history and release more details on his website. We also expect Jeff Conway of pelotapress.com to dig up additional info with photos from his substantial list if industry contacts.

While the name Aramendi is well known and respected in the Jai-Alai community, the young Lander is relatively new to playing the game of Jai-Alai and has less than 1-year of amateur experience. Lander has been practicing at Matt’s court in Connecticut and was flown down to Magic City for some court time last week. Here are Stu Neiman’s observations in his own words. “Lander catches and throws well and has a rebote, however, he needs some work on shots and serving,” according to Stu.

The 2nd annual USNJAC tourney runs from August 27-29 this year. Magic City Jai-Alai will be running their regular schedule through Monday, August 23rd prior to the tourney, however, they will be closed on Tuesday, August 24th in prep for the upcoming tourney. Magic City will have a short break after the conclusion of the USNJAC tourney on Sunday, August 29th and will continue with pari-mutuel games on Saturday, September 11th where Lander will make his professional Jai-Alai debut.

SayHiLi.com wishes Lander a great debut and mucho Golden Cesta Awards! Welcome to Magic City Jai-Alai, home of exciting, fast-paced professional short-court Jai-Alai!

Steve

Magic CIty Week 14, Benny Wins 1st Golden Cesta Award!

Posted on August 4, 2021August 4, 2021 by Steve

Fast-paced short-court Jai-Alai action concluded for week 14 of the regular season on Tuesday, August 3rd with Benny, the youngest professional on the roster and brother of top player Douglas, nabbing his first Golden Cesta Award since starting on February 6th this year. Benny won 6 of his 12 singles games and was 83.3% ITM in his 12 games, besting Julen’s 2nd place of 53.3% ITM quite decisively. Congratulations Benny on this great achievement! The doubles team of Diaz-Douglas took top honors for the week with 8-3-2-0 for 37.5% wins and 62.5% ITM. Currently, Cool Fitness-Spinner lead the 3rd doubles tourney of the year with 6-wins while Diaz-Douglas have 4 and Kubala-Benny have 3-wins.

The Singles Championship remains quite the battle with 8-players of the Magic City 20-player roster still within 8-wins of each other. El Barba & Julen have 37, Douglas 36, Benny 35, Ben 34, Anderluck & RonRon 33, and Ikeda 29. The next best on wins is Tennessee with 25, Kubala 24 and Spinner with 23. This group of three is then followed by others with 16-wins and less.

Week 15 of the regular season kicks-off on Saturday, August 7th, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at $3,000 on Saturday; the new 6-Picks Promotion. There was $1,000 added to the previous $2,000 carryover making this jackpot $3,000 since nobody again selected all six H2H doubles games correctly on Saturday July 31st. One contestant had the first 5-matches correct and missed on the last match. Generally, the person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches and each participant gets only ONE chance, so this is not impossible by any means. This 6-Picks Jackpot continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches (multiple winners of all matches split the Jackpot). So far there have been lucky winners the first two Saturdays, July 10th and July 17th. Those winners each took home a cool $1,000 cash. Be sure to understand all the rules for this promotion if you are participating in this on-site contest at Magic City Jai-Alai and get your entry in before the deadline. We do know you must be present at the conclusion to collect if you are a 6-Picks winner.

Don’t forget to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1! Contestants need to be mindful of the entries change on Saturday’s live performance where the late-game players now play an extra feature game in addition to game 6 & 8. These late-game players get to wow the crowd by competing in middle game 4 on Saturdays only.

The week 15 entries are expected to be scratch-free for the start of the week. RonRon continues to be out with knee/back pain and is expected to be out for 3-4 weeks. El Barba and Ikeda are back in action for week 15 and are listed in the entries for Saturday & Sunday.

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 13 Wrap-Up, What a Week!!

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Steve

Amazing short-court Jai-Alai was again on the menu for week 13 which concluded Tuesday, July 27th! Douglas secured his 28th Golden Cesta Award by winning 4 of his 9-singles games and had an impressive 88.9% ITM with his 8 of 9 games ITM and surged to 2nd place in the Singles Championship, just 2-wins shy of leader El Barba who has 37-singles wins. The new doubles tournament started, the 3rd of 2021, and 2nd doubles tourney winners Cool Fitness-Spinner got of to a huge lead again by winning 5 of their 7 doubles games for an impressive 71.4% wins! There are three other teams tied for 2nd with 1-win each.

The Singles Championship remains to be quite a battle with 8-players of the Magic City 20-player roster within 8-wins of each other. El Barba has 37, Douglas 35, Julen 34, Ben & RonRon 33, Anderluck 32, and Benny & Ikeda finish out the top 8 with 29-wins. The next best on wins is Spinner with 23, Tennessee 22, and Kubala 21. This group of three is then followed by others with 15-wins and less.

Week 14 of the regular season kicks-off on Saturday, July 31st, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at $2,000 on Saturday; the new 6-Picks Promotion. There is a carryover making this jackpot $2,000 since nobody selected all six H2H doubles games correctly on Saturday July 24th. Generally, the person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches and each participant gets only ONE chance, so this is not impossible by any means. If nobody has all 6-winners, the $1,000 carries over to the next Saturday where $2,000 is up for grabs for the winner(s) of ALL 6-matches. This “jackpot” continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches. So far there have been lucky winners the first two Saturdays, July 10th and July 17th. Those winners each took home a cool $1,000 cash. Be sure to understand all the rules for this promotion if you are participating in this on-site contest and get your entry in before the deadline. You must be present at the conclusion to collect if you are a winner.

Don’t forget to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1! Contestants need to be mindful of the entries change on Saturday’s live performance where the late-game players now play an extra feature game in addition to game 6 & 8. The late-gamers will also be competing in game 4 (Saturday only).

There had not been any scratches at Magic City Jai-Alai since June 5th, however, Tuesday July 27th RonRon scratched on games 6-on due to knee and potential back issues. This was an amazing stretch for a Jai-Alai venue to have no scratches which is far different from the Dania Jai-Alai venue which unfortunately has a history of regular unexpected player scratches, which makes handicapping more difficult and and can make advance wagering a riskier gamble. Please take note that RonRon is not listed in the entries for Saturday & Sunday. Anderluck did injure his bicep during the first H2H doubles match on Tuesday evening and scratched for his second match. We are assuming this was not a serious injury as he is listed in the entries for Saturday & Sunday.

Magic City Jai-Alai Fans, last, but not least, DO NOT FORGET that Saturday, July 31st, is Magic City co-announcer and statistician, Andrew Blechman’s 24th birthday. SayHiLi.com wishes Andrew a Happy Birthday! Fans of the live chat on the JAC, please join-in and give this birthday boy your best wishes on his 24th birthday! Perhaps the lucky 2-4 quiniella is the bet for the day!

Magic City Week 12 Wrap-up, Doubles Tourney Results, El Barba Dominates Singles!

Posted on July 23, 2021July 23, 2021 by Steve

Tuesday, July 20th concluded another week of the fast-action short-court Jai-Alai with Magic City early-mid game professional Jai-Alai player El Barba securing his 6th Golden Cesta Award and surging to the lead in the singles championship. El Barba won 6-singles games for the week, an impressive 50% wins, and is in 3rd place for most GC Awards at Magic City, only headed by Douglas and RonRon. Congratulations El Barba on your victorious week!

The 2021 regular season Singles Championship has continued to be a contentious battle with lead changes happening regularly. Eight players of the 20-player roster have from 27 to 35 singles wins. El Barba now leads this group with 35 wins, Ben 33, Anderluck & RonRon have 32, Douglas & Julen 31, Ikeda 28, and Benny 27. Douglas continues to lead in singles win percentage with 28.7% with RonRon not far behind with 24.1%. RonRon leads overall best % ITM with 55.6.

The second 2021 Doubles Tournament of the year concluded on Tuesday, July 20th. Cool Fitness-Spinner dominated the tourney with 25-wins (25.5% wins) and will split the first place price of $10,000. Kubala-Benny scored 2nd place prize money of $5,000 with 19-wins, edging out 3rd place finishers Carballo-Tennessee with their 17-victories. Fourth place team was El Barba-Ikeda with 12-wins. Those were the only teams with double digit win stats. The 3rd 2021 Doubles Tournament starts on Saturday July 24th with game 5. There are 9-teams in this tournament. Anderluck-Vuelo and CRB-Bradley will not be playing in this one. Anderluck is paired with Bradley this time while CRB and Vuelo will be tournament subs. The remaining teams from the 2nd Doubles Tournament will continue as-is.

Week 13 kicks-off on Saturday, July 24th, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at $1,000 on Saturday; the new 6-Picks Promotion. The person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches, however, each participant gets only ONE chance. If nobody has all 6-winners, the $1,000 carries over to the next Saturday where $2,000 is up for grabs for the winner(s) of ALL 6-matches. This “jackpot” continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches. So far there have been lucky winners both weeks who picked all 6 winners of the H2H games on Saturday, July 10th and July 17th. Those winners each took home a cool $1,000. The 6-Picks Promotion starts at $1,000 again for Saturday, July 24th. Be sure to understand all the rules for this promotion if you are participating.

Don’t forget to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1! Contestants need to be mindful of the entries change on Saturday’s live performance where the late-game players now play an extra feature game in addition to game 6 & 8. The late-gamers will also be competing in game 4 (Saturday only).

Magic City Week 11 Wrap-Up, RonRon Wins His 16th GC Award!

Posted on July 15, 2021 by Steve

Tuesday, July 13th concluded another week of the fast-action short-court Jai-Alai with top Magic City professional Jai-Alai player RonRon securing his 16th Golden Cesta Award, winning the tie-breaker against Ben & CRB who also had 3-wins each but had lower singles game win percents for the week than RonRon. Congratulations RonRon on your achievement and we are sure your family is very proud of you!

The 2021 regular season Singles Championship has continued to be a contentious battle with lead changes happening regularly. Half of the 20-player roster has from 20 to 32 singles wins. Ben now leads this group with 32 wins, Julen & RonRon have 31, Anderluck & El Barba have 29, Douglas has moved up to the top six with 28, Benny & Ikeda have 26, Spinner has 22, and Tennessee has 20. Douglas still commands the lead in singles win percentage with 28.0%. Spinner and RonRon are in a virtual tie with overall best % ITM with 55.7 and 55.2, respectively while Douglas is the only other player with ITM over 50% with a 51.0%.

The second 2021 Doubles Tournament of the year is still being dominated by the same 3-teams. Cool Fitness-Spinner lead the 10-teams with 23-wins and will win split the first place price of $10,000. Kubala-Benny picked up a win and are second with 18-wins while Carballo-Tennessee were winless this week and remain in 3rd place with 16-wins. There are only 8-games left in this doubles tournament which concludes on game 7 of Tuesday’s performance on July 20th. The 2nd place prize money of $5,000 could come down to the final game if Carballo-Tennessee kick it into gear and make up some ground this week.

Week 12 kicks-off on Saturday, July 17th, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at $1,000 on Saturday; the new 6-Picks Promotion. The person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches, however, each participant gets only ONE chance. If nobody has all 6-winners, the $1,000 carries over to the next Saturday where $2,000 is up for grabs for the winner(s) of ALL 6-matches. This “jackpot” continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches. There was one lucky winner who picked all 6 winners of the H2H games on Saturday, July 10th. That winner took home a cool $1,000. The 6-Picks Promotion starts at $1,000 again for Saturday, July 17th. Be sure to understand all the rules for this promotion if you are participating. Also, don’t forget, be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1!

Magic City Week 10 Wrap-Up, Another GC for Douglas!

Posted on July 8, 2021 by Steve

Tuesday, July 6th concluded another week of the fast-action short-court Jai-Alai with top Magic City professional Jai-Alai player Douglas dominating the Golden Cesta Award with his 4-wins for the week, winning half of his games and securing his 27th Golden Cesta Award for most weekly singles wins. Early games player CRB finished 2nd with 3-wins and Diaz, Spinner & Tennessee each tied for 3rd with 2-wins. Congratulations Douglas on your hard work and this outstanding accomplishment in the world of professional Jai-Alai!

The 2021 regular season Singles Championship has continued to be a contentious battle with lead changes happening regularly. Currently nearly half the 20-player roster has from 20 to 30 singles wins. Julen leads this group with 30 wins, Ben has 29, Anderluck/El Barba/RonRon have 28, brothers Benny & Douglas have 26, Ikeda 24, and Spinner 20. Douglas’s singles win percentage has been rising and he is the outright leader with a commanding 28.3%. RonRon and Spinner’s win percentages have both been decreasing with RonRon currently at 23.9 and Spinner in 3rd with 17.5. Douglas (Matt Langhans) missed a large portion of the previous 2021 10-week mini season due to a wrist injury and has been mounting one heck of a comeback in the 2021 regular season which started May 1st. Douglas won the Singles Championship his first year of professional Jai-Alai in 2019 with 181 wins (38.4%) and again in 2020 with 179 wins (36.5%). Top-level competitor RonRon won the singles championship in the short 10-week mini-season in 2021 with 35-wins in his 90-games for 38.9% wins. Douglas missed two-thirds of the mini-season but still had an impressive 7-wins in his 30-games played for 23.3% wins.

The second 2021 Doubles Tournament of the year is still being dominated by the same 3-teams. Cool Fitness-Spinner lead the 10-teams with 21-wins. Kubala-Benny were winless this week and remain at 17 wins, while Carballo-Tennessee added 3-wins and are only one win behind 2nd place with 16-wins. This highly competitive doubles tournament only has 16-games left before concluding on Tuesday, July 20th. Prize money is paid to the top 2-teams, so this tourney could easily come down to the last game in the “Quest for the Dough!”

Trifecta pools continue to soar at Magic City since the closing of Dania Jai-Alai at the end of May. Trifectas are the most popular wager at Magic City Jai-Alai and trifecta wagering pools have grown over 34% since the last week of May. Trifectas can be purchased for as low as $0.50 base wagers.

Week 11 kicks-off on Saturday, July 10th, with a 1:30-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 1:00 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games which follow at 5-pm where live fans are also allowed. Live fans for Saturday’s H2H doubles can also get in on one FREE shot at $1,000 starting this Saturday; the new 6-Picks Promotion. The person(s) picking ALL 6-winners of the (6) H2H doubles matches split $1,000. There are 64-different combinations of picking all 6-matches, however, each participant gets only ONE chance. If nobody has all 6-winners, the $1,000 carries over to the next Saturday where $2,000 is up for grabs for the winner(s) of ALL 6-matches. This “jackpot” continues to grow by $1,000 weekly until a contestant correctly picks the winner of all 6-matches. Also, don’t forget, be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1!

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 9 Wrap-up, Douglas Top Win %

Posted on July 1, 2021July 2, 2021 by Steve

The short two performance week of Magic City Jai-Alai ended on Sunday June 27th with Douglas securing his 26th Golden Cesta Award for most singles wins for the week. Douglas was the only player to win 2-games in this short week and also took over first place in the singles games win % with 26.2%. RonRon is second with 24.8% and former Dania player, Spinner, is a distant third with 17.0%. Congratulations Douglas!

Players are on a short break, off Monday & Tuesday, till play resumes on Saturday, July 3rd, when the schedule changes to 4-performances a week from Saturday through Tuesday, all starting at 1:30-pm. This is a decrease of two performances a week, but there is an increase in H2H weekly Jai-Alai events from two to three sessions each week. The highly entertaining big money H2H events will follow the live pari-mutuel wagering performances at 5-pm with Doubles H2H on Saturday and Tuesday and Singles H2H on Monday. Also, live fan viewing is now allowed for both the 1:30-pm pari-mutuel performance on Saturday PLUS the 5:00-pm H2H which follows. There will be special activities for fans between these two sessions on Saturday.

Julen leads the 2021 regular season singles championship with 29-wins with Ben at his heels with 28, and Anderluck & RonRon with 27. Right behind are El Barba 26, Benny 25, Ikeda 24, and Douglas 22, so only 7-wins separate these top eight contenders. Douglas got off to a slow start as he was recovering from a wrist injury earlier this year and is now playing extremely well.

The second Magic City doubles tournament of the year is still being led by the team of Cool Fitness-Spinner with 20-wins in their 79-appearances. This tourney ends Tuesday July 27th, so with only four Jai-Alai weeks to go and 4-performances a week with two doubles games per performance, time is running out with only 32-doubles games left. The second place team of Kubala-Benny is 3-wins behind with 17-wins and the third place team of Carballo-Tennessee has 13-wins. Fourth place is El Barba-Ikeda with 9-wins. Only the top two teams split prize money. Kubala-Benny were the winners of the first 2021 doubles tournament during the short 10-week mini-season.

The short week also ended with jackpot Force-Outs for the Jai5 and the Mighty Ocho wagers. There was one winning ticket correctly selecting all winners of the popular Jai5 wager and that paid the guaranteed $2,000. The Mighty Ocho, Magic City’s version of a $1 Pick 8 jackpot wager, was paid out to 3-winning tickets with 6 of 8 correct winners, each ticket paying $1,666.60. Sorry Tiger, that Ocho did not come to “Papa” but thanks for trying and supporting Magic City!

Other great news for Magic City Jai-Alai is that wagering pools have been on the rise with Magic City seeing the highest trifecta pools in the last 2-years. Despite being lower handle than Dania Jai-Alai, Magic City still pays out very high trifecta payoffs, well over $200 for the $1 average trifecta, which is no different than the Dania fronton. One huge difference between frontons, aside from offering a faster and more exciting version of Jai-Alai, is that Magic City appeals to all kinds of bettors by offering chances for BIG payoffs with the challenging Jai5 and the Mighty Ocho wagers with guaranteed minimum payoffs of $2,000 and $5,000 should one be the ONLY winner. The record Jai5 payoff to-date has been a massive $27,348 which occurred during the 10-week short season this year.

Don’t forget to get your selections submitted for the Magic City Weekly Fantasy Jai-Alai League for Week 10 which now has a 1:30-pm start on Saturdays instead of 4-pm. There is currently a $100 weekly cash prize to be split among the winners with the most points and a special one-of-a-kind Magic City themed merchandise award for the winner with the most weekly wins for 2021. SayHiLi.com’s website owner “SAY-HILI SUSIE” currently leads the contest with 4-weekly wins so far in 2021 for the 19-contest weeks to date. Congratulations Susie on your impressive handicapping skills!!

Steve M.

Magic City Week 8 Wrap-Up, El Barba Wins Golden Cesta!

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Steve

Tuesday, June 22nd concluded another week of the fast-action short-court Jai-Alai with Magic City professional Jai-Alai player El Barba dominating the Golden Cesta Award with his 7-wins for the week. Professionals Douglas and Julen were 2nd in the chase for this prestigious award with 4-wins each. This was El Barba’s 5th Golden Cesta Award at Magic City since week 11 of 2018 when SayHiLi’s statistician started tracking this prestigious award. There are only 2-players with more GC Awards at Magic City; Douglas with 25 and RonRon with 15. Congratulations El Barba for your hard work and this great accomplishment!

The 2021 regular season Singles Championship is turning out to be a contentious battle with lead changes happening regularly. Currently there are 8-players with 20-29 singles wins. Julen leads this group with 29 wins, Ben has 28, Anderluck and RonRon 26, El Barba 25, Benny 24, Ikeda 23, and Douglas has moved-up with 20 wins. There is another group of 3-players not far behind with 15-17 singles wins. Kubala and Spinner top this second group with 17 and Tennessee has 15-wins. The remaining players have 10-wins or less. Douglas took over the lead in highest win percent for the regular season with 25.0%. Top Magic City professional, Douglas (Matt Langhans) missed a large portion of the previous 2021 10-week mini season due to a wrist injury. Congratulations Douglas on this regular season accomplishment!

The second 2021 Doubles Tournament of the year is still being dominated by 3-teams. Cool Fitness-Spinner have 19-wins and lead two other strong teams; Kubala-Benny with 15-wins and Carballo-Tennessee with 13-wins. The team of El Barba-Ikeda are 4th with 8-wins, Diaz-Douglas 5th with 7-wins and Jeden-Julen 6th place with 6-wins. The team of Kubala-Benny have a large lead in the ITM category with 58% while the win leader team of Cool Fitness-Spinner have a 48.7% ITM. The third place win leading team of Carballo-Tennessee have a 42.3% ITM while 5th place team of Diaz-Douglas are 3rd in ITM with 44.4%. The Juice-RonRon team are the only other team with higher than 40% ITM with 42.1% for their 19-appearances. Juice has not been playing long as he had been recovering from knee surgery.

The Jai5 Jackpot wager was hit twice during Week 8 and both Jackpot scores were made on Tuesday. The Tuesday Mat-1 performance Jai5 was hit for a $1 price of $7,272.80 which was the 4th largest Jai5 payoff in Magic City history. The Jai5 was hit again by a lucky bettor at the Mat-2 for the minimum guarantee of $2,000. Note that both the Jai5 and the Mighty Ocho will be Force-Outs on Sunday’s 1-pm performance on June 27th.

Week 9 kicks-off on Saturday, June 26th, with a 4-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 3:30 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games start at 1-pm and also, be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1! Last but not least, do not forget about the Jackpot Force-Outs on Sunday! Good Luck and have a great week!

Mandatory Force-Outs of Magic City Jai-Alai Jackpots on Sunday, June 27th!

Posted on June 23, 2021June 23, 2021 by Steve

Both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho Jackpot wagers will be forced-out on the Sunday, June 27th 2021 performance which starts at 1-pm EST. The minimum guarantees for each wager will be the minimum amount paid-out for both of these wagers, thus, $5,000 will be the minimum amount paid out to ticket holders with the most correct winners for the Mighty Ocho $1 Pick 8 Jackpot wager and $2,000 minimum will be paid out for the Jai5 $1 Pick 5 Jackpot wager.

Usually a pari-mutuel facility will only pay-out a mandatory payout (aka Force-Out) of what is wagered on the Force-Out Day plus what was in the Jackpot Carryover, and that could be less than the minimum guaranteed amount, and a bettor would have to have ALL winners correctly selected to collect the entire minimum guaranteed amount, however, Magic City Jai-Alai goes above and beyond and guarantees the minimum guarantee amount to the bettor having the MOST correct winners. This is very generous of the Magic City Jai-Alai, world-class facility! You rock Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai!

Magic City Week 7 Wrap-Up, Kubala Wins Golden Cesta!

Posted on June 18, 2021June 18, 2021 by Steve

Another week of the fast-action short-court Jai-Alai finished on Tuesday, June 15th, with Magic City professional Jai-Alai player Kyle Kubala securing the Golden Cesta Award with his 5-wins for the week. Three other players were close behind with 4-wins; Anderluck, Douglas and Vuelo. This was Kubala’s 2nd Golden Cesta Award at Magic City since week 11 of 2018 when SayHiLi’s statistician started tracking this prestigious award.

The 2021 regular season Singles Championship is turning out to be quite a battle with lead changes happening regularly. Currently there are 6-players with 22-26 singles wins. RonRon and Ben lead this group with 26 wins, Julen had 25, Anderluck 24, while Benny and Ikeda have 22. There is another group of 5-players not far behind with 14-18 singles wins. El Barba tops this second group with 18, Douglas has 16, Kubala 15, while Spinner and Tennessee have 14-wins each. The next most wins behind the second group is led by Carballo and Vuelo with 8-wins each.

The second 2021 Doubles Tournament of the year is being dominated by 3-teams. Cool Fitness-Spinner have 17-wins and lead two teams with 12-wins each, the teams of Carballo-Tennessee and Kubala-Benny. The team of El Barba-Ikeda is a distant 4th with 7-wins and two other teams have 5-wins each. Several teams are struggling with 3% wins and a 21% ITM. Kubala-Benny have a large lead in the ITM category with 59.3% while the win leader team of Cool Fitness-Spinner have a 48.5% ITM. Carballo-Tennessee have a 45.6% ITM while Diaz-Douglas are 4th with 43.3% ITM. Juice returned to play this week starting Sunday after recovering from knee surgery and already the team of Juice-RonRon have 2-wins in their 10 appearances for the week for 20% wins and a respectable 40% ITM (10-2-0-2), so bettor’s better beware of the Juice-RonRon team.

The big win of the week came on Monday’s Mat-2 performance when a lucky Mighty Ocho bettor spent $8 on a ticket at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg and was the only winner of 8/8 correct winners to nail the $5,000 guaranteed payoff. That bettor’s winning ticket was 6/2+4/5/1+4/3/4/3+8/2. The winning sequence was heavily chalk for the games and at least one more bettor would have also had all 8-winners had the 8-post of Kubala-Benny won their game point in the 7th game. In the event of 2-winners with all 8-correct winners, the winning tickets would have split the consolation payoff and collected $15.20 each. There was a total of $76 wagered on the Mighty Ocho for this performance and consolation payback is 40% of the amount wagered. This is the first time in the history of Jai-Alai in the United States that a bettor has successfully hit all 8-winners of a Pick 8 wager. Congratulations Mr. K!

Week 8 kicks-off on Saturday, June 19th, with a 4-pm performance where live fans are allowed in the fronton. Seating starts at 3:30 pm. Don’t forget the exciting H2H doubles games start at 1-pm and also, be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections locked-in before the start of Saturday’s game 1! The Jai-5 is getting “Jai” with a nice carryover of $3,423.60 and will clear the $4,000 level on Saturday, so be sure to give this big jackpot wager a shot!

Lucky Bettor Nails the Mighty Ocho for Cool $5,000

Posted on June 15, 2021June 15, 2021 by Steve

Magic City’s version of a Pick 8 Jackpot Wager, called the Mighty Ocho, was successfully won by one single winning ticket for the $5,000 guaranteed minimum jackpot at Monday’s Mat-2 performance at 4:30-pm on June 14, 2021. At least one Jai-Alai fronton had a Pick 8 type wager over the years and this is the first time this amazing feat has been successfully accomplished by picking all 8-correct winners for the 8-game sequence. Palm Beach Jai-Alai had a $50,000 guaranteed Pick 8 wager in the early 1990’s where the winner(s) successfully picking all 8-winners would split $50,000. This was not a Pick 8 “Jackpot” wager like Magic City where the bettor has to be the ONLY winner successfully picking all 8-winners. The term “Jackpot” in the pari-mutuel industry implies one has to be the ONLY winner to secure the entire jackpot.

There was a total of $76 wagered on the Mighty Ocho for the Monday twilight performance. This Jackpot wager had grown to $1068.80 since the start of the 2021 regular season before it was successfully won for the guaranteed $5,000 minimum at the second performance of Monday’s double-header.

SayHili is aware of a regular Mighty Ocho bettor who had the first 6-winners on a 1-ticket wager costing $48 and needed the ending 48 / 2 for the last two legs to have all 8-winners correct. The 8-post of Kubala-Benny lost a game point in the 7th game for that bettor to have all 8-winners as Douglas from post 2 won the final game. The post 3 team of Carballo-Tennessee foiled that bettor’s ticket by winning the 7th leg of this “mighty difficult” wager. The game 7 trifecta result was 3-8-4.

Bettors have previously come close to successfully picking all 8-winners of this challenging wager on three different occasions with 7 of the 8 winners since the Mighty Ocho was introduced at the start of the 2020 season. SayHiLi has knowledge of one unlucky bettor who had 7 of 8 winners correct on one of those three occasions and lost a game point scenario when the player they needed over-served. Monday was the first time a bettor has successfully picked the first 7-winners going into the final leg. Magic City announcers Stu and Andrew were surprised to see one lucky bettor had a shot at the guaranteed $5,000 and had to do a “double-take” to make sure their eyes weren’t toying with them.

Congratulations to the $5k winner of this challenging wager! You now hold a place in Jai-Alai pari-mutuel history for successfully nailing the most difficult wager ever and may very well hold this coveted title for Jai-Alai eternity. Well done!

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 6 Wrap-Up, Anderluck Wins GC!

Posted on June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 by Steve

The week was another great one with amazing short-court Jai-Alai action as these fast-paced games won’t put you to sleep at this fronton! The players keep improving and always give it 100% here, something revered and respected by Magic City Jai-Alai fans!

Anderluck had the most singles wins for Week 6 and prevailed in capturing his 5th Golden Cesta Award of his career. He is tied at 3rd with Carballo on most GC Awards, both players having 5 each! Douglas leads with 25 overall and RonRon is next most with 15.

The 2021 Regular Season Singles Championship is setting up to be the most competitive ever with more than a third of the roster jockeying for the top spot with only 6-wins separating the top 7 contenders. Currently, Ben & RonRon top the leaderboard with 23-wins, Julen has 22, Anderluck has 20, 17-yo Benny (brother of Douglas) is tied with Ikeda at 19-wins, and El Barba has 17. Strong late game players Spinner and Douglas have 14 and 12-wins each, respectively, and Tennessee also has 12-wins. Kubala isn’t far behind with 10-wins. The remainder of the players have 7-wins or less and are not out of the picture with this long season of short-court action extending through the end of November.

The 2nd Doubles tournament of 2021 has been quite the showcase of team talent at Magic City. Former Dania professional, Spinner, new to the Magic City roster for 2021 has been a great addition to Magic City with his strong competitive spirit and command of the Magic City short-court. The team of Cool Fitness and Spinner have so far been dominating this tournament with 15-wins in their 55 appearances for 27.3% wins, however 2nd place team of Kubala-Benny are closing in with 11-wins and dominated Week 6 doubles with their top 33.3% wins for the week and 66.7% ITM. Carballo-Tennessee are a close 3rd with 9-wins. Doubles teams at the low end are currently Anderluck-Vuelo with no wins in 24-starts and Bueno-Ben with 1-win in 22 starts.

Juice, a Magic City fan favorite since the inaugural season, was seen practicing on Tuesday and makes his return to play on Sunday, June 13. So far, Juice has missed all of 2021 as he underwent knee surgery and has been recovering. Welcome back Juice and SayHiLi wishes you the best on your return! Juice is well known for his spunk on the court and catching opponents off-guard with his surprise dejadas and caroms.

Don’t forget to catch even more exciting short-court Magic City Jai-Alai action with H2H Doubles games on Saturday at 1-pm on the JAC (Jai-Alai Channel) and H2H Singles at 10-am every Monday before the Monday double-header at 1-pm and 4:30-pm. Also, something new in 2021 is Tuesday Jai-Alai with another double-header at the same times. Be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections in before Saturday at 4-pm to for your shot at FREE weekly cash!

Magic City Week 5 Wrap-Up, Week 6 Starts Saturday 4-pm!

Posted on June 4, 2021June 4, 2021 by Steve

Magic City concluded another week of exciting short-court Jai-Alai on Tuesday, June 1 with a Golden Cesta Award that came down to the end with the impressive Ikeda winning his 4th award. Ikeda had 7-singles wins for the week while Julen, who played great all week, had 6-wins and Ben, who is off to a great start, had 5-wins. Cool Fitness has made some amazing improvements and has become quite the contender in early games with 3-wins in his 14-singles game appearances, which was 1-win more than Magic City stars Douglas and RonRon had combined for the week.

The doubles tourney team of Kubala-Benny were the doubles team of the week with 4-wins in their 12-appearances for 33.3% wins while Diaz-Douglas with only 1-win led Week 5 in doubles % ITM with 66.7% (12-1-2-5). The team of Cool Fitness-Spinner still lead this 2nd doubles tournament of 2021 with 13-wins in 44-appearances for an impressive 29.5% wins and lead the 2nd place team of Kubala-Benny by 5-wins (Kubala-Benny: 39-8-7-7, 20.5% wins, 56.4% ITM). Carballo-Tennessee are 3rd with 7-wins (15.2% wins, 45.7% ITM). The next best teams have 4-wins or less and need to find another gear before they are left in the dust.

Th 2021 regular season Singles Championship is the most exciting to-date with so many players bunched-up at the top. Ben currently leads with 21-wins. Ben is perhaps one of the most dedicated players on the roster as he spends a large amount of time on the Magic City court in his off-time. He also worked at the Miami fronton in the off-season and got some good tips from a few of the world’s best players and this has rewarded him handsomely so far. Julen and RonRon are one win behind with 20-wins each and Ikeda has been closing the gap with his 17-wins. The youngest player on the roster and brother of Douglas, Benny, is tied at 15-wins with El Barba who has also been playing some consistent Jai-Alai and showing good form with his play. The hard-throwing Anderluck had 14-wins and Spinner has 12-wins. Spinner has the highest % ITM in singles with an incredible 65.2% and thus rewarding some smart trifecta bettors consistently with their wheel bets.

The week concluded with the Jai-5 being nailed by one lucky fan for a handsome $5,890 which was in the top 10 highest payoffs for this popular wager and was the 100th time this Jackpot-type wager was hit with a single winning ticket since the wager’s inception. A Jackpot wager is a wager where a bettor has to be the ONLY winning ticket to win the entire jackpot, otherwise the multiple winners with 5 of 5 correct winners share in splitting the consolation payoff for that performance. Magic City always announces how this popular wager works, which is identical to how numerous popular horse tracks operate their Jackpot wagers for Pick X betting. The objective of a pari-mutuel plant in offering Jackpot wagers is to build a large jackpot for their fan base. Large jackpots can be a big draw for fans and become more exciting the larger they grow. They also help increase the handle in betting on other races/games. Magic City Jai-Alai had its largest average trifecta handle per game the week the Jai-5 paid a whopping $27,348 during the short 10-week meet in 2021.

Get ready for Week 6 at Saturday 4-pm where fans are allowed in the fronton for live viewing (ONLY for Saturday performances at this time). Seating starts at 3:30 pm on a first-come first-serve basis. Be sure to load your four Magic City Jai-Alai Fantasy League picks for this week. Bueno is still not back in the entries for Saturday/Sunday. He has been experiencing chronic shoulder pain and we hope he gets back in action soon. Juice is still recovering from his injury and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Tune in to the H2H doubles games at 1-pm on Saturday on the JAC for some great games. There is $100k in H2H prize money for H2H singles and doubles during the regular season (May-November). Be sure to support Magic City short-court Jai-Alai, the most transparent Jai-Alai ever to be played, where players give it 100% all of the time, the way Jai-Alai is supposed to be played!

Week 4 Douglas Nabs his 25th Golden Cesta Award!

Posted on May 27, 2021 by Steve

Despite missing the first performance for Week 4, the amazing Douglas still was able to win the Golden Cesta Award with 4-wins for the week. Four players were tied with most wins for the week, 4-wins each, however Douglas won the Golden Cesta Award with the tiebreaker rules of the highest win percent of 40%. The other players with 4-wins were Spinner (28.6%), Tennessee (21.1%) and Julen 19.2%. Douglas also dominated in overall % ITM for Week 4 with an impressive 70% (10-4-2-1). Next best in that category were RonRon and Spinner who both had 57.1% ITM.

The doubles team of Cool Fitness-Spinner continued to pile on the wins with 3-wins in their 10-games for Week 4. The team of CRB-Bradley impressed fans and have become major contenders for a piece of the prize money with their 3-wins in 10 appearances for Week 4. Cool and Spinner have a commanding lead with 12-wins while the current 2nd place team of Carballo-Tennessee have 5-wins. Needless to say, Cool and Spinner are playing extremely well together and will be hard to beat!

The 2021 Regular Season Singles Championship is squaring up to be one for the history books. RonRon still leads with 18-singles game wins, however, Ben has been playing extremely well and is only 2-wins behind. A total of 10-players have from 10-18 wins through Week 4. Douglas has been quickly rising up the leader board in the short time he’s been back from his wrist injury and is playing some amazing Jai-Alai. He’s a true champion and impressive to watch his incredible mastery of the “scoop” catch. He’s been throwing hard and focusing on shot placement and his stats are impressive in late game singles (32-9-6-1).

Week 5 action kicks off on Saturday, May 29th, at 4-pm and don’t forget that fans are allowed in the fronton for Saturday viewing with seating starting at 3:30 pm on a first-come first-serve basis. Get your Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai league picks in before 4-pm Saturday and be sure to tout this FREE contest to your friends and relatives so the weekly cash prize can grow!

Week 4 Regular Season Starts Today! Bradley & Jeden Back!

Posted on May 22, 2021May 22, 2021 by Steve

The incredible short-court Jai-Alai action return today at 4-pm to Magic City Jai-Alai for week 4 of the regular season. Live fans are allowed to attend for the Saturday performances only and seating starts at 3:30-pm on a first-come first-serve basis so be sure to arrive early to get your preferred seating, including the special pod-seating! Magic City Jai-Alai professionals Bradley & Jeden are listed in the entries and expected to be returning from injuries. Welcome back Bradley & Jeden!

Today’s action features all singles games, however, doubles games are returning for Sunday and the rest of the Jai-Alai week. Be sure to get your Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections completed before the start of today’s first game.

Week 3 featured some amazing singles Jai-Alai games as this talented roster continues to improve. Ben won the Golden Cesta Award for the most singles wins with 8-wins in his 36-games played for a 22.2% win rate. Kubala was right behind with a great week with 7-wins and the best % ITM of the week with 59.4%. Spinner was second best on % ITM with 55.6% for the week but struggled to hit the quiniela with a weekly record of 18-1-1-8 with those 8-third place finishes. Magic City star Douglas had the highest win rate of the week with 27.8% wins (18-5-4-0).

The regular season Singles Championship is tightening up with 8-players that now have between 9-15 wins. RonRon still leads the pack through 3-weeks of action with 15-wins. Ben is 2nd with 14, Benny (17-yo brother of Douglas) has 13, Anderluck 11, El Barba & Julen 10, Ikeda & Kubala 9. The overall leader on % ITM for the regular season is Spinner with an amazing 66.7 and RonRon is second with 58.1.

Be sure to tune in to watch the doubles H2H at 1-pm today!

Magic City Week 3 Regular Season Starts Saturday 4-pm!

Posted on May 14, 2021May 14, 2021 by Steve

Week 3 of the regular 2021 season at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida kicks off with live fans allowed for the Saturday 4-pm performance. Fans are only allowed in the Jai-Alai viewing area, called the fronton, for the Saturday performances each week.

Week 2 showcased some fantastic Jai-Alai skills with this roster. RonRon clinched the Golden Cesta Award, his 15th award, by winning 7 of his 12 singles games for an amazing 58.3% wins. The Golden Cesta Award is an honorary award for the player who wins the most singles games for the week. Most of Magic City Jai-Alai games are singles as 6 of the 8-games each performance are singles games. Historically, singles games are the most popular with the betting fans as they tend to be easier to handicap than doubles games.

The 2nd doubles tournament of 2021 was again dominated by the team of Cool Fitness & Spinner who won 4 of their 12 singles games in Week 2 and now have won 9 of their 24 appearances. They lead the doubles tournament with their 9-wins and have a comfortable lead over the 2nd place team of Carballo & Tennessee who have a total of 4-wins in their 24-appearances. Note that due to a player shortage because of injuries, doubles games are on-hold for Week 3 and thus, Week 3 will feature all singles games.

Don’t forget to make your (4) weekly Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections, which this week will be 4-singles game players. Magic City is the only Jai-Alai in operation that offers fans a FREE chance to win $100 or more weekly based on the number of active participants. Already this year, in the 12-weeks of this fantasy league, there have been two different contestants who have won first place 3-times each, so this truly is a game of skill and not just luck as there have been more than 100-contestants entering this contest each week.

Be sure to tune in to The Jai-Alai Channel Saturday though Tuesday to watch the best professional short-court Jai-Alai players in the country compete and don’t miss out on the opportunities for BIG PAYOFFS only at Magic City Jai-Alai. You can win $5,000 if you pick the winners of games 1-8 and are the only bettor to do so. Also, be sure to give the highly popular Jai-5 wager a shot where you can win a minimum of $2,000 if you can successfully pick the winners of games 3-7 and are the only bettor to do so. Already since May 1st there have been two big winners correctly selecting all 5-winners of games 3-7. You could be the next big winner. Magic City also has the standard pari-mutuel wagers: Win, Place, Show, Daily Doubles, Pick 3’s, Quinielas, Exactas, and the high paying Trifectas.

Don’t forget, tomorrow at 4-pm! Be there or be square!!

Steve M, SayHiLi.com

Magic City Jai-Alai Wrap-up Week 1 of Regular Season

Posted on May 7, 2021May 7, 2021 by Steve

Magic City kicked-off week 1 of the regular season on Kentucky Derby Day, May 1 of 2021, and showcased some great Jai-Alai action! The regular season now features six performances a week from Saturday through Tuesday with double-headers on Monday and Tuesday.

The changes for the 2021 regular season are as follows: 8-games a performance instead of 9 (no longer a 9-point superfecta game), addition of two Daily Double wagers with $2 min bets (no $1 tickets, so less of those small Daily Double payoffs like Dania has), increased guarantee to $5,000 for the Mighty Ocho (the $1 Pick 8 Jackpot wager bet), and LIVE fan viewing allowed starting Saturday May 8th. The LIVE fan viewing is only allowed for the Saturday performance at this time, but expect a capacity crowd for this on May 8th as this short-court Jai-Alai has become a great entertainment option with the faster paced games than traditional Jai-Alai at Dania Jai-Alai. Magic City Jai-Alai is the home of the best short-court Jai-Alai action in the country.

Anderluck won the Golden Cesta Award Week 1 by winning the most singles games with 5-wins (5-wins in 28-games). He took full advantage of winning some extra games played due to filling-in as a sub for Jeden who suffered a back injury (minor we believe) early in week 1. RonRon and Spinner both had exceptional weeks winning 4-games each ending the week, Win % and ITM % as follows: Spinner 33.3 and 75.0, RonRon 30.8 and 61.5.

The 2nd doubles tournament of 2021 also kicked-off Week 1 and the team of Cool Fitness-Spinner stole the show with 5-wins in their 12-games for 41.7% wins (overall record 12-5-1-1). Carballo-Tennessee did not disappoint either as their record was 12-3-1-5 for a commanding ITM stat of 75%. The team of Diaz-Douglas are currently win-less in 12-games but look for that to change soon. Douglas has started the regular season playing only doubles games but could be playing in one singles game a performance starting on Monday, May 10. Douglas has been out for some time recovering from a wrist injury.

Jeden and Bradley both scratched during the week due to back issues. Both players had started week 1 with some great stats. Jeden had 6-games played with 1-win and 2-places while Bradley had 1-win in 5-games played before his back issue. SayHiLi wishes a speedy recovery to these two Magic City Jai-Alai professionals.

Magic City set a new record for the 2021 trifecta pool in week 1 with a pool of $2,193 for game 8 on Monday. Payoffs have been excellent for the $1 trifecta, averaging $265 for week 1 for the 48-games played. Actually, Magic City’s $1 trifectas have been averaging between $240 and $265 for 6 of the last 7-weeks. Try comparing these averages to the Dania fronton to the north!

The popular Jai-5 wager was not won during week 1 and has a jackpot of $1,604.40 for the upcoming Saturday 4-pm performance. Based on Saturday wagering activity on this fun wager, the jackpot could surpass the $2,000 min guarantee for a single winning ticket. The record payoff for the Jai-5 is $27,348, making Magic City Jai-Alai the home of BIG PAYOFFS for Jai-Alai bettors.

H2H Jai-Alai games also kicked off on Saturday, May 1st, with the start of Doubles H2H at 1-pm. The doubles H2H is played every Saturday at 1-pm and singles H2H is Monday at 10-am. There is an astonishing $100,000 in H2H prize money to be awarded during the regular season. The doubles teams are the same as the doubles teams during the current doubles tournament that started May 1. This is the second doubles tournament of the year. If you haven’t yet seen any of the H2H games, you are really missing out as they are very intense and highly competitive!

Don’t forget to sign-up again for the great fan participation opportunity, ONLY at Magic City Jai-Alai. I’m talking about the Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League with cash prizes weekly for participants with the most points. The prize is $100 weekly but could be higher based on the number of active contestants.

Finally, apologies for not posting more frequently on this great entertainment option at Magic City Jai-Alai. I’m struggling to keep up at this time. I had a recent mini-stroke, world’s worst headache was the first indication and lasted about 40-minutes. I had to have several very expensive tests and those indicated it was indeed a stroke, so I’m having to take it a bit easier, and again, my apologies.

Steve M.

Magic City Jai-Alai 10-week Mini-Season Wrap-Up

Posted on April 15, 2021April 17, 2021 by Steve

The Magic City Jai-Alai 10-week mini-season concluded on Monday, April 12^th. Here is a short summary of the season:

Singles Championship:

RonRon – $5,000 for First, 35 wins in 90 games (38.9% wins)

CRB – $3,000 for Second, 19 wins in 93 games (20.4% wins)

Spinner – $1,000 for Third, 16 wins in 90 games (17.8% wins)

There was a tie for 3^rd between Spinner and Bueno after the conclusion of game 9 on Monday, each had 16-wins. Bueno’s record was 16 wins in 118 games (13.6% wins). The tie led to a dead-heat tie-breaker game to 6-single points between Spinner and Bueno. The tie-breaker was using the same format as a set in an H2H match, the first to win 6-single points was the winner for third and 2-serves were allowed just as in H2H. Spinner was favored to win the tie-breaker and won with a score of 6-3.

1^st Doubles Tournament of 2021:

Kubala-Benny – split $10,000 for First, 11 wins in 50 games (22.0% wins)

Bueno-Ben – split $5,000 for Second, 10 wins in 53 games (18.9% wins)

Juice-RonRon were 3^rd with 9 wins in 53 games (17.0% wins)

Ikeda-El Barba were 4^th with 7 wins in 51 games (13.7% wins)

Jeden-Bradley were 5^th with 6 wins in 51 games (11.8% wins)

CRB-Spinner were 6^th with 5 wins in 53 games (9.4% wins)

Golden Cesta Awards:

RonRon won 6-consecutive GC Awards from Weeks 5-10. He was the only player to win multiple GC Awards during the 10-week mini-season. Other winners were: Week 1 – Vuelo, Week 2 – Douglas, Week 3 – Ikeda, Week 4 – CRB

Mandatory Payouts on Closing Day, April 12^th:

Jai-5 paid $5,533.60 to (1) lucky winner with 5 of 5 winners ($5,952 total handle on Jai-5).

Mighty Ocho paid 4,477.60 to (1) lucky winner with 6 of 8 winners ($3,840 total handle on MO).

Record Jai-5 Payoff:

The Jai-5 paid a whopping record payoff of $27,348 to a single ticket holder with 5 of 5 correct winners on April 5th, shattering the previous record of $12,220 in 2019.

Congratulations to Magic City Jai-Alai players, support staff and management for a successful 10-week mini season!

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 9 Recap

Posted on April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 by Steve

INTERESTING STATS – 06-April-2021 through Week 9

RECORD JAI-5 PAYOFF:

The Magic City $1.00 Jai-5 wager went 16-consecutive performances without a single winning ticket holder and the jackpot had swelled to $20,408 for Monday’s 1-pm performance where one winner took down the Jai-5 for a record payoff of $27,348! A Jai-5 record handle of $8,675 was wagered going after the large jackpot. The previous Jai-5 record was 12-consecutive performances without a winner and resulted in a record payout of $12,220 on November 13^th 2019.

RECORD 2021 TRIFECTA POOLS:

Monday’s April 5^th performance games 8 and 9 produced the two highest trifecta pools for the 2021 10-week meet so far with pools of $1,979 and $1,985, respectively. The previous 2021 high was a trifecta pool of $1,827 on game 8 of the Monday, March 22^nd performance.

OVERALL – RonRon (5^th Consecutive GC Award) , RonRon (Singles Championship Locked-up), Kubala-Benny (Leading Doubles Tournament by 1-Win):

RonRon continued to dominate singles games and show consistency for the short 10-week meet. He won his 5th consecutive Golden Cesta Award with 3-singles game wins for Week 9 and winning the second tie-breaker of % ITM since he was tied for 3-wins with Ikeda and Kubala. The 1^st-tie-breaker which was % wins removed Kubala from the running as he had 25% wins compared to the other’s 33.3% wins. RonRon edged out Ikeda in the 2^nd tie-breaker with 66.7% ITM compared to Ikeda’s 44.4% ITM.

RonRon has locked-up 1^st place in the 10-week meet Singles Championship, distancing himself from the field with his 28-victories for a 34.6% win rate. CRB is 2^nd best with 18-wins and Spinner is 3^rd with 16-wins. There are 7-players in the running for 2^nd and 3^rd place honors and prize money with only 7-wins separating those 7-players.

The team of Kubala-Benny took the lead in the hotly contested 1^st 2021 Doubles Tournament with 9-team wins and only (6) tournament games left in this first 2021 tourney. Their lead is a slim 1-win advantage over Bueno-Ben and Juice-RonRon with 8-wins each, followed by Ikeda-El Barba with 7-wins and Jeden-Bradley with 6-wins. The remaining four active teams have from 2-4 wins each. This exciting tournament could well come down to the last doubles game of the 10-week meet (Game 7) on Monday, April 12^th.

SINGLES GAMES:

Some consistent or improved players:

RonRon has won 1-2 singles games in 16 of the last 17 performances and has earned the nickname Mr. Consistent. He’s been ITM 20-consecutive performances in his 3-singles game a performance. He’s only been out-of-the-money ONCE in 27-performances.
CRB continues with great play and has 12-performances in a row with ITM finishes.
Kubala has now gone 11-performances in a row with ITM finishes.
Vuelo & Jeden have ITM streaks of 8-consecutive performances.
Diaz, off to a slow start in 2021, is perhaps the most improved for the 2^nd half of the season. He was ITM 2/14 performances prior to March 8, after March 8^th he’s been ITM 9/13 performances. He’s had 6-consecutive performances ITM.
Anderluck has also improved, he was off to a slow start with only 1-win the first 2-months and how he’s had wins in 2 of the last 3-performances (overall 79-3-12-12).
Bradley was winless in his first 13-performances of 2021 but has kicked it into high gear with 6 wins in the last 14-performances.
Carballo has also been coming on strong with 1-3 times in the Quiniela in his singles games for the last 4-performances.
Benny has no wins in his 3-singles games for each of the last 6-performances, but has 2^nd place finishes in all of those performances.
Cool Fitness has places in 4 of the last 6-performances and has been ITM 5 of his last 6-performances, a huge improvement for him.
Juice (54-3-2-6) had a win and a place on the April 4^th performance for Week 9.

Some “due” players:

Tennessee has been out-of-the-money for 6-consecutive performances, but watch out in Week 10 as he played some great H2H on Tuesday, April 6^th, including an upset match win over El Barba. Previously, Tennessee has only been out-of-the money for 2-consecutive performances at most.
Cool Fitness only has 1-win for the meet in 64-games (64-1-7-4), but played some great H2H on Tuesday also, with an upset win over CRB so be watching for another win or more in the final week.
Watch out for Bueno as he’s only had 4-ITM finishes in the last 2-weeks (25-games total), and he’s capable of much better!

DOUBLES GAMES:

The hot teams:

The Kubala-Benny team has been ITM in 12 of their last 13-performances. They are the current doubles tournament leader with 9-wins (44-9-7-8)
Diaz-Carballo have been winning 1-game every other performance for the last 6-performances.

Some “due” teams:

Bueno-Ben are only twice in the Quiniela in their last 19-games.
Second place team Juice-RonRon have no wins in the last 7-performances.

SOME SPECIFIC SINGLES GAME STATS:

Game 1:

Vuelo not in the Quiniela the last 18-games
Cool Fitness – no game 1 win in 27 attempts

Game 2: nothing overly significant found

Game 3:

El Barba only once in Quiniela in 26-games
Diaz and Tennessee – no game 3 wins

Game 4: Bueno at 27-9-3-6 this game has only been in the Quiniela once in his last 6-games.

Game 6:

Bradley (27-1-2-4) could surprise in this late game with his significantly improved singles play the 2^nd half of the 10-week meet.
Jeden (21-0-0-5) and Kubala (20-0-3-1) could also upset in in this late game with their recent improved play.

Game 8: RonRon (27-10-3-3) has a 37% win rate in this game.

Game 9: RonRon (27-12-2-2) has an astonishing 44.4% win rate in this 9-point game.

Lone Winner Takes Down Jai-5 for $27,348!

Posted on April 5, 2021April 5, 2021 by Steve

The Jai-5 Jackpot was taken down by a single winning ticket at Monday’s 1-pm EST performance for a whopping $27,348, a new record for this popular wager! The winning posts for the sequence of games 3-7 was 4-2-3-8-4. Winners of the games were as follows: Anderluck (game 3), Bradley (game 4), Jeden-Bradley (game 5 in a perfect game), Spinner (game 6 in a perfect game), and Kubala-Benny (game 7). Prior to today’s winning ticket, the jackpot had gone a record 16-consecutive performances without a jackpot winner.

All 8-posts were covered for 5 of 5 correct winners and surprisingly, there were no multiple winners for any of the posts. A Jai-5 record handle of $8,675 was wagered by bettors into the jackpot for today’s performance. This $27,348 payoff shattered the previous record Jai-5 payoff of $12,220 which was won on 13-Nov-2019.

The jackpot starts out again for Saturday’s 4-pm performance with the usual $2,000 guaranteed payoff should there only be a single winning ticket with all 5-correct winners. Monday, April 12th is the conclusion of the short 10-week session of extra Jai-Alai at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai and both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho jackpots will be Forced-Out.

The regular meet of Magic City Jai-Alai begins on May 1st and runs through the end of November with 6-performances a week on Saturday through Tuesday (double-headers on Monday & Tuesday).

Magic City Jai-5 Jackpot Getting “Jai-er” – over $25k expected Monday!

Posted on April 5, 2021April 5, 2021 by Steve

Magic City’s “Jai-ly” popular wager, the $1.00 Jai-5 jackpot wager, has now gone 16-consecutive performances without a winner and has a jackpot carryover of $20,408 going into Monday’s 1-pm EST performance. The jackpot is expected to pay a minimum of $25,000 on Monday should a single winning ticket holder correctly select the winner of games 3-7!

There have been live tickets for the jackpot in the last 3-performances, including a blown game point on last Monday’s performance. There are only 3-performances left till the Force-Outs on closing day of the short 10-week meet on April 12th. Should there be no single winning Jai-5 ticket through April 11, there will be a massive jackpot paid out to the ticket holders with the most correct winners. This is called a Force-Out (aka a Mandatory Payout). The Jackpot Force-Outs on April 12 also includes the Force-Out of a minimum guarantee of at least $4,000 to be paid out on the $1.00 Pick 8 wager called the “Mighty Ocho” to those lucky ticket holders with the most correct winners in games 1-8.

Good Luck on Monday to those Jai-5ers who are going after this big jackpot! It’s been a very tough Jai-Alai bettor’s challenge and based on what’s been happening, bettors will surely be prepared and planning to expect the unexpected!

The Vultures are Circling Above Magic City Jai-Alai Today! They Smell $20k!

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Steve

Word of the largest jackpot in recent Jai-Alai history at Magic City Casino & Jai-Alai has spread and word is, the horse and greyhound professional gamblers have taken notice and are asking questions. When it comes to the popular Jackpot Wagers featured at all the big racetracks, and even smaller ones, everyone takes notice when the $20k threshold is reached. The last time a Jai-Alai jackpot reached this size was probably back in the early 2000’s on a Tri-Super at Fort Pierce Jai-Alai. So, this is a rare event in the world of Jai-Alai these days.

Be on the lookout for some old-timer greyhound and Jai-Alai system professional gamblers to attempt to swoop-down and try to fly away with a $20k plus jackpot that’s been built-up by authentic Magic City Jai-Alai fans. True Magic City Jai-Alai fans are hoping the vultures go feast on some other jackpot.

The HUGE Jai-5 jackpot wager starts on game 3 of today’s 4-pm Saturday matinee. Should it survive today, there is another shot at the big one at tomorrow’s noon performance EST. Yes, both Magic City and Dania ARE open on Easter Sunday. Your kin may not like it, but “ya gotta do what ya gotta do” and spend quality time with kin after those bets are in (first things first in this situation, IMHO)!

Magic City Jai-Alai Week 8 Recap, Jai-5 Could Top $20k for Saturday

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Steve

INTERESTING STATS – 30-March-2021 through Week 8

THE SCOOP ON THE JAI-5:

The Magic City $1.00 Jai-5 wager has now gone 14-consecutive performances without a single winning ticket holder and the jackpot has swelled to $14,802.40 for Saturday’s 4-pm performance with a potential of paying $20,000 to a single winning ticket holder. The previous Jai-5 record was 12-consecutive performances without a winner and resulted in a record payout of $12,220 on November 13^th 2019. The other next longest non-Jackpot paying streaks happened in 2020 when twice this Jai-ly popular wager went 10-consecutive performances without a winner. A record $7,614 was wagered on the Jai-5 on Monday, March 29^th.

There are only 5-performances left till the final day of the short 10-week meet until there will be a Force-Out of both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho Jackpots. The burning question is, will the Jai-5 jackpot survive until the April 12^th Force-Out?

Why has this jackpot gone so long without a winner? The main factors are: Douglas is out of the entries and recovering from a wrist injury (he had dominated in singles and doubles), Ikeda was moved out of Game 4 to play in all late singles games (6,8,9) where he had dominated in Game 4, the most highly competitive doubles game teams in Magic City history where 4-different teams are within 1-win each for the lead, and the Magic City improved roster for 2021 with the addition of Spinner, Julen and 17-yo Benny (youngest brother of Douglas).

OVERALL (It’s RonRon, RonRon, Juice-RonRon):

RonRon continues to dominate and show consistency for the short 10-week meet. He won his 4^rd consecutive Golden Cesta Award with 4 or 5 wins in the 9 games each of the last four weeks with astonishing 44-56% singles game win rates!

RonRon continues to lead the Singles Championship, being the first player to hit the 25-win mark and has distanced himself from the field with second best CRB having 16-wins with time running out and has locked-up first place money.

The team of Juice-RonRon continue to lead the hotly contested 1^st 2021 Doubles Tournament with 8-team wins and only (12) tournament games left in this first tourney. Their lead is only by one win and this event may well come down to the last exciting game to determine the winners. There are 3-other teams only 1-win Juice-RonRon with 7-wins each: Bueno-Ben, Ikeda-El Barba, Kubala-Benny. Watch-out for Kubala-Benny who went on a rampage winning both singles games on Monday to tie for second place honors. The remaining teams have a huge disadvantage with the clock running out and only 2-4 team wins to date.

SINGLES GAMES:

Some consistent players:

Ikeda ITM streak has lengthened to 20-performances in a row and has only missed being ITM in one performance early in the 10-week meet.
CRB continues to WOW the fans in 2021 with his amazing improved talent in early games. He’s second in the Singles Championship and has 9-performances in a row with an ITM finish.
Kubala has now gone 8-performances in a row with an ITM finish.
Jeden’s play has improved and he’s secured an ITM finish in 9 of the last 10-performances.
RonRon’s singles win streak continues and has lengthened to 11-consecutive performances with one or two wins. He’s the Singles Championship leader with a 34.7% win record (72-25-8-4). There have only been 5 of 24 performances where he hasn’t won a game in his 3-singles game appearances in late games 6, 8 & 9.

Some “due” players:

Anderluck’s drought continues with only 1-win in 67-games (67-1-10-10). He hasn’t hit the quiniela in the last 7-performances. This hard-throwing player is on the verge of wins very soon and has lost game points recently.
Cool Fitness also has only 1-win in 58-games (58-1-5-4), but has shown much improved play in recent games and H2H matches, so bettors better beware here.
Tennessee has now gone 3-performances in a row with no ITM finish and 7-performances in a row with no wins, so watch for this strong early game player to catch fire soon.
Bueno is coming off an unusual week for his usual standard and has gone 2-performances in a row with no ITM finish, quite unusual for him to say the least. His Week 8 record was (13-0-0-1), so watch for improvement here from this talented player who rarely misses a catch.

DOUBLES GAMES:

Two doubles teams won two games each in Week 8 of the 1^st 2021 Doubles Tournament, the teams of Kubala-Benny and CRB-Spinner. The tourney has been highly competitive with some of the best doubles games in Magic City history played in Week 8. Only 12-doubles games remain in the first tournament.

Some hot teams:

The Kubala-Benny team has been ITM the last 10-performances which is an amazing run based on only 2-doubles games a performance and teams don’t always play in both of them. They only have 4-wins and time is running out, so watch for them to really be pouring it on to try to get a piece of the prize money.
Juice-RonRon are in the tourney lead with 8-wins and have the highest win rating of 19.0% (42-8-3-5). This team will be trying to maintain the lead in this tightly contested tourney. They have no wins in the last 4-performances, so beware.

Some “due” teams:

The 2^nd place team of Bueno-Ben has gone 7-performances in a row without a win or place.
Anderluck-Tennessee team hasn’t won a game in the last 17-performances.
Tournament leaders Juice-RonRon have gone 4-performances without a win.