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.

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).

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)!

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.

INTERESTING STATS – 23-March-2021 through Week 7

THE SCOOP ON THE JAI-5:

The Magic City $1.00 Jai-5 wager has now gone 11-consecutive performances in a row without a single winning ticket holder and the jackpot has swelled to $7,230.40 for Saturday’s 4-pm performance.  There has only been one other time in Jai-5 history where the wager has gone longer without paying-out.  The 2019 inaugural Jai-5 season produced a Jai-5 winner for $12,220 after going 12-consecutive performances without a winner.  The other next longest streaks happened in 2020 when twice this Jai-ly popular wager went 10-consecutive performances without a winner.

The Jai-5 syndicates have been taking a hit and the word on the street is they’ve been in contact with Jeeves to get loans to continue.  Rumor has it that Jeeves is printing up some cash and heading in an armored car to The Sports Club at Magic City on Saturday afternoon to take down the big Jai-5 jackpot himself!  If that’s true, the syndicates are in big trouble as Jeeves is a numbers genius!  No one messes with The Jeeves.

Fans need to remember, if you don’t bet the Jai-5, you won’t get the “Jai” from hitting the Jai-5…..and this one promises to be a BIG ONE!  So, be there and take the dare!

OVERALL:

RonRon continues to dominate and show consistency for the short 10-week meet.  He won his 3^rd consecutive Golden Cesta Award with 4 wins in 9 games each of the last three weeks for an astonishing 44.4% win rate!

He continues to lead the Singles Championship, being the first player to hit the 20-win mark and has distanced himself from the field with second best CRB having 14-wins.

The team of Juice-RonRon continue to lead the hotly contested 1^st 2021 Doubles Tournament with only (18) 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 games to determine the winners.  Last week (wk 7) the 6-doubles games were won by 6-different teams.   Magic City’s COO Scott Savin did an excellent job selecting equally-matched teams for this first tournament , as evidenced by the top five teams having 8,7,6,5,4 wins respectively.

SINGLES GAMES:

Some consistent and/or improved players:

• Bradley is the most improved of late and seems to have “come alive” in the singles department.  He was winless in the first 13-performances and now he has wins in 4 of the last 8-performances and 3 of the last 5-performances.  His first 18-singles games was (18-0-0-2) while his last 25 games look like this (25-4-2-4).  So, whatever Bradley’s doing, he needs to bottle it and sell it!
• Ikeda ITM streak has lengthened to 17-performances in a row and has only missed being ITM on one performance early in the 10-week meet.
• CRB continues to WOW the fans in 2021 with his amazing talent and still hasn’t gone more than 2-performances without a win.  There have only been 3 performances where he’s gone without an ITM finish.
• RonRon’s singles win streak continues and has lengthened to 11-consecutive performances with one or more wins.
• Bueno has been very consistent this meet with only 2-performances without an ITM finish.
• Kubala game is getting back on track with ITM finishes the last 5-performances and multiple ITM finishes in 4 of the last 5-performances.  He’s now playing some of his best singles since his slow start early in the meet.  Here’s Kubala’s record for 2/6 through 3/8 (36-3-1-5) for 9/31 ITM compared to the last 2-weeks from 3/13 through 3/22 (19-2-6-2) for 8/19 IM.
• Carballo’s short drought appears to be over.  He had gone 3-consecutive performances without an ITM finish.  On Monday he played like he was on a mission, going 3-1-0-2 for a perfect 100% ITM in singles.

Some “Due” players:

• Anderluck has only 1-win in 57-games (57-1-10-9).  He hasn’t hit the quiniela in the last 4-performances.
• Ikeda has “cooled-off.”  The first 5-weeks his record was 38-8-11-4 for 23/38 ITM or 60.5% while the last 2-weeks were 18-1-3-2 for 6/18 ITM or 33.3%.

DOUBLES GAMES:

Six different doubles teams won the six games in Week 7 of the 1^st 2021 Doubles Tournament.  The tourney has been highly competitive with some of the best points every being played at Magic City Jai-Alai in Week 7.

Some hot teams:

• The Kubala-Benny team has been ITM the last 7-performances.
• Juice-RonRon are in the tourney lead and remain strong with a 23-7-1-4 record in their last 23-games. They had the best ITM for the week with (5-1-0-2) for 60%.

Some “Due” teams:

• The experienced doubles team of Diaz-Carballo have been struggling with only 2-wins in 36-games, however they may have turned the corner as the last 2-performances is the first time this year they’ve been ITM in 2-consecutive performances.
• Anderluck-Tennessee team hasn’t won a game in the last 14-performances.  Since Feb. 27 they are 20-0-7-3 which is an impressive 50% ITM, however the wins remain elusive.
• The second place team of Bueno-Ben is winless in the last 4-performances.

SOME SPECIFIC SINGLES GAME STATS:

Game 1 (early game):

• Jeden is ITM 6 of the last 7-performances.
• Diaz has not hit the quiniela yet in 21-games (21-0-0-2).
• Vuelo has no quiniela finish in his last 12-performances.
• Cool Fitness has no quiniela finish in his last 8-performances.

Game 2 (early game):

• Ben has been ITM 12 of his last 15-performances.
• Vuelo has not been ITM in the last 11-performances.
• Juice has not been in the quiniela in the last 10-performances.
• El Barba has no game 2 win the last 12-performances and no ITM in the last four so watch out for him since he’s at the top of this early group.

Game 3 (mid-game):

• This is “Bueno’s Game” with a record of 21-9-2-5 for an impressive 76% ITM.
• El Barba is due in this more competitive game with a record of 21-0-0-1.
• Likewise, early game player Tennessee has no wins in 21-games and Cool Fitness is 0/10 ITM.

Game 4 (mid-game):

• Julen has been hot since playing in this game with 6 of 9 ITM (9-2-2-2).
• Kubala is impressive in game 4 with 19-4-2-2.
• Anderluck is surprisingly winless in this game, but his 10 of 20 ITM (50%) is to be respected with a record of 20-0-5-5.
• Jeden has yet to hit the quiniela in game 4 with a record of 21-0-0-1.

Game 6 (late-game):

• Spinner has dominated this game with 16 of 21 ITM and 9-wins (record is 21-9-2-5).
• New 17-yo pro Benny had done well here for his limited appearances with 6 of 10 (10-1-2-3) so he can certainly compete with Magic City’s finest.
• RonRon is 21-5-4-0 with 9 of 21 in the quiniela.
• Jeden appears a tad bit outmatched here with his 15-0-0-2 record.

Game 8 (late-game):

• Here’s an interesting stat, Ikeda is 13-0-8-0 in this game, 8/13 in the place position.
• This final leg of the Mighty Ocho is one of RonRon’s best games with a 21-7-2-2 record, winning at a 33.3% rate here.
• Ben is 17-0-0-1 in this game and may surprise soon.

Game 9 (9-point late-game):

• RonRon owns this feature game with his record of 21-8-1-2 and has won it his last 4-appearances.
• Ben plays well in this 9-point game, maybe better suited for him with more chances to score points, with a record of 13-1-3-2 which is far superior to his game 8 record of 17-0-0-1.  Certainly don’t leave Ben out of your superfecta here.

The Magic City Jai-Alai Pick 5 wager called the Jai-5 again went another performance without a single ticket holder with 5 of 5 correct winners. A total of $2,677 was wagered into the Jai-5 for Saturday’s 4-pm performance. There were (3) winning tickets with 4 of 5 correct winners which paid $356.90 each. This is now the 9-th consecutive performance without a Jai-5 winner.

The jackpot could pay nearly $7,000 at Sunday’s noon performance if Jai-5 enthusiasts wager another $2,700 tomorrow!

The longest streak with no single ticket Jai-5 winner since the debut of “America’s Most Generous Pari-Mutuel Wager” has been 12-performances. The Jai-5 Jackpot has paid out to a single winning ticket (92) times since it began in 2019. The largest payoff was $12,220 on November 13, 2019. Click Here for a complete listing of all the Jai-5 Jackpot Payouts and the Mighty Ocho payouts for the Force-Outs. The Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho will both be Forced-Out (aka Mandatory Payout) on the closing day of the short 10-week meet on Monday, April 12. When the jackpots are Forced-Out, the ticket holders with the most correct winners will split the full jackpot amount.

Good Luck to those Magic City short-court Jai-Alai bettors in search of a big payday tomorrow! Start working on your ticket now as the wager kicks-off at the start of Game 3. Don’t get shut-out!

A 2021 record Jai-5 Jackpot of well over $5,000 awaits a single winning ticket holder for the start of Magic City Jai-Alai’s 7th week of the initial 10-week meet prior to the start of the 2021 regular Magic City Jai-Alai season which starts on May 1. During this initial 10-week short meet, there are 3-performances a week on Saturday through Monday.

The Jai-5 wager is a $1.00 Pick 5 bet where a bettor must select the winner of games 3-7 and be the ONLY winning ticket with all five winners correctly selected. This wager was hit several times early in the 10-week meet, but has now gone 8-consecutive performances without a single Jackpot winner. Should a lucky bettor hit all five winners correctly and be the ONLY winning ticket, they will score for over $5,000 this week. SayHiLi estimates that one lucky Jackpot winner at the Saturday, March 20th performance could bring home over $5,500 and perhaps even closer to $6,000!

The Magic City Jai-5 wager debuted on August 14, 2019 about 6-weeks after the 2019 meet started on July 3. The Jai-5 went a record 12-performances in a row without a single Jackpot winner in it’s debut season before the record Jai-5 payoff was nailed for $12,200 by one lucky winner. This record payoff still stands as the top payoff at Magic City to this day. Click Here to see the complete Magic City Jai-5 Payoff History.

There were two different times in 2020 where Jai-5 bettors went 10-consecutive performances without a single Jackpot winner. Those lengthy Jai-5 droughts resulted in payoffs of $6,761 and $4,996. Needless to say, the Magic City Jai-5 is on the verge of another big score soon for some lucky winner based on Jai-5 history. The lucky Jai-5 winner could be YOU, but it doesn’t Pay if you don’t Play!

Currently the Jai-5 jackpot carryover is at $3,562.80 however it’s expected the Jai-5 wagers for Saturday will be in excess of $2,500 and since 80% of that amount wagered gets added to the jackpot carryover for a single winning ticket, that means an additional $2,000 added to the $3,562.80 which means over $5,500 for the Only winning ticket holder on Saturday. Should there be no single winning ticket with all five winners correct, there’s a consolation payoff for tickets with the most winners that share in half of the 80% of what’s wagered for the day while the other half gets added to the jackpot carryover.

So remember this week, if you don’t Try, you can’t hit the Jai!

SayHiLi recommends the world’s best beef jerky while watching Jai-Alai games and that great beef jerky is only found at People’s Choice Beef Jerky. I’ve been ordering this jerky since I found out about this more than 5-years ago and my all-time favorite is the 1-pound bag of Carne Seca Limon con Chile for $25. This is a great price considering the 2-3 ounce bags of jerky at grocery or convenience stores cost from $5 to $7 dollars each. This jerky is not tough at all and is very flavorful but not a hot or overly-spicy jerky. I guarantee you will love this jerky!

People’s Choice is a family operated business in Los Angeles that started in 1929 and if you order more than $75 in products, you even get free shipping. They have a large variety of products, and even have a large sampler box with every kind of product offered. Pictured below is a photo of a 1-pound bag I recently purchased.

Be sure to check out the website as they are currently offering a FREE $6 bag of jerky! Wow, you can enjoy the world’s finest beef jerky for FREE while enjoying that FREE Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League with cash prizes! What a combo! Steve M.

Carne Seca Limon con Chile is the official beef jerky of SayHiLi.

People’s Choice Beef Jerky website

Check out the new Head-to-Head Jai-Alai Action on The Jai-Alai Channel at Magic City on Monday and Tuesday mornings at 10 am. The Magic City roster has been divided into 3-groups of 6-players in each grouping. Players will battle head-to-head for supremacy in their respective division.

Here is the link for more details: Jai-Alai H2H

I lost a very close and dear relative on January 30^th this year.  Her name was Kayla and she was so special over the nearly 15-years she’s lived with my wife and I. 

My wife and I never had any children but we had the chance to adopt Kayla when she was just 2-months old and she has been such a blessing in our lives every day.  Kayla loved us, learned from us and strived for our attention and entertained us.  We learned from Kayla and loved our precious baby so dearly and she made us laugh.

Kayla spent extra time with me when I went through tough times from a very difficult left knee total replacement in 2015.  She helped me get through my cancer surgery recovery in the fall of 2019 and I thanked her many times for helping me get through those really tough times.  I don’t think I could have done it without her love, dedication and watching over me.

We took great care of Kayla and home-schooled her and she was the best student.  I’m so proud of her and she never ceased to amaze us.  She was generous with her love for us and there isn’t one bad thing I could ever say about her, she was the best.

In early November last year, we noticed she was limping and something wasn’t right with her right leg.  We took her to the doctor for a multitude of tests, blood work, x-rays and more.  The specialists couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so typical the case these days it seems.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been misdiagnosed myself.  We were given a prescription and sent home.  The condition got worse and more doctor visits, perhaps likely a nerve issue they said but those are hard to diagnose, then even told us it could be the C word (cancer).  It got worse and Kayla’s leg was getting swollen, she wasn’t eating as much, but she was such a trooper and we believe she was trying to conceal her true condition.  We tried our best to get Kayla to eat more and drink more fluids, yet Kayla was losing weight and I could sense she was suffering from depression, but she never complained.  But yet, something was wrong and we knew it wasn’t good.

Last Saturday morning, our precious little orange tabby cat Kayla awoke me at 5:35 am when she fell off the recliner where she had been sleeping with me for the last six hours on a pillow between my legs.  I knew immediately this was not good as it made a loud thud on the floor, so I woke up my wife.  We spent the next four hours consoling her the best we could and stroking her fur in-between the occasional spastic movements, but we knew the end was definitely near.  Her breathing was becoming shallower and she took her last breath at 9:20 am and it broke our hearts, yet we had been asking God to take her home as we didn’t want to see her suffer any longer.  When the Pet Cremation van left our home with our little baby Kayla at 10:30 am I lost it and broke down crying my eyes out like never before.  I just couldn’t help it and couldn’t believe she was gone, after being so healthy for so many years I had figured she was going to live past 20-years, or even break the world’s record for being the world’s oldest cat.

It just goes to show that you never know how long you have on this earth and to make each day count.  We do believe in God and that there are rewards in heaven.   Now some of you may think I’m crazy and I don’t give a rat’s behind if you do, but I do believe I will see Kayla again in heaven and that will be one of my rewards.  I believe she is now in God’s hands and he is taking care of her till we meet again.  Kayla was our family, she was our child and we treated her like family.

Rest in peace my dear baby Kayla and we will always keep you in our hearts and thoughts!   God bless you!

Steve M.

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Another Andrew Blechman interview will be featured on “The Scoop” tomorrow at 12:30 pm on the JAC (Jai-Alai Channel). Magic City’s own Stu Neiman will be on the witness stand, LOL, for the interrogation where Andrew and fans get the chance to ask Stu questions.

Stu has a wide ranging career in Jai-Alai since his youth when he learned to play the game at the World Jai-Alai School in Miami. Stu has even been a GM of multiple Jai-Alai frontons at the same time. We do know Stu has an astute knowledge of the sport of Jai-Alai and it’s history and this is a great chance to ask an expert about this fascinating game.

Stu has never placed a wager on Jai-Alai, but from listening to his announcing at Magic City Jai-Alai, many Magic City fans do know Stu had had some great luck when he won a really nice national lottery payoff (5 of 6 correct numbers) from either Powerball or Mega Millions. SayHiLi has already confirmed Stu is playing the BIG lottery jackpots this week for both Powerball and Mega Millions. The Mega Millions draw is Tuesday night and currently at $615,000,000 while Powerball is Wednesday night and at $550,000,000.

Jai-Alai fans won’t want to miss this interview!

Stu Neiman from Magic City Jai-Alai contacted SayHiLi today with the following official player changes for 2021.

These four players are not returning:

Legend – major health issues/surgeries

Rock – knee injury/surgery

Fred – not returning, will be continuing with his FT job with Broward County

Limonte – left during 2020 meet and relocated to Orlando due to wife’s job change

Note that Asier is still part of the program but will not be participating in the January practices, “on-leave” status

These two players joined the 2021 Magic City Jai-Alai program (will practice in January and start on Feb 6th):

Spinner – from Dania

Ben Langhans – 17 yo brother of Douglas, playing under name “Benny”

Magic City Jai-Alai Schedule Update and U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Info

The 10-weeks of added Magic City Jai-Alai resume on February 6th with a Saturday 4-pm performance, Sunday 1-pm performance and a Monday 1-pm. Performances will be at least 9-games each. The 10-week meet runs through April 12 and then the regular Magic City season will consist of games from May 1 through November 29.

The 2nd U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship will be played at Magic City Jai-Alai somewhere between August 24 and September 10.

Andrew Blechman, Producer of the Jai-Alai Channel (JAC) interviews Magic City Jai-Alai player, Michael Carballo, tomorrow at 12:30 pm. Carballo recently won 2nd place prize money of $2,500 in the singles division of the first ever U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Tournament held at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami on December 5th and 6th in 2020.

This is Carballo’s first interview on the JAC and should be an interesting one. Jai-Alai fans won’t want to miss this special interview of “The Scoop.”

Magic City Jai-Alai Returns Soon!

Magic City Jai-Alai players are off the rest of December but will be practicing the month of January and then return to professional Jai-Alai action starting on Saturday, February 6th for an additional 10-weeks of Jai-Alai in 2021 (February through mid-April) This is in addition to the regular Magic City Jai-Alai season from May through November. Performances for the 10-week meet will be once a day for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. While the other Jai-Alai venues have shut-down or pared-back schedules, Magic City Jai-Alai is going the other direction and increasing their schedule. Many thanks to Magic City COO, Scott Savin, for his dedication to the tradition of Jai-Alai and his efforts in promoting the faster short-court Jai-Alai version of this fascinating centuries old sport!

Magic City Jai-Alai players, most only having played any Jai-Alai since January of 2018 when they learned to play the game for the first time, played fantastic Jai-Alai against top U.S. professional players in the very first U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship held at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida on December 5th and 6th.

Magic City’s Michael Carballo won 2nd place prize of $2,500 in the singles bracket, losing in the final match to seasoned Dania pro Jairo in a 9-point game by a score of 9-6. Carballo had gotten off to an early 4-1 lead in this match and Jairo mounted a comeback and was leading 7-6 over Carballo late in the contest before winning the final two points to secure the win. In the final 8-players of the singles bracket, Carballo demolished Dania’s Johan in a 7-point match by a score of 7-1 and then Carballo went on to beat Dania’s Angel by a score of 7-5 to get into the final match of the singles championship against Jairo. Dania player Jairo took home a check for $7,500 for his singles championship win.

The doubles championship also demonstrated that Magic City players are top professional players in their short Jai-Alai careers and can play competitively against the seasoned Dania pros. When the doubles tourney had dwindled down to 4-remaining teams, Magic City was represented with Anderluck-Bradley team taking on Dania’s Goitia-Arrieta. Anderluck-Bradley were playing sensational Jai-Alai and were leading the Dania duo by 5-1 in this 7-point match when Goitia-Arrieta mounted a comeback and tied the match at 6-6. The Dania team won the match 7-6 when Anderluck dropped the ball on a tough catch against the inside wall.

Likewise, Magic City’s CRB was paired with Spinner, currently at Dania, but coming to play at Magic City in February 2021. CRB-Spinner played Dania team of Goixerri-Minte to see who would proceed to the final doubles match. Goixerri-Chasio of Dania had scored a 15-point partido win over Dania’s top front and back-court players Erik-Ladutxe on Thursday night last week, so Goixerri has been playing at his career best lately. CRB-Spinner jumped out to an early 4-1 lead in this 7-point match, but Goixerri-Minte persistently whittled away at the early lead and got back into the match. Goixerri-Minte had a 1-point lead of 6-5 when the Dania team secured the win with a narrow victory of 7-5. The match highlighted some excellent play and great teamwork between Dania player Spinner and Magic City’s CRB (early game player at Magic City), who had very little time if any practicing as a team before this tournament. Spinner showed he can play extremely well on the Magic City short-court and will be a great addition to the Magic City roster next year. Welcome to Magic City Jai-Alai Spinner!

The final 9-point doubles match was between Dania teams of Goitia-Arrieta and Goixerri-Minte. The match was close throughout with Goitia-Arrieta leading by 1 or 2 points throughout until Goixerri-Minte tied the match at 8-8. The team of Goitia-Arrieta secured the win and they split $7,500 prize money with Goixerri-Minte getting $2,500 for second place in this first ever U.S. National Doubles Jai-Alai Championship.

Trophies for the tournament winners will remain at Magic City Jai-Alai.

Magic City COO Scott Savin, player manager Juan Arrasate, Stu Neiman, Lindsay Savin, Andrew Blechman, video and support staff and all others involved in the Magic City Jai-Alai program and sponsorship of this prestigious event are well deserving of a gold medal for what has been accomplished with this tournament and the development of this new short-court Jai-Alai program started from scratch in less than three short years. Magic City Jai-Alai proved they deserve respect from the full Jai-Alai community, even from those hard-core long-court traditionalist nay-sayers. Well Done Magic City! Fans are looking forward to February 2021 for the return of Magic City Jai-Alai with 10-added weeks from February through mid-April before the regular season in May 2021.

Here are all the scores from the Day 2 matches:

2020 U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Singles Games for Sunday, Dec 6 (in order played, matches to 7-points):

Arrieta beat Minte 7-4

Goixerri  beat Anderluck 7-4

Tevin beat Kubala 7-1

Casio beat Ben 7-6

Ikeda beat Bueno 7-0

Spinner beat Matt 7-3

Jairo beat Cachin47 7-3

Angel beat Bradley 7-2

DeCarlo beat Chia 7-2

Johan beat Jeden 7-4

El Barba beat Petro 7-4

Carballo beat CRB 7-2

Ant beat Monte 7-5

These are Singles Matches of the Final 16 players on Sunday, Dec. 6 (in order played):

Arrieta beat Goixerri 7-5

Tevin beat Casio 7-3

Ikeda beat Douglas 7-1

Jairo beat Spinner 7-4

Angel beat Goitia 7-1

DeCarlo beat Ari 7-4

Johan beat El Barba 7-6 (Note:  Dania’s Johan overcame a 6-0 lead by El Barba)

Carballo beat Ant 7-1

These are Singles Matches of the Final 8 players on Sunday, Dec. 6 (in order played):

Arrieta beat Tevin 7-6

Jairo beat Ikeda 7-6

(Note:  both of the above matches were tied at 6-6)

Angel beat DeCarlo 7-2

Carballo beat Johan 7-1

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Jairo beat Arrieta 7-5

Carballo beat Angel 7-5

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Final Singles Championship Match for 1^st Ever U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Singles Tournament (contest to 9-straight points):

Jairo beat Carballo 9-6 (Note:  Carballo had an early 4-1 lead)

Jairo wins $7,500 for 1^st placeCarballo wins $2,500 for 2^nd place

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2020 U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Doubles Games of Final 16-Teams on Day 2, Sunday, Dec 6 (in order played, games to 7-straight points):

Anderluck-Bradley move on over Frank-Gallo by default (Frank scratched)

Johan-Gorka beat Jeden-Tevin 7-5

Carballo-Ben beat Paul-Kubala 7-3

Goitia-Arrieta beat Ikeda-Angel 7-5

Bueno-Douglas beat Chia-Ari 7-1

CRB-Spinner beat Matt-Beach 7-5

Jairo-Larrea beat Belota-Ant 7-2

Goixerri-Minte beat Monte-T-Bone 7-1

These are the Final 8-Teams:

Anderluck-Bradley beat Johan-Gorka 7-2

Goitia-Arrieta beat Carballo-Ben 7-1

CRB-Spinner beat Bueno-Douglas 7-6 (Note:  match was tied at 6-6)

Goixerri-Minte beat Jairo-Larrea 7-4

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Goitia-Arrieta beat Anderluck-Bradley 7-6 (Note:  match was tied at 6-6)

Goixerri-Minte beat CRB-Spinner 7-5 (Note:  CRB-Spinner had early lead 4-1)

Final Doubles Championship Match for 1^st Ever U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Doubles Tournament (contest to 9-straight points):

Goitia-Arrieta beat Goixerri-Minte 9-8 (Note:  match was tied at 8-8)

Goitia-Arrieta team wins $7,500 for 1^st place

Goixerri-Minte team wins $2,500 for 2^nd place

Day 1 of the 2020 US National Jai-Alai Championship was a huge success at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami with singles and doubles games displaying the Jai-Alai talents of U.S. citizens ranging from amateurs to professional players from all the active Jai-Alai frontons in the USA. The play was watched by hundreds of Jai-Alai fans across the country in HD on JAC (the Jai-Alai Channel) and lasted for 6-hours. Tournament announcer Stu Neiman and side-kick Andrew Blechman did a tremendous job announcing the tournament and should be commended for their professionalism and background knowledge of the participants provided to the JAC viewers. The brackets were shown numerous times throughout the tourney and the event was easy for fans to follow. Live tournament viewing at Magic City was not allowed to make the event safer for all in these trying times. The finals start at 10 am on Sunday and Jai-Alai fans won’t want to miss this with $20,000 in prize money on the line along with some exceptional short-court Jai-Alai match-ups!

Here are the scores for all the singles and doubles matches for the first day of short-court tournament action from Magic City Jai-Alai on December 5th. Alternating serving was used for the tournament.

I cannot guarantee that in doubles games the front court player is listed first in all cases (it should be accurate for Magic City and Dania players). Score for one of the matches may have been missed. These scores are provided by SayHiLi.com from Steve M’s documentation of the games on the JAC during the first day of the event.

2020 U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Singles Games for Saturday, Dec 5, games to 6-single points:

Bradley beat Gallo 6-1

Arrieta beat Casio 6-4

Frank beat Rey 6-2

Angel beat James 6-5

Minte beat Matt 6-3

Goixerri beat Gitty Up 6-0

Anderluck moves on over Belota (conceded due to injury)

Tevin beat Super Jules 6-0

Spinner beat Bernhard II 6-1

Goitia beat Cachin47 6-1

Ari beat Gorka 6-4

Ant beat Larrea 6-5

Douglas beat Chris 6-0

Kubala beat Beach 6-1

Barracuda beat Chia 6-4

Ikeda beat T-Bone 6-0

Bueno beat DeCarlo 6-2

Jeden beat Monte 6-4

El Barba beat Jay 6-4

Petro beat Ben 6-4

Carballo beat Unterria 6-0

CRB beat Navarro 6-3

Singles Playback Rounds:

PB 1:  Casio 6, James 4, Rey 2

PB 2:  Matt 6, Gitty Up 3, Super Jules 1

PB 3:  Cachin47 beat Barnhard II 6-0

PB 4:  Chia beat Chris 6-4

PB 5:  DeCarlo beat T-Bone 6-5

PB 6:  Monte beat Jay 6-4

PB 7:  Ben 6, Unterria 1, Navarro 1

2020 U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship Doubles Games for Saturday, Dec 5, games to 6-single points:

Frank-Gallo beat Chris-Gitty Up 6-4

Angel-Ikeda beat Barracuda-King 6-1

Jeden-Tevin beat Beach-Matt 6-0

Johan-Gorka beat Chuch-Super Jules 6-2

CRB-Spinner beat DeCarlo-James 6-1

Jairo-Larrea beat Belota-Ant 6-1

Anderluck-Bradley beat Bernhard II-Navarro 6-0

Paul-Kubala beat Casio-Petro 6-4

Bueno-Douglas beat Monte-T-Bone 6-1

Chia-Ari beat El Barba-Tennessee 6-2

Doubles Playback Rounds (first team to 6-single points wins):

PB1:  Matt-Beach 6, Barracuda-King 5, Chris-Gitty Up 0

PB 2:  Ant-Belota 6, Chuch-Super Jules 4, Casio-Petra 4

PB 3:  Monte-T-Bone 6, El Barba-Tennessee  4, DeCarlo-James 4, Bernhard II-Navarro 1

The brackets for the singles and doubles tournaments of the U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship on Saturday and Sunday, December 5th and 6th, have been released and here are some photo snapshots of those direct from Magic City Jai-Alai:

Magic City’s Andrew Blechman stopped by for a few hours this afternoon for the practice sessions. Spinner and Jairo from Dania were on the court when Andrew arrived and Magic City’s CRB was on the court with them. CRB kept us well with them according to Andrew.

The 2nd Dania group of Goixerri, Minte, Arrieta and Goita were pretty impressive according to Andrew and once Goixerri adjusted his serve to accommodate the Magic City court he looked even better. The Dania crew adjusted well to the court very well and Andrew said he was really impressed with Goixerri. The team of Goixerri-Chasio had participated in a 15-point partido at Dania Thursday evening and beaten the huge 1/9 win favorite team of Erik-Ladutxe which had come down to a 14-14 tie at the end.

Most of the Magic City players practiced on Thursday for the national tourney.

The tournament starts at 10 am EST on Saturday morning and can be seen live on JAC (the Jai-Alai Channel on YouTube). The tourney concludes on Sunday with start time also 10 am that day.

This is an event you won’t want to miss!

SayHiLi.com assessed the trifecta pools for Magic City Jai-Alai versus Dania Beach Jai-Alai for the first 3-weeks in October for 2019 and 2020 and found some interesting trends. Trifecta pools are up 7.4% in 2020 compared to 2019 for Magic City Jai-Alai while trifecta pools are down 6.4% for Dania.

One notable difference from 2020 versus 2019 is the reduced impact of schedule overlap where both frontons play games at the same time. This could certainly explain why the pools have improved for Magic City Jai-Alai, but doesn’t explain why the trifecta pools are lower for Dania.

The average $1 trifecta payoffs over these time periods are very similar for both frontons for 2019, $204.70 for Magic City versus $207.10 for Dania. The payoff trend has a larger spread for the first 3-weeks in October 2020. The average $1 trifecta payoff for Magic City was $198.80 while the Dania average for the same period was $257.00. The high Dania average for the first 3-weeks of the meet means the Dania handicappers are having a harder time handicapping the games, likely due to the unusual lengthy period where there were no Jai-Alai games played at Dania between March 15 and October 1 this year. Some of the Dania players may be having a hard time getting back into the routine of playing regular games, plus many were likely hit with covid-19, as were Magic City players, which may be having an impact on the abilities of some players, adding to the Dania handicapping difficulties. Regardless of the reason for the larger Dania payoffs, larger payoffs mean less winners and “the churn” of the money going back into the trifecta pools lessens, which is likely the reason for the trifecta pool reduction. Note: SayHiLi.com has incomplete trifecta pool data for the 4th week of 2019 for both frontons so the comparison had to be limited to the first 3-weeks.

The average $1 trifecta price for Magic City in the 4th week of October in 2020 was $246.50 while the Dania 4th week average was $224.50. The 2020 season average $1 trifecta price at Magic City Jai-Alai for the 1,348 games played to-date from May 1 through October 18 is a respectable $208.30.

Get ready for some more action-packed short-court Jai-Alai at Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami, Florida on Thursday at Noon. Be sure to catch the action on the Jai-Alai Channel for FREE in High Definition and be sure to enter the weekly FREE Fantasy Jai-Alai League where you can win up to $150 in cash each week! Go to fantasyjaialai.com to enhance your entertainment experience!

Another great week of action packed Jai-Alai concluded on Sunday, September 27th, with wonder boy phenom Douglas winning the weekly Golden Cesta Award for the most singles wins. Douglas had 11-singles wins in his 19-games for Week 21. The next closest contenders were Jeden with 7-wins in 32-games and Bueno with 7-wins in 40-games. Ben was fourth in the quest for this prestigious award with 5-wins. Players Asier, Carballo, Diaz and Juice were win-less for the week in singles games. Douglas had the highest %ITM in singles games for the week with 84.2% (19-11-3-2).

This is the 20th Golden Cesta Award win for Douglas in the 37-weeks since he started playing at Magic City Jai-Alai on July 24th of 2019. Douglas missed 5-weeks of play in late June to the end of July in 2020 due to covid-19 so when stats are adjusted for that, Douglas actually has 20 GC Awards in 32-weeks of play for an astonishing Golden Cesta Award win rate of 62.5%. Douglas had 10-consecutive GC Awards in 2019.

The 2020 Magic City Singles Championship is led by the top two contenders, Douglas and RonRon. Currently through the end of Week 21, Douglas has 130-singles wins (327-130-56-37) while RonRon has 110-singles wins (347-110-71-37). The stats comparison for these top contenders are Douglas with 39.8% wins and 68.2% ITM while RonRon has 31.7% wins and 62.8% ITM. Both Douglas and RonRon’s stats are quite exceptional for professional Jai-Alai players. Just to show how exceptional these win rates are, the across-town competitor Dania Jai-Alai’s top player Erik over the last 2-years of Jai-Alai (since Sept 15, 2018) has a singles game win rate of 26.4% and % ITM of 58.2 (440-116-79-61).

Week 21 at Magic City concluded with some big pools and prices for the betting fans of Magic City Jai-Alai. The 50-cent trifecta paid a whopping $1,006.10 on game 5 of Sunday matinee for the 2-7-6 combination (Bradley – Carballo – Bueno). The game 4 Pick 3 betting pool was a huge $1,790 and paid $159.10 for the $1 wager which was a definite overlay price for the winning players Anderluck – Bradley – Douglas. There were 9-winning Pick 3 tickets with all three winners correctly selected games 4-6 (winners 8-2-8). Magic City offers a lower takeout rate on the Pick-x wagers than across-town competitor Dania. Magic City has a 20% takeout rate compared to 25% at Dania, thus making Magic City Pick 3 betting a smarter option for bettors with the extra 5% being distributed to winning ticket holders.

The Jai-5 jackpot which has been hit about once in every three performances in 2020 at Magic City Jai-Alai had not been hit all week until Sunday when one winning ticket holder scored for a whopping $5,363.20. The winning Jai-5 combination was 3-8-2-8-5 with the following Jai-5 winners for the sequence of games 3-7: singles game winners Jeden, Anderluck, Bradley and Douglas and game 7 doubles winners Asier-Douglas. Jai-5 bettors wagered a total of $2,400 on Sunday trying to take down the jackpot.

Get ready for more action-packed short-court Jai-Alai at Magic City Jai-Alai on Thursday, October 1 with 9-exciting games at noon and another 9-games at 4-pm. Be sure to sign-up for easy on-line wagering access to Magic City Jai-Alai at watchandwager.com and myWinners.com for Connecticut customers (restrictions may apply). Magic City Jai-Alai can be seen in HD on the Jai-Alai Channel on YouTube. Be sure to sign up for the FREE Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai league with $150 in weekly cash prizes along with Magic City Jai-Alai themed prizes. Go to fantasyjaialai.com for more info.

Magic City Jai-Alai player RonRon surged past 100-singles game wins for the 2020 season joining Douglas now in being the only players to accomplish this feat so far in 2020.  RonRon won 5 of his 6 singles games Friday to take him to 104-total wins.  RonRon also won one of his two doubles games Friday with frontcourt player Juice.  Douglas still stands first in singles game win percentage at 39.1% with RonRon second at 32.3% wins. 

The quest for the 2020 singles championship is definitely heating up and will likely be a duel to the end between Douglas and RonRon.  Currently Douglas has 118-wins with RonRon at 104-wins and closing in.  Third and fourth are a ways back:  Bueno with 72-wins and Ben with 64-wins.  Overall the quality of play at Magic City Jai-Alai this year has been truly amazing and it’s great to see the improvement in these players since the Jai-Alai program began in 2018! Asier returns to play today after being out for a fractured wrist. He’s playing in games 1-4. Good Luck Asier and welcome back!

The Jai-5 was nailed for $2,940 at the first performance on Friday and again for the $2,000 guarantee at the 4-pm performance.  The 4-pm performance was the easiest of Jai-5’s in the Magic City history based on SayHiLi.com computer simulations as all five winners were TL (SayHiLi.com’s Top Level Posts), thus making this Jai-5 a DM of 5.  DM which was just recently published on a SayHiLi blog post “classified info” on Tuesday, September 15^th is SayHiLi.com’s Difficulty Metric, which is a cumulative measure of Difficulty Metric for each of the five Jai-5 games.  The easiest DM of 5 ticket with all 5 games having TL contenders would have cost a Jai-5 bettor $12 total to play:  16 – 1 – 123 – 47 – 2 (winners were posts 6-1-1-7-2, winning players were Ben, Anderluck, Kubala, RonRon and doubles team of Juice-RonRon).  However, keep in mind how this Jackpot wager works; had another bettor had all 5-winners, they would have split 40% of what was wagered on the Jai-5 for the 4-pm performance. There was a total of $1,152 wagered on the Jai-5 at the 4-pm performance and $1,234 wagered at the noon performance.

The surprise on the Jai-5 Will-Pays was seeing $2,000 for ALL payoffs in the game 7 final leg of the wager.  Now be aware this is not the first time all 8-posts have been covered for 5 of 5 payoffs, however it’s the first time since Jai-5 inception in 2019 that all Jai-5 Will-Pays were for the Jai-5 Jackpot.  August 24^th and October 24^th of the 2019 season ALL combinations were covered for 5 of 5, however some of them were for multiple winners and thus weren’t paying the full Jackpot.

The Mighty Ocho could have been nailed by a bettor with a single winning ticket.  The Mighty Ocho was a DM of 9 (DM of 8 is easiest).  There were seven TL’s in the 8-game sequence, with the other game being a second level winner in game 1, Jeden.  This DM of 9 was the easiest result so far in Mighty Ocho history with a DM of 11 being the previous easiest result on two occasions with 5 and 6 TL’s each time.  There was only $66 wagered on the Mighty Ocho this performance, yet there were two posts, post 2 & 6, live for 7/8 consolation payoffs (result of last leg was 5-2-6, RonRon the winner in post 5).  There was one time this season where the Mighty Ocho paid on 7 of 8, on August 22^nd (a MO with DM of 12 with 5-TL’s).  This just goes to show that the Mighty Ocho can be won with some handicapping, plus a little luck never hurts.  The guarantee for the Mighty Ocho, a Pick 8 Jackpot wager is $3,000 and the wager works the same as the Jai-5 Jackpot wager.

Thanks to Magic City Jai-Alai for providing some opportunities for big jackpots with payoffs of several thousand and even more!  This makes the Jai-Alai wagering much more interesting and the wagering menu appeals to a wider range of customers.  Competitor Dania Jai-Alai when last open, offered no high paying challenging wagers and is most likely the only pari-mutuel plant in the country offering horses, greyhounds or Jai-Alai without even a Pick 4, Pick 5 or a Pick 6 wager which have become so popular among bettors in the last 20+ years.  Would casinos be popular if there was no chance for a big payoff?  We’re glad Magic City Jai-Alai understands this concept!

Don’t forget there are no more Saturday 8-pm performances (we’re sad too Stu), but the rest of the schedule remains the same.

Steve (SayHiLi contributor & Jai-Alai statistician)

Here is the “classified info” intelligence briefing on the Magic City Jai-5 being disseminated to the general public for the very first time. Note: Updated 9/17 at 7 am with additional detail.

114 Jai-5 Events to date through Sunday, Sept 13 (Note:  Jai-5 not offered 100% of performances)

48 winners with 5/5 (42.1% of events)

38 were single ticket jackpot winners (33.3% of events) with average payoff of $2,691 each, largest was $7,015

10 were multiple winner consolation payoffs (8.8% of events) with average payoff of $345 each, largest was $769 (Note:  payoffs are rounded to nearest dollar)

Consolation Frequency Stats and Average Payoffs:

3/5:  21x, $64

4/5:  45x, $156

Thus, no 2/5 yet for 2020, but a 2/5 payoff did lose game point in Game 7 on Sunday, Sept 13.

Jai-5 “Difficulty Metric” Summary for 2020:

A “Difficulty Metric” hereafter referred to as DM is based on the cumulative measure of difficulty of each Jai-5 Game result.  A DM of 5 is the easiest and DM of 40 would be the hardest (Note:  40 if all 5-games have 8-entries).   This SayHiLi metric shows that no DM of 5 has occurred in 2020.  Here is the summary of DM’s & DM ranges (DM) and # of occurrences (#O).  Keep in mind that 114 events for a Jai-5 is probably a low sample of events.  The average DM for the 114 events is a 13. Added info (9/17 am): Also shown is how many were multiple 5/5 winners (MW) and how many were Jackpot 5/5 winners (JP), how many were consolations and with how many correct winners (i.e. x-3/5, x-4/5).

DM:  #O (x MW, x JP, x-3/5, x-4/5)

5:  0x (easiest of Jai-5’s not hit yet, undoubtedly MW if this occurs)    

6: 2x (2 MW, 0 JP))

7: 1x (0 MW, 1 JP)

8: 18x (6 MW, 11 JP, 1-4/5)

9: 5x (2 MW, 3 JP)

10: 9x (0 MW, 8 JP, 1-4/5)

11: 11x (0 MW, 7 JP, 4-4/5)

12: 13x (0 MW, 7 JP, 6-4/5)

13: 8x (0 MW, 1 JP, 7-4/5)

14: 6x (0 MW, 0 JP, 6-4/5)

15: 9x (1-3/5, 8-4/5)

16: 5x (1-3/5, 4-4/5)

17: 6x (2-3/5, 4-4/5)

18: 9x (6-3/5, 3-4/5)

19: 3x (3-3/5)

20: 4x (4-3/5)

21: 4x (3-3/5, 1-4/5)

22: 1x (1-3/5), Note: a total DM of 22 is average DM of 4.4 for each of the 5-games

23 – 40: 0x (no winners for these most difficult of Jai-5’s)

The above detail breakdown of winners by Difficulty Metric, aka known as “counts” for each game and “total counts” for the 5-game sequence, shows that handicapping truly does play a very important factor in the wagering for Jai-5 bettors. Note that for DM’s of 14 and higher there have been no Jai-5 winners during the 114 events to-date for the Magic City Jai-Alai season. Also, there have been no occurrences of the Jai-5 sequence in the DM range of 23 to 40.

What the heck is a Top Level?

A “Top Level” hereafter referred to as TL is the highest ranked post(s) in a Jai-5 game, in other words the strongest players, the player or players with the highest percentage chance(s) of winning.  Sometimes these are obvious and other times not so much due to the impact of post position and other players in the game.  These TL’s are based on SayHiLi’s method of ranking post numbers for each game of all of the 2020 Jai-5 events prior to each of the events.  Every handicapper would have their own ranking method of course.  Keep in mind sometimes there may even be 2 or even a rare occasion 3-posts that are ranked as a TL of 1 (so not always only one TL in a game), however, each bettor tracking the Jai-5 would likely employ their own specific method.  Here is a summary of SayHiLi’s TL results for the (114) Jai-5 events of 2020 shown by Total # of TL’s in the Jai-5 sequence of 5-games (Tot TL, a range from 0 to 5) and the # of times this occurred (#O).  Also shown is how many Multiple 5/5 Winners (MW) and how many Jackpot 5/5 Winners (JP) and consolation payout info. Jackpot winners are of course the single ticket winners taking down the full Jackpot amount.

Tot TL:  #O  (x MW, x JP, x-3/5, x-4/5)

5:  0x

4: 8x (4 MW, 4 JP)

3: 30x (4 MW, 16 JP, 0-3/5, 10-4/5)

2: 40x (2 MW, 16 JP, 4-3/5, 18-4/5)

1: 30x (0 MW, 2 JP, 12-3/5, 16-4/5)

0: 6x (0 MW, 0 JP, 5-3/5, 1-4/5)

In Conclusion:

Each performance is a different scenario for the Jai-5 and it’s constantly changing with who’s playing in what games, scratches, sequence format and are there doubles games and if so how many posts.  It’s certainly no cake walk if one were to consistently play the Jai-5.  This “classified report” is already getting too lengthy so we will save the Jai-5 “pool size” for another day, however we’re sure this info will spark some interest with some of you and give a few of you something to ponder.  Many I would imagine will be lost at the mention of DM and lose interest in reading further, however, some of us enjoy math and numbers and this could be spot on and an interesting read.  We are guessing that the bettors who invest the most time into planning their wagers are probably among the most successful of Jai-5 bettors.

Week 20 at Magic City Jai-Alai looks to be a tough challenge on the Jai-5 with some tweaks in the Jai-5 sequence which will likely equate to higher jackpots.  One thing for sure, the $1 Jai-5 at Magic City Jai-Alai is most definitely a wagering challenge and an interesting one at that! One more thing for the Jai-Alai gurus to ponder now, the Mighty Ocho, DM’s, TL’s………….sounds like a nightmare or simply an extension of a Jai-5 analysis and another Jai-Alai challenge to make the betting more fun and challenging? These exotic wagers don’t appeal to all, however, neither do the Win, Place, and Show tickets.

Steve M (SayHiLi.com contributor)

The Golden Cesta Award competition came down to the wire. The amazing Douglas edged out RonRon with 11-wins in his 28-singles game appearances while RonRon had 10-wins. Congratulations Douglas! The next most singles wins was a tie for 5-wins between El Barba and Jeden. Juice was the only player to not get a win for the week (record 21-0-0-4 for week). We know Juice is capable of better so watch out this week! We might even get to see a back-flip Week 20? Diaz and Bradley only had 1-win each so watch out for them too!

Since the start of the 2019 season, Douglas holds the most Golden Cesta Award titles with 18. Douglas now has 5 in 2020 (5 of the last 7-weeks) and had 13 in 2019 including an incredible 10-weeks in a row. Click here for SayHiLi’s Golden Cesta Summary.

Here is an update on the 2020 Singles Championship where the winner gets $15k, $10k for 2nd and $5k for 3rd. Douglas leads with 117-wins and RonRon is 2nd with 95-wins. Third place is a tight competition with 9-players in contention right now ranging from 67-wins to 43-wins. Bueno is currently in 3rd with 67-wins, Ben has 61, Tennessee has 55, Ikeda has 54 (missed many weeks of competition or would likely be third). Ten other players have 25-wins or less and need to shift into another gear to get into contention. Click here for SayHiLi’s 2020 Singles Championship Summary.

Week 19 was practically another scratch-less week with scratch-free being the best scenario for Magic City bettors needing to advance wager. The only scratch was Carballo and this was only for the Thursday noon performance, the first performance of the week. Previously, Week 18 was a completely scratch-free week. Kudos to Magic City players for this great accomplishment in these tough times!

Here are some stats for Week 19 broken down by game-type:

Singles Games 1-4 El Barba and Jeden had the most wins with 5-each. The best win percentages were Anderluck (42.9%, 7-3-0-1, these were all game 4 with tougher competition but no Douglas/RonRon). El Barba had 23.8% wins and Jeden had 17.9% wins. The best ITM for these games was Bueno with 59.1% (22-3-8-2) and then 3-others at 57.1% (Anderluck, El Barba, Ikeda). Note Ikeda’s stats were all in game 4 (7-1-2-1).

Singles Games 5,6,8,9 Douglas had 39.3% wins and 78.6% ITM (28-11-6-5) while RonRon had 35.7% wins and 67.9% ITM (28-10-8-1). Carballo was third best with 8.3% and 33.3% ITM (24-2-2-4). Bradley was shut-out completely with 14-0-0-0 and Bueno was shut-out of the win-place with (21-0-0-6). Just wondering what the Amazing Fake Kreskin of Jai-alai (Chalk Talk poster donzi621) gonna say next after his recent Carballo trash-talking stunt (guess Carballo showed him, LOL). Donzi, please, enough…..everyone has slumps in Jai-alai and it’s real obvious to fans of the game you don’t know crap and talk smack. Even Dania’s Erik has slumps and has been completely out of the $$ and/or winless for 4 and 5 consecutive performances at times. Donzi, please strap on a cesta and go on a court with Carballo (remember to put on the helmet).

Here are some full 2020 season stats broken down by early, mid, and late game types. Note the games for these have varied some in the Magic City entries, but this data is adjusted for that impact, so you won’t see these stats in your program.

True Early Games (like upcoming Week 20 games 1-3 ):

Bradley is leading with 28.6% wins, however, its a low sample of only 49-games (Bradley: 49-14-5-3).

Ben is second with 27.6% wins (134-37-17-19), Bueno is 3rd with 21.8% and the ITM leader at 59.1% (110-24-28-13), Jeden is a very close 4th at 21.5% (158-34-14-24). Juice, Limonte and Fred in that order are the low win percents (6.3, 4.3, 4.1).

Note: Update to the original post. Game 4 Week 20 does not feature Carballo, Ikeda or Kubala. These players are now in Game 5. Game 4 is close to a being classified a mid-game, but doesn’t include any of the top 5-players. Also, this game is not a true Early Game as it does not include Fred, Juice or Limonte. Game 4 should be a challenging and interesting game with all players being serious contenders for the win. The game classification for this Week 20 Game 4 lineup would essentially be an E+ (a step up from early games 1-3).

Mid-Games (like upcoming Week 20 game 5), featuring from one to three of the top 5-players, the top 5 (not in order) being Carballo, Douglas, Ikeda, Kubala, RonRon (but be sure to note that Anderluck is rising in the ranks with some great recent play so BBB, meaning bettors better beware).

Obviously Douglas & RonRon are strongest here when they have been in “mid-games.” Douglas has limited games here (some after being out of action for weeks) and RonRon started here when he arrived after the season start and hadn’t played/practiced for many months (Douglas: 33-16-4-3 and RonRon: 98-41-16-14). The real question is who follows these top 2 and in what order. Here’s the scoop for the full 2020 season on this:

Ikeda with 27.2% wins and 63.8% ITM (94-26-25-9)

Kubala with 19.2% wins and 49.6% ITM (125-24-17-21)

Carballo with 17.0% wins and 60.6% ITM (94-16-29-12)

Anderluck with 16.4% wins and 43.2% ITM (146-24-18-21)

Bueno with 15.9% wins and 42.7% ITM (232-37-36-26)

Some noteworthy stats for these mid-games for low-performers with 40+ games are: CRB 3.6% wins and 13.3% ITM (83-3-3-5), Juice 2.1% wins and 14.6 ITM (48-1-3-3), Legend 1.4% wins and 10.8% ITM (74-1-2-5).

Late-Games (like upcoming Week 20 games 6, 8 and 9). SayHiLi’s Late Game classification includes games with 4 or 5 of the top 5-players (the 5 mentioned above) and include 7 and 9-point games. These stats include 11-players with 40+ games played and are ranked from highest win percent to lowest win percent (there are 4-other players that have participated in these type of games, but only played in 7-games or less, so not including them due to the very low sample size).

Rank 1 – Douglas: 39.3% Wins, 67.3% ITM (257-101-43-29)

Rank 2 – RonRon: 25.5% Wins, 58.0% ITM (212-54-47-22)

Rank 3 – Ikeda: 11.1% Wins, 43.0% ITM (235-26-31-44)

Rank 4 – Carballo: 10.9% Wins, 40.3% ITM (248-27-34-39)

Rank 5 – Kubala: 9.5% Wins, 33.0% ITM (264-25-30-32)

Rank 6 – Anderluck: 7.9% Wins, 34.6% ITM (228-18-31-30)

Rank 7 – El Barba: 4.3% Wins, 21.7% ITM (46-2-2-6)

Rank 8 – Jeden: 3.2% Wins, 14.7% ITM (95-3-5-6)

Rank 9 – Bueno: 2.5% Wins, 24.9% ITM (241-6-22-32)

Rank 10 – Ben: 1.0% Wins, 18.8% ITM (208-2-17-20)

Rank 11 – Bradley: 0.0% Wins, 6.8% ITM (59-0-2-2)

As the best handicappers of the Jai-alai game know, one also needs to assess and include the impact of recent performance, so beware of relying totally on a player’s season performance stats. I could provide more stats, like the recent doubles games, however, I can’t spoon-feed all of the scoop to make this too easy for you, lol. I want to leave something for you to assess in your quest of competing with other bettors. Plus, the next doubles tournament should be starting soon.

Good luck to the players and bettors for Week 20 of Magic City Jai-Alai’s action-packed short-court Jai-Alai action! Thanks to Magic City players, announcers, support staff, and especially “Savvy Savin” for bringing us a GREAT ENTERTAINMENT OPTION in these tough times of a world-wide pandemic and offering Jai-Alai fans this option since May 1st of this year, TRULY AMAZING! Remember no more Saturday 8-pm performances, so no more date-night with Jai-Alai, dern. Stay tuned to SayHiLi.com for scratches and more interesting Magic City statistics and information.

A note to Jai-Alai fans, it’s difficult enough for Susie and myself to maintain the SayHiLi.com website for Magic City in our spare time, so we will only be focusing on Magic City Jai-Alai when competitor Dania Jai-Alai opens.

Last, but certainly not least, the Jai-Alai week for Magic City Jai-Alai Week 19 started out with a sad announcement by Stu Neiman about the loss of a good friend of his due to covid-19. Eugene McFeeley was a Magic City Jai-Alai fan and watched on the Jai-Alai Channel. He passed from covid-19 at Jacksonville Memorial’s ICU on Tuesday, September 8th. He was a Navy medic and had worked on the USS Forrestal Carrier and later became a psychiatric nurse. Thanks to this veteran for his honorable service to our country! Take a moment to say a prayer for Eugene and his wife Neva. Stu, we are sorry for the loss of your good friend.

Bye-Bye from SayHiLi

Steve M