Magic City Jai-alai superstar, Douglas (Matthew Langhans), reached his 100th win of the 2020 Magic City Jai-alai season in game 5 of Thursday’s 4-pm performance. Douglas also went on to win game 6 singles, game 7 doubles with teammate Limonte, and then game 8 singles. The amazing Douglas almost made it a clean sweep winning all five of his appearances when he had game point in game 9, the only 9-point game on the card. He did finish second in game 9.

Douglas’s win record in singles through the 4-pm performance is an unheard of 42.1% (102 wins in 242 games) and he now has a commanding lead in the quest for the 2020 singles championship where the player with the most wins is awarded $15,000. RonRon (Ronald Madrigal) is in second place in the singles championship with 75 wins and an excellent 28.6% wins (75 wins in 262 games). Tough competitor, Bueno (Chris Bueno), is in 3rd place with 61 wins. Chris Bueno is the son of Benny Bueno, a former famous player at Miami Jai-alai and current player’s manager at Dania Jai-alai. Second and third place in the singles championship pays $10,000 and $5,000.

The “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager was nailed by one winner with all 5-game winners correctly selected for the guarantee of $2,000 with Douglas winning the last 3-games of the bet sequence of games 3-7. Jai-5 tickets cost $1 each and the jackpot can only be won if there is a single winning ticket with all winners correctly selected. Consolation payouts of 40% of the total amount wagered for the performance on the Jai-5 are split among ticket holders with the most winners or multiple ticket holders with all 5-games correctly picked.

Congratulations Douglas on achieving this important milestone! It will be interesting to see if Douglas can hit the 200-win mark for the 2020 season which concludes the end of November.

Magic City Jai-alai has a new bet this year called the Mighty Ocho. The Mighty Ocho is a Jackpot type wager for $1 where one picks the winners of games 1 through 8. It has a guaranteed jackpot of $2,000 to a single winner. Currently, the jackpot is at $1,753.20 which is still under the $2,000 guarantee. Thus, if one picks all 8-winners now, they would get a $2,000 payoff. The Mighty Ocho works exactly like the “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager which was introduced to Magic City Jai-alai customers after the start of the 2019 season. The breakdown is as follows: 20% takeout for the house, 40% goes to the bettor(s) with the most winners, the other 40% goes to the jackpot carryover pool.

Is the Mighty Ocho as bad as one of the oldest Jai-alai blog site says it is? Let’s explore the truth on this with some simple facts from the Mighty Ocho history. Granted the Mighty Ocho is not for everyone, but one thing for sure, the Mighty Ocho is more popular than betting on Win tickets, Place tickets or Show tickets at Magic City Jai-alai and even Dania Jai-alai. Therefore it’s certainly not in the bottom 3 least popular wagers in recent Jai-alai history for sure, so SayHiLi doesn’t understand what all the Mighty Ocho “whining” is all about.

Is this wager impossible to hit? Apparently not! Recently on August 22 at the 4-pm performance one lucky bettor came very close by selecting 7 of the 8 winners. Now the MO pool was only $39 for that performance, and the consolation payoff is 40% of the pool, so the winner received $15.60 for their winning ticket (there was only one winning ticket with 7 of 8). Another time earlier this year, on the May 17 Sunday matinee performance, one bettor had the first 6-winners selected correctly, and had two numbers onto one number to complete their ticket. That must have been pretty exciting for that bettor. This tidbit of info was found out by SayHiLi with their numerous connections with Jai-alai bettors supporting Magic City Jai-alai. So, apparently, it’s not as difficult of a Pick 8 as the Pick 8’s in the past (i.e. Palm Beach Jai-alai’s guaranteed $50,000 Pick 8 in the 1992-93 era). Handicappers at Magic City Jai-alai are among some of the best and handicapping at Magic City isn’t as difficult as Jai-alai in the past since there is more disparity between player’s records. Win records over 40% in singles for players like Douglas make wagers like the Mighty Ocho and the Jai-5 a lot more attractive and interesting that’s for sure. We’ve never seen win records like this before.

Let’s take a look at the statistics on the Mighty Ocho first mandatory payout that occurred on the June 28 Sunday matinee. We understand the Mighty Ocho is up for grabs with another mandatory payout at the end of the Edgewater meet at Magic City. We believe this is perhaps on Sunday, August 30, but we will keep you posted on this as that’s an important date for anyone wanting a shot at a BIG payoff – YES, mandatory payout is Sunday, the last day of Week 17 (8/26 update).

The first MO mandatory had a jackpot of $1,631.60 going into the Sunday matinee (currently the MO pool is $122 higher than this). There was $4,293 wagered into the first mandatory payout. There were (2) winners that correctly selected 6 of the 8 winners and each winning ticket paid an impressive $2,533. That’s pretty damn good for a days work. Had only (1) person selected 6 of 8, they would have scored a payoff of a whopping $5,066! This next mandatory payout coming up could easily pay back even more than $5,066. Keep that thought in your mind as these bets only cost $1.00 each.

There have been 93-total Mighty Ocho opportunities this year. Let’s exclude the mandatory payout event and take a look at the results for the other 92-events (# of Winners Correct, How Many Times, Average $1 Payoff). The average Mighty Ocho betting pool for these 92-events was $92. What is usually seen when bettors hear about an upcoming mandatory payoff is a drop in wagering activity and waiting for the mandatory payout. Perhaps that is the part of the reason for the recent drop-off in the Mighty Ocho wagering activity?

x/8 Correct: # Winners then Average $1 Payoff

7/8: 1x $15.60 (pool was $39 this event)

6/8: 12x $56.90

5/8: 24x $21.50

4/8: 29x $21.80

3/8: 18x $6.40

2/8: 8x $3.20

So, is this “Mighty Ocho” really not so mighty? LOL C’mon give Magic City a break, enough of the BS and Magic City bashing at every chance and trying to tell them how to run their business. Magic City Jai-alai has made a lot of great decisions in every area and short-court Jai-alai is rising in popularity! They are to be commended for what they have done. It’s pretty amazing they’ve provided sports fans this great opportunity to watch and wager from home during this awful covid mess! As said before, not all bets are for all customers. Casinos have penny slots all the way up to a High Limit slot area, so why shouldn’t Jai-alai have an array of different options for customers. SayHiLi applauds Magic City Jai-alai for offering customers a variety of wagers on the wagering menu. Time to stick a fork in the Mighty Ocho whining……is it ever going to stop……enough said!!! Like a famous Jai-alai fan says “You know who you are.”

Here is a summary of the Jai-5 jackpot win rates, streaks, and largest payoffs for the 2019 and 2020 seasons through August 16, 2020:

2019 season (132 total events, Jai-5 started on Aug 14 at the Wednesday Mat):

Jai-5 Jackpot paid to a single winner 34 of 132 occurrences, thus 25.8% win rate

2020 season (86 total events, Note that for several performances the wager was not offered):

Jai-5 Jackpot paid to a single winner 27 of 86 occurrences, thus 31.4% win rate

Overall Magic City Jai-5 stats since inception are 61 jackpot winners in 218 occurrences, which is a 28% win rate.

The higher win rate for the 2020 season is attributed to more Jai-5 events which consisted of only singles games. Jai-alai handicapping of singles games are historically not as difficult to handicap as doubles games. The typical Jai-5 sequence at Magic City Jai-alai generally includes 3-doubles games which are harder to handicap as teams are more evenly matched for the doubles game tournaments (the same teams are used throughout a doubles tournament). Due to lack of players during part of the 2020 season, doubles games were eliminated from all games during the performance. During that period, there were two different streaks where the Jai-5 jackpot was paid to a single winner for five consecutive performances. The longest streak of consecutive jackpot payouts during the 2019 season was three and occurred once.

The largest Jai-5 payoff for the 2019 season was $12,220.00 on Wednesday evening, November 13 (this is the current record high payout). There were a record twelve consecutive performances from November 2, Saturday evening performance through the November 13, Wednesday matinee performance where there was no single jackpot winner, which led to building up the Jai-5 jackpot for the record payout.

The largest Jai-5 payoff so far during the 2020 season was $7,014.80 for the Saturday 8-pm performance on August 1.

A whopping $2,302 was wagered at Friday’s 4-pm performance into the $1.00 Pick 3 betting pool at Magic City Jai-Alai. This was a new record Pick 3 amount wagered (aka “handle”) at Magic City Jai-Alai and shattered the previous Pick 3 record handle of $1,953 which occurred on July 1st of the current season.

The low 20% takeout rate on Pick Bet wagers at Magic City Jai-Alai compared to competitor Dania Jai-Alai’s 25% is more attractive for bettors as more money is being returned to the bettors, resulting in higher payoffs. There is 80% returned to Pick 3 bettors at Magic City Jai-Alai vs 75% returned at Dania. There were (8) winning ticket holders for Friday’s 4-pm $1.00 Pick 3, with each $1.00 ticket paying $230.20. The same betting pool with eight winning tickets would have resulted in a payoff of $215.80 at Dania.

The winning Pick 3 sequence was 1-7-1 which were winners Bueno – Juice/RonRon – Kubala for the 3-game sequence which involves picking the winners of games 4 through 6. The middle leg of the Pick 5 wager is now a doubles game. Note that if no bettor successfully selects all three winners, the full 80% payback is split among ticket holders with any 2 of the 3 game winners correctly selected (i.e. games 4&5, games 4&6, games 5&6). There are 512 possible combinations of Pick 3’s (8 x 8 x 8 = $512).

I recently had the opportunity to reach out to a Jai-alai acquaintance from the past, Art Silvester Jr, on Tuesday morning on the 4^th of August.  Art Jr. was General Manager of Palm Beach Jai-Alai from the 1980’s until closing in 1994 and was also involved in the family’s Newport Jai-Alai as General Manager and Executive VP.

I had not yet met Art Jr. when I graduated college with a BSME degree and accepted a job at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in West Palm Beach in June of 1978.  I was able to attend the original Palm Beach fronton about a half dozen times during the fall before the old fronton building burned down in December 1978.  The building was rebuilt and opened again in January 1981.  I was living in Lakeland, Florida at that time working as a project engineer in the Florida phosphate industry (at one of those many giant chemical complexes with the mountains of gypsum), but was able to visit the new Palm Beach fronton on a few occasions in the first few years after re-opening.  I met Art Jr. for the first time in the mid-1980’s after the Florida phosphate industry downturn when I had returned to work again at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in West Palm Beach.  I attended the Palm Beach fronton every chance I could after moving back to the area and was a “systems player” mostly focused on trifectas and also on superfecta wagers when those began a few years later.

I had previously mailed Art Jr. a list of my questions and he was most gracious in calling me to set up a phone interview and agreed to answer my questions.  My wife and I have both been very interested in the restaurant at Palm Beach Jai-Alai, having dined there dozens of times.  It was our favorite restaurant in town and we especially loved the Teriyaki Marinated Chicken Breast and the Key Lime Ice Cream Pie and still talk about it to this day.  We always made sure to take any family members there for dinner when they visited from out-of-town.

Art Jr. was an exceptional host and one of my favorite memories was when Palm Beach had opened for Sunday matinees and offered a Sunday Brunch in the restaurant.  Art Jr. had stopped by our table and asked me if I had ever had eggs Benedict.  I said no, and he then offered to have his chef make one up special for me.  Ever since that Sunday brunch, I always think of Art Jr. when I hear mention of eggs Benedict.  The restaurant at Palm Beach was fine dining for sure and Art’s answers to my questions will shed some more light on that topic among others related to the fronton, its history and operation.

Art’s early adulthood:

Art Jr. was born in 1946 and is currently 74 years old.  Many people probably don’t know this, but Art Jr. was in the service from age 19 to 23 and was stationed in Okinawa during the Vietnam War.  Okinawa was a vital island for the Pentagon to support US forces in the Vietnam War.  While in the service for four years, he served in the Air Force and the Armed Force Police and left the service in December 1969.

Here are the Questions and Answers from the phone interview:

Q:  Can you tell me how you learned the trade and perhaps some history on that?

A:  I worked in all areas of the fronton operation, doing everything except in the foodservice area.  That work even included security and maintenance.

Q:  Who were some of the famous visitors to the Palm Beach and Newport frontons?

A:  In the early days, in the 1960’s, the King of England and his wife visited the Palm Beach fronton.   There were so many, Errol Flynn, Joe DiMaggio to name a few.  Betty Hutton worked as a greeter for us at Newport.  She was a 1940’s and 50’s star and appeared in The Greatest Show on Earth and Annie Get Your Gun.

Q:  What was the largest attendance you remember?

A:  It was the last day of the 86/87 season when there was a million dollar Pick 6 jackpot mandatory payout on a Saturday night.  Palm Beach had seating for 6,000.  The following Monday when attendance figures were tallied, there were 10,000 people.  The place was packed.  The computer system even failed that night.

Note:  for comparison purposes, Newport had seating for 3,200.

Q:  I remember you for being such a great Jai-Alai host, standing inside the doors and greeting customers as they entered, being all around the building, very involved in ensuring the place ran like a “well-oiled machine.”  It looked like you loved your job.  Can you expand on that and what did you like the most about your job?

A:  I always had good managers which was a big help.  I felt I needed to spend at least half the night at the front door greeting customers and buying regulars a drink at the bar.  I enjoyed talking to the customers.

Q:  I know managing a business like Palm Beach Jai-Alai had to be difficult as it was such a complex business with all the regulations, the restaurant/food options/bars, mutuel clerks, money room, security, players, union, support staff, and much more.   Roughly how many people were on the payroll at the height of the business?

A:  Before the recession and the player strike we had around 800 employees.  Two thirds of those were part time or seasonal and the other one third traveled back and forth between Newport and Palm Beach, supporting both operations.

Note that when the word “strike” came up, Art Jr. was quick to mention that they did not have the police support at Newport like they did at Palm Beach.  He mentioned how some striking players at Newport were pounding on the cars crossing the picket lines and that shouldn’t have happened.  Art said the police in Newport should’ve been impartial.  “We didn’t have that problem at Palm Beach,” Art said.

Q:  I’ve always been fascinated with the restaurant at Palm Beach.  I always got the impression you were quite the restaurateur and highly involved in running it.  How were you able to operate such a successful restaurant?  Great managers, chefs?  Did you have a favorite chef?

A:  The first restaurant opened in 1971, the “Sala-del-Toro” restaurant which was located in the basement of the old fronton.  We found it best to go back at least 20-years on references with people that we hired, we wanted highly experienced chefs.

We picked up a lot of restaurant ideas when traveling.  There was a famous high-end restaurant in Tampa where we got the idea for shrimp on ice and we began offering that on the menu.  We had two kinds of sauce with our shrimp cocktail; the traditional cocktail sauce and a mustard sauce which was very popular.  In 1977-78 during the shrimp shortage, most restaurants cut back on the number of shrimp offered, but we kept ours at six.

One of my favorite chefs was Roger Brown who started in 1977-78 and worked at both Palm Beach and Newport.  Art did say the restaurant at Newport was a different type of restaurant but used the same head chef. 

Q:  What are you doing these days to keep occupied?    Has the covid situation been a big impact to your retired lifestyle?

A:  A little golf, stay around the house, and doctor visits……  Art mentioned it’s pretty shocking when you hear the doctor say the “cancer” word.  Art has been struggling with leukemia which is a form of cancer.

I appreciated this unique opportunity to visit with Art Jr. over the phone.  I had last spoken with him about 20-years ago when our paths crossed at the University of Arizona’s Global Race Track Industry Symposium held at the Rio in Las Vegas.  That was probably the only year that annual convention wasn’t held in Tucson.

Art Jr. still lives in Florida, but not in the Palm Beach area, and I wish him the best in his retirement and health struggles.

Steve M.

“Jai-Paying” Trifectas at Week 13 of Magic City Jai-Alai broke the 2020 season record twice over the weekend. The average $0.50 payoff for the week was an impressive $147.00. Check out these prices for (4) Trifectas during Week 13 that paid the entire Trifecta pool to bettors that scored BIG by having the only $0.50 Trifecta ticket. All of these Trifectas were won by strong players.

Game 1, Thursday noon, $0.50 Trifecta 4-8-6 paid $767.25, Jeden-CRB-Juice

Game 1, Friday 4-pm, $0.50 Trifecta 7-8-3 paid $876.00, Tennessee-Fred-Juice

Game 7, Friday 4-pm, $0.50 Trifecta 5-6-4 paid $1,109.60, RonRon-Anderluck-Ben (this trifecta was new 2020 season record)

Game 5, Saturday 4-pm, $0.50 Trifecta 5-3-6 paid $1,233.00, “Triple B Trio” Bueno-Bradley-Ben (broke previous day season record). This is the 3rd largest trifecta payoff in the last 2-seasons of Magic City Jai-alai. The largest two $0.50 trifectas were both in July of 2019: the 8-5-6 combination for $1,642.10 and the 6-3-8 combination for $1,513.10

Week 13 also had the largest Trifecta pools of the 2020 season to-date with an average pool of $1,425 and the largest Trifecta pool of the season for game 7 of the Saturday 4-pm performance was $1,986. Trifecta pools over $2000 are expected soon!

The “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager, a $1 Pick 5 Jackpot wager, also broke the 2020 season record for Jai-5 payoffs by paying a whopping $7,014.80 to a single winning ticket holder during the Saturday 8-pm performance. The 5-winners for the Jai-5 sequence games 3-7 were: Vuelo (#1) – El Barba (#5) – Ikeda (#4) – Carballo (#4) – Douglas (#1)

Week 14 is all singles games and is expected to be more great entertainment at Magic City Jai-Alai in the quest for players to earn a piece of the 2020 Singles Championship prize money ($15k for first, $10k for second, $5k for third)! If you aren’t signed up for the FREE Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League, be sure to do so and make your 3-singles game selections for Week 14 before the 12-noon Thursday performance!

The team of Bueno-Bradley won the Exhibition Doubles Duel at Magic City Jai-alai Saturday night, July 25, and both Bueno and Bradley each pocketed a cool $1,000 for their outstanding effort. The competition started at 8-pm and was among 5-doubles teams, consisting of 3-different rounds of competition.

Round 1 was single points round-robin style play with the purpose of knocking out one of the five teams. The first team to reach 7-points was the #1 seed team, the second team to 7-points became #2 seed team, third team was #3 seed, fourth team was #4 seed. Once a team reached 7-points they dropped out of the round-robin play. The team that didn’t reach 7-points was eliminated from the Doubles Duel. Here are the round 1 post numbers and teams for each, listed by frontcourt then the backcourt player. Post numbers were randomly drawn.

#1: Kubala-Tennessee, #2: Anderluck-Jeden, #3: Bueno-Bradley, #4: Legend-RonRon, #5: Carballo-Ben

The team of Legend-RonRon were the #1 seed team. Carballo-Ben were the second team to reach 7-points and became the #2 seed team. Anderluck-Jeden became the third team to reach 7-points on their 3rd attempt at 7-points and were the #3 seed team. This left two remaining teams to battle it out to stay in the competition; Bueno-Bradley with 5-points and Kubala-Tennessee with 3-points. Bueno and Bradley prevailed and ended up knocking out Kubala-Tennessee with a score of 7-4 to end round 1 of the competition. Kyle had mentioned to listeners at the 4-pm pre-tournament interview on Thursday that he was trying to break-in a new cesta and expressed concerns about that, reminding fans of the last time at Magic City when he was breaking-in a new cesta and did poorly for the next four performances. Also, Kyle has been more accustomed to playing back-court in his amateur career. Likely, the new cesta and the change to front-court were contributing factors in Kubala-Tennessee early departure from the tourney.

Round 2 consisted of two different single point partidos to 11 points. The #1 seed team played the #4 seed team and then the #2 seed team played the #3 seed team. As usual in partido play, if a player over-serves or under-serves, the point is not lost and a second-chance serving attempt is allowed for the serving team.

The first teams squaring off in Round 2 were Legend-RonRon vs Bueno-Bradley. Bueno-Bradley surprisingly shocked fans with a 4-0 start against Magic City star RonRon who has played professional Jai-alai in the Phillipines and is the most experienced player on the Magic City roster. The big early lead was short-lived and soon the game was 5-4 with Bueno-Bradley still leading, however, RonRon was exhausted from running all over the court so they used their (1) 45-second time-out to try and recoup. When the game was 7-6 with Bueno-Bradley still leading, RonRon tried a long lob shot to the front wall when Bueno was out-of-position, however the lob shot fell short and as Pauly would say, “the pad is bad” and the game was 8-6. Legend-RonRon inched closer making the match 8-7 but then Bueno-Bradley went on a run, scoring the next two points, making the match 10-7 and needing only one more point to seal the win and make it to the finals. RonRon-Legend rallied back with the help of a dropped ball by Bueno and the game was 10-9 and a real thriller for Magic City short-court Jai-alai fans. Bueno-Bradley prevailed with an 11-9 victory when RonRon tipped the ball in the backcourt.

The second 11-point partido in Round 2 was between #2 and #3 seeds Carballo-Ben and Anderluck-Jeden. The early points had both teams relatively close with Carballo-Ben leading 4-3 when Carballo threw a perfect carombola shot, a ball that hits the front and side wall, and then hits the cancha (floor) and bounces off in the direction of the screen. This made the game 5-3 with a 2-point lead for Carballo-Ben. That seemed to give them a boost and the score was soon 7-3, but then Anderluck-Jeden scored the next 2-points in their comeback attempt making the score 7-5, however, it was short lived. Carballo-Ben went on a roll, scoring the next 3-points and were leading 10-5 with victory looking impossible for Anderluck-Jeden. Another point by Anderluck-Jeden closed the gap temporarily to 10-6 but then Carballo-Ben won the next point and sealed the victory with an impressive 11-6 partido win over Anderluck-Jeden.

Round 3 was the final showdown of the Round 2 doubles victors battling it out in a final 15-point partido to see what team wins the $2,000 prize and bragging rights as the Magic City Jai-alai Exhibition Doubles Duel winners. This competition was an amazing display of talent between Bueno-Bradley and Carballo-Ben and had one of the most incredible points of the tournament, maybe even the best of the season perhaps.

Early in the partido, Bueno-Bradley led by as much as 3-points but the score was tied 7-7 at the halfway mark of the contest, then at 8-8. After a rare Bradley miss, Carballo-Ben took a 9-8 lead, then 10-8 and were looking very good, but then Bueno scored on a great 2-wall shot making it 10-9. This is where the contest saw the most incredible point between these two teams and if you missed this, you really need to watch the replay on The Jai-Alai Channel to fully appreciate it, but I can attest Stu uttered the words “Holy Shit” either during or after this long point was won by Carballo-Ben, and very similar words were uttered in my living room and many others as well I’m sure! This reminded me of how Palm Beach Jai-alai used to advertise on TV, “We serve excitement.” The Magic City short-court Jai-alai is a VERY fast Jai-alai game and Magic City Jai-alai ruled for Saturday night entertainment tonight and truly served-up some unbelievable Jai-alai excitement! This made the score 11-9 with Carballo-Ben leading.

After this “Holy Shit” moment, it seemed to light a fire under opponents Bueno-Bradley and they responded with an astonishing 5-consecutive points to steal the thunder away from Carballo-Ben. One of those winning points was when the score was 11-13 and Carballo went for Bueno’s serve and messed-up, making the score 11-14. Carballo-Ben won the next point inching closer with the score at 12-14, but then Bueno threw another winning carom and sealed the victory for his team. Bueno’s determination and exceptional two-wall shots tonight along with Bradley’s near perfect backcourt play with amazing and consistent catches reaching high above like a “super spider-man” pulling those pelotas into his “web-like basket” provided fans with an incredible display of talent tonight for this winning team and a hard-fought victory of 15-12 over very tough competitors Carballo-Ben.

The interactive fan component of the Exhibition Doubles Duel tonight was exciting too, where fans were offered a FREE chance to pick the winning team and guess the exact final score of the 15-point partido. This contest resulted in 2-winners selecting Bueno-Bradley and the correct score of 15-12. Due to the tie, there was a coin-toss to determine who would win the $250 prize which was being awarded to only one contestant. Contestant ALMORZA, likely named after Big Al, the tall and incredibly talented backcourt player Almorza at Tampa Jai-alai, won the coin toss and was the lucky winner of $250. Congratulations ALMORZA, this must have been an exciting night for you as well! This author was at Tampa Jai-alai the night in the 1980’s when Tampa player Big Al turned 40-years old and there was a big birthday bash that night in honor of him.

Get ready for more exciting short-court jai-alai action at Magic City in the coming week when pari-mutuel wagering returns Thursday at noon on July 30! The Jai-5 jackpot is currently at $2,750 and could pay as much as $4,000 to a single winner at the noon performance, plus the Mighty Ocho jackpot is now over $1,000 and growing. The Mighty Ocho, a new wager this season, is a $1.00 Pick 8 Jackpot wager with a $2,000 guarantee to a single winner and works just like the “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager.

Congratulations to Bueno-Bradley with this win and to second place finishers Carballo-Ben for some amazing play and helping to make this such an exciting night for Jai-alai fans who love this challenging and incredible sport!

Photos below are left to right: Winning team Bradley-Bueno (Stu Neiman in middle), Scott Savin – COO, Andrew Blechman getting ready for coin toss (to determine $250 fantasy prize winner)

Magic City Jai-alai’s highly popular Jai-5 has now been won by Jai-alai bettors the last 9-performances, with winners collecting $2,000 or more for their tickets on 8 of the 9 performances.

Thursday’s first performance of Week 12, the noon performance, was the sequence of 3-4-7-8-5 for the Jai-5 games 3-7 which was won by players Legend, El Barba, RonRon, RonRon and RonRon. There was $1,773 in handle wagered on the Jai-5 and when the final leg will-pays were shown, RonRon was the only player live for the guaranteed jackpot payout of $2,000. RonRon won the most singles game in Week 11 and was the Golden Cesta Award winner by winning a staggering 13 of 28 games. Initially, RonRon ran the game to game point, looking for a perfect game, but was beaten by strong player Kubala from post 3. El Barba in post 2 lost a game point, leaving the door open for another return chance for RonRon to secure the win. He won the game point against early game player CRB in the 1-post, when a return shot by CRB hit the overhead netting which is out-of-bounds.

Thursday’s second performance, which started at 4-pm, was the sequence of 3-4-1-2-2 for games 3-7, which are considered easy post positions. These games were won by Bradley, Bueno, Kubala, RonRon and Bueno. Will-pays for this game showed no multiple 5 of 5 winners and four of the eight posts numbers were live for the guaranteed $2,000 jackpot; posts 2,6,7,8 (players Bueno, Kubala, RonRon and Carballo). The game 7 finale was almost won by Bueno in post 2 his second time up (he lost game point), then Carballo in post 8 lost his shot at game point. The game was won by Bueno his 3rd time up from the lucrative 2-post. There was $1,560 wagered on the Jai-5 for this performance.

The Jai-5 wager has been an easier handicap for Magic City Jai-alai bettors with the current shortened roster which is temporarily featuring all singles games during the 8-game performance. Typically, performances are 9-games and feature 3-doubles games, games 3/5/7, which make the 5-game Jai-5 sequence more difficult as teams for these doubles tournament championship games are intentionally paired in the attempt to make them as equally matched as possible, thus making doubles games more competitive. Strong late game players RonRon, Kubala and Carballo have dominated all of the singles games in the last 3-legs of the Jai-5 wager for the last 2-weeks with the exception of Bueno’s game 7 win at the Thursday’s 4-pm performance. Other strong late game players Douglas, Ikeda and Anderluck will make the Jai-5 more difficult for bettors to win when they return to play soon.

Week 7 was filled with favorites winning many Magic City Jai-alai games this week and it proved to be a Jackpot bonanza for some lucky Jai-5 bettors in Week 11 with the shortened singles roster. The last 3-games of the Jai-5 wager all week, games 5-7, were won by one of the three strongest players; RonRon, Kubala and Carballo. In fact all of the four late games 5 through 8 were won by these same players, except for the game 8 Sunday finale for the week which was won by El Barba who got a win chance after RonRon was called for juggling when he had a game point attempt in the 9-point game. Thus an amazing 27 of the 28 games for games 5-8 were won by one of the three strongest players.

The first two legs of the Jai-5 wager for week 11, games 3 and 4, were all won by 5-players. Those games were the tougher games of the Jai-5 sequence for the week (in hindsight). Bradley, a strong late game player in the 2019 meet, had 6 wins in 14 games for games 3 & 4. The other 4-winners of games 3 & 4 for the week were: Ben with 2 of 8, El Barba with 3 of 14, Tennessee with 2 of 14, and Bueno with 1 of 8 (and a duly noted respectable 3-places in those 8-games for Bueno too). The following players were shut-out in the game 3 & 4 start of the Jai-5: CRB was 0 of 14, Fred was 0 of 12, Juice was 0 of 14, Legend was 0 of 14. CRB who before Week 11 was perhaps considered the most improved player for the 2020 meet fell into a slump with a record of 42-0-0-4 for Week 11 for games he played. We expect the Jai-alai gods to treat CRB much more kindly in Week 12 so bettors better beware as he can be a real threat in the early games!

The huge amount of top talent winning during the 5-game Jai-5 sequence resulted in surprising Jackpot payouts for 6 of the 7 performances, with multiple jackpot winners only once which was in the first evening performance of the year, the Saturday 8-pm performance. This Jai-5 result was considered to be the easiest Jai-5 of the week and thus definitely wasn’t surprising when 2-winners split the consolation payout since both winning tickets had 5 of 5 correct. Those 5 of 5 winning tickets each paid $286.80.

The winning Jai-5 jackpot on Sunday’s performance was an interesting one with El Barba winning both games 3 & 4 (game 3 from the lucrative 3-post and a perfect game from the tough 5-post). That perfect game win from the 5-post involved beating opponents Legend, Bueno, Bradley, Ben, CRB, and then Tennessee to seal the deal on the perfect game. Overall for Week 11, El Barba had a very good week with a record of 42-6-8-4. To complete the final 3-legs of that Jai-5, Kubala won game 5 from the 3-post, and RonRon won the last 2-games of the Jai-5 with a perfect game from the 5-post and then running to game point from the 2-post in the Jai-5 finale, losing the perfect game point with an unlucky Magic City bounce off the back wall that was impossible to return. RonRon got another chance to win after Kubala in post 1 lost game point and won the game for the lucky bettor that used RonRon on their winning ticket in the finale. RonRon was the only ticket live in the finale for the Jai-5 Jackpot and came through for the very lucky winner.

Before Week 11, the longest winning streak for the Jai-5 Jackpot was three jackpot payouts in a row during the 2019 season. Now the record stands at five jackpot payouts in a row for the first 5-performances of Week 11 for this popular wager at Magic City Jai-alai, with bettors winning a historic 5 of 5 winners for seven consecutive performances. The Jai-5 wagering handle for the week ranged from a minimum of $749 up to a maximum of $1,615 with an average of $1,227 wagered per performance.

Overall for Week 11, El Barba had a very respectable week with a record of 42-6-8-4. RonRon won the Golden Cesta Award with a record of 28-13-7-1, a record indicative of a true Jai-alai champion with lots of wins, less places, and even fewer shows. Early in the week it looked like Kubala was a shoe-in for the Golden Cesta Award, but RonRon’s surge late in the week stole the show and also moved him up to 2nd place in the Singles Championship with 32-wins for the season, just 2-wins shy from Douglas’s lead of 34-wins. Kubala finished the week with a record of 29-9-6-3 (a highly respectable 31% wins and 62% ITM). Ikeda is still sitting in 3rd place with 30-wins in the Singles Championship, but other contenders are quickly closing in. We’re sure Douglas, Ikeda and Anderluck have been watching with keen interest, trying to find their opponents weaknesses, and can’t wait to get back into the fast-paced action of the exciting short-court version of Jai-alai at Magic City.

A special thanks to Andrew for shining like a superstar by pulling off double duty while Stu is away, plus running the Magic City Fantasy League! We’re sure Andrew will be glad when Stu returns. We miss the lively banter between Stu and Andrew and Stu’s Jai-alai stories.

Here is a link to an article in The Washington Post by Andrew Beyer about the giant Pick 6 payoff at Palm Beach Jai-alai in 1983. This gambling syndicate was coordinated by J. Randy Gallo at the time and the partners were all professional gamblers, mostly specializing in Jai-alai trifecta and Pick 6 wagering.

Beyer, well known in the horse racing industry, gets several things wrong with this article. He mentions “Nor does jai-alai lend itself to intelligent handicapping the way horse racing does,” which couldn’t be farther from the truth, if he knew anything about Jai-alai. In addition, he stated “the outcome of a game is almost a random event.”

Week 8 of exciting Jai-alai action at Magic City Jai-alai in Miami was a big bonus for trifecta players with BIG trifecta payoffs averaging $295 for the $1 trifecta! Just how big are these prices? Let’s do some comparing.

The average $1 trifecta payoff for the 2019 season at Magic City Jai-alai was $224.

During the 2019 Magic City season, only 1-week had a higher average $1 trifecta payoff than the $295 for Week 8. One week in 2019 had an average payoff of $307. Now that’s huge!

The 2020 Magic City season started slow for week 1 with only the on-line wagering option offered, so week 1 payoffs have to be discounted, but Week 2 had an average $1 trifecta payoff of $257 and even this is high! Week 6 was a $239 average. Week 7 of Magic City was a $249 average.

There has been a lot of complaining on Tiger’s Chalk Talk about low trifecta prices at Magic City Jai-alai, but is this really true? Let’s take a look at some real data from trifecta prices at Dania Jai-alai encompassing the last 3-years. Take into consideration too, that Dania has larger wagering pools and the take-out rates are the same 25% at both sites.

Some history I have on all trifecta prices at Dania Jai-alai from 2018 from 11/28 through 12/15 show an average $1 trifecta payoff of $211. This is 6.2% lower than the 2019 Magic City season average of $224.

Dania Jai-alai for the first 4-weeks in January 2019 with larger wagering pools show the following $1 trifecta payoff averages:

Week 1 $235, Week 2 $216, Week 3 $230, Week 4 $279

Let’s look at some $1 trifecta average payoffs at Dania Jai-alai for 2020: Week 1 $228, Week 2 $223

The last 2-weeks at Dania Jai-alai in March 2020 before the closure due to covid-19 were even lower: $205 and $213

Sounds like the Chalk Talk posters that are whining about Magic City trifecta payoffs are spouting a bunch of bat guano when you look at the facts! Enough said on this topic, lol, let’s put it to rest! I’m looking forward to another exciting week of the fast-paced short-court Jai-alai action at Magic City Jai-alai! Keep on keeping on!

Trifecta Box frequency for 7-point games was just added to SayHiLi.com. This data is put in a useful format for viewers to easily manipulate the table to rank the frequency of the trifecta box combinations. The simulation data can be found under the menu item “Wagering Info” and go to “Jai-alai Simulation Statistics.” Also shown is the easiest straight trifecta combination for each of the 56-trifecta box combinations. There are a total of 336 different straight trifecta combinations with 6-different straight combinations per trifecta box.(i.e. 123 tri box has a 1-2-3, 1-3-2, 2-1-3, 2-3-1, 3-1-2, 3-2-1).

Trifecta box wagering is very popular with the 50-cent trifecta base wager option. A 3-number trifecta box has 6-combinations and at 50-cents each, a trifecta box wager cost is only $3.00 for each trifecta box. Boxing 4-numbers would cost $12.00 while a 5-number box would cost $30.00.

The 124 trifecta box is the most frequent trifecta box for 7-point Jai-alai games, and should statistically hit once in 22 games on average. The 678 trifecta box is the most difficult one.

Simulation statistics for 1-million games were added for Win percents and Quiniella/Exacta frequency based on all teams having equal abilities. Look under Wagering Info for the “Jai-alai Simulation Statistics” page which shows side-by-side comparisons of statistics for the 7-point games and 9-point games. Note how some combinations become easier for the 9-point games while others become harder.

Quiniella and Exacta betting pools have been gaining more interest and pools have been growing. Good Luck this week at Magic City Jai-alai!

Here is a comparison of records from the 90-singles games from the 2019 Magic City Jai-alai season when BOTH Douglas and RonRon competed in the same game. RonRon held the edge on Win % leading with 32.2 versus 28.9 by Douglas. That’s a combined 61.1% wins for Douglas & RonRon in those singles games, WOW! Douglas held a slight edge on the ITM % category with 62.2 versus 61.1 by RonRon. I haven’t evaluated stats on how many of the 90-games neither player was ITM. That would be an interesting study if one had time. Cululative records are shown for both players along with records by post number.

RonRon returns to action for the Thursday noon performance, May 21. A delay was experienced last week on the process of getting clearance for RonRon to play, so his planned debut didn’t occur, but perhaps the extra practice time will pay off? His first debut will be in game 6 from the challenging PN 7, the most difficult post number to win from in Jai-alai, however some top competitors are not playing in that game, so beware as it’s a mid-game singles game (meaning no Carballo, Kubala, Douglas in the game). Watch for the heads-up duel between Douglas and RonRon on the last 2-games of Thursday’s noon performance in games 8 & 9. Should be some great games to watch! Kudos to Magic City for offering some great entertainment!

Last Modified: June 20, 2020 11:29 pm

Douglas vs RonRon in same Singles Games in 2019