The largest Jai-5 jackpot of the 2020 Jai-alai season, a single winning ticket worth $6,761.60, was won by a very lucky Jai-lai bettor who is still counting their lucky stars today and bowing down to the Jai-alai gods! There was $2,452 wagered on the Jai-5 by bettors chasing the $4,800 Jai-5 jackpot carryover from Sunday for the first performance of Week 8 at the Thursday noon performance. Juice, who nearly missed arriving in time for the first game of the performance was the first stroke of luck for the lucky Jai-5 winner as he was running late due to tire problems, however, that didn’t seem to affect him as he won game 1 singles and went on to win the first 2-doubles games of the Jai-5 sequence with his doubles partner Carballo, who has shown solid improvement in recent weeks.

Cool Fitness won singles game #4 from post number 1 in the second leg of the Jai-5 sequence and was not the public favorite with stronger contenders Legend, El Barba and Diaz also drawing good post numbers 2, 3 and 8, however Cool Fitness benefited from the low post draw by getting up for a third time in game 4 with his second game point opportunity after having lost game point in his first chance up after points had doubled.

Hot player Ikeda, currently 2nd right behind the Amazing Douglas in the quest for the Singles Championship, won the leg 4 singles game #6 in post number 3 and that was no surprise for anyone in-the-know on Magic City Jai-alai. He could have easily been a singleton on the winning pick 5 wager. Other strong players in game #6 were Carballo in post number 4 and RonRon in post number 8, who lost game point for a perfect game. The trifecta for game 6 was a handicap special 3-8-4 which paid $54.90 for the $1 trifecta price, a low price but yet an overlay for this game.

When Jai-5 will-pays were shown for the final leg of the sequence, game 7, there were 3-teams live for 5 of 5 with a single winning ticket for $6,761.60; post numbers 1, 2 and 6, the teams of Diaz-Anderluck, Asier-Kubala and Bueno-Tennessee. Surprisingly, the top doubles team of Limonte-Douglas in post number 5 was not covered, nor had the team of Juice-Carballo in the lucrative post number 8, already successfully used in 2-other earlier doubles games by the lucky bettor, been used on their ticket in the final leg.

The Jai-alai gods were shining on this lucky bettor in more ways than one, but it does take luck along with some skill to win these exotic wagers and luck indeed came into play this day. Post #1 team Diaz-Anderluck ran 3-straight points to begin the game, then Limonte-Douglas ran 3-points and were stopped by the 8-post of Juice-Carballo, who were on their way to a perfect-game victory which would have crushed the dreams of the lucky Jai-5 bettor when Juice under-served on game point. Jai-5 jackpot fever came to an stunning conclusion for fans when post number 1 had game point and the Jai-alai gods grinned a final time and handed victory to the lucky bettor when Pauly’s “the pad is bad” came into play as Bueno from the front-court threw a return shot low into the front pad, sealing the victory for Diaz-Anderluck in post 1 and lining the pockets of the lucky Jai-5 bettor with the single winning ticket of $6,761.60, the largest Jai-5 payoff of the 2020 season.

The winning Jai-5 sequence was 4-1-1-3-1 which are all decent post numbers. The “grape vines” are hinting that this lucky Jai-5 winner is a long-time member of Tiger’s Chalk Talk forum, a “blog” mostly consisting of fans very strongly opinionated on favoring the older and more traditional style of U.S. Jai-alai courts (longer courts) with intense negativity on the shorter-court American Jai-alai programs such as Magic City Jai-alai. The longer court Jai-alai frontons have been fading away from the American landscape and Dania Jai-alai is the last fronton of this type still in existence where wagering is legally allowed (Note: Dania Jai-alai was closed due to covid-19 pandemic since March 15 with current plans to re-open September 16). Members of this mostly “traditional U.S. Jai-alai” forum, operated by Ralph Butts (aka Tiger), are commonly referred to as “Chalkies.”