Week 5 of the 2022 pelota games 10-week short-meet just concluded on March 15 at Magic City Casino. The Magic City 10-week short-meet started on February 14 and concludes on April 19th, however there is much more exciting Jai-Alai that continues through November. Here is the latest scoop and stats on these pelota games, also known as the pari-mutuel wagering games, which are Sunday through Tuesday with eight action-packed games each day at 1:30-pm EST.
Jai-5 Jackpot ($1.00 Pick 5 wager) is now at $5,436.80 and hasn’t been won for 11-consecutive performances. This jackpot bet is starting to get some big action. The entire jackpot can only be paid out when there is a single winner with all 5-winners correctly selected from games 3-7. One bettor had the 6-post live in game 7 on Tuesday’s performance, the team of Ikeda-Bradley, to take down the entire jackpot. Ikeda-Bradley needed to win two more double points (4-points more) in this game for that bettor, but were unable to score the win so the jackpot survives for Sunday, March 20 and could possibly pay over $7,000. There were three winning tickets paying a consolation payoff on 4/5 winners for a healthy $313.40 each on Tuesday.
Juice scored his first singles game win for 2022 and treated fans to one of his famous back-flips; gotta love the energy and excitement when Juice wins! There are still three players who have yet to win their first singles game win for 2022; Kubala (0 for 28), Nicolas (0/26) and El Barba (0 for 12). El Barba only recently returned two weeks ago after missing the first three weeks while recovering from a knee procedure in the off-season.
The Golden Cesta Award, a non-monetary award to the player(s) with the most singles games for the week found the first time occurrence of 3-players who each had 2-wins, were all tied with the highest win % (33.3) and tied with the highest % ITM (50.0). Those players were Goixerri, Jeden and Robin. Goixerri was eliminated on a 3rd tiebreaker of place % as Jeden & Robin each had a place, but Goixerri didn’t but had a show finish. Congratulations Jeden and Robin! Golden Cesta Award summary and weekly results are shown here on SayHiLi site: Link for Golden Cesta Awards
The 2022 short-meet Singles Championship is currently being led by Bueno with 10-wins (10 of 37). Goixerri is second with 9-wins (9 of 28) and Carballo is third with 8-wins (8 of 30). Magic City superstar Douglas is currently fourth with 7-wins (7 of 28). Bueno is an above-average mid-games player who plays in games 3 and 4. Bueno had been benefiting on singles wins by filling in for El Barba in early game singles (games 1,2) due to Barba’s late start at the beginning of the meet and by substituting for Cool Fitness in those same early games because of Cool’s hamstring injury. Bueno has scored half of his 10-singles wins in early games (5 of 11 in early games).
Note that the entries for the upcoming week do not have Bueno listed as playing in games 1 or 2 nor is he listed as a substitute for those games. Mid-game players Anderluck and Kubala are playing in games 1 and 2 for Cool Fitness and mid-game players Bradley and Ben are listed as the program subs for those games in this coming week. The return date for Cool Fitness is TBD.
Juice not only scored his first singles win in Week 5, but the doubles team of Juice-Manu were the only team to score two victories in the first 2022 doubles tournament which spans the 10-week short meet. Each of the 12-teams plays four times during the six doubles games each week. The Ikeda-Bradley team still lead the tourney with 5-wins after getting off to a quick start early in the season. Second place is held by Jeden-Goixerri with 4-wins. Third place is a 3-way tie between Anderluck-Benny, Carballo-Kubala and Juice-Manu. The only winless teams are Diaz-Nicolas (0 for 17) and Cool Fitness-Aratz (0 for 7). Cool Fitness and partner Aratz only had 7-appearances when Cool suffered his hamstring injury.
Here are some more stats for the short-season to date:
Singles games % ITM leaders: Carballo 66.7%, Goixerri 60.7%, Ikeda 53.8%
Doubles games % ITM leaders: Inaki-Tennessee 55.0%, Ikeda-Bradley 52.6%, Jeden-Goixerri 47.4%
Overall games % Wins: Goixerri 27.7%, Carballo 23.5%, Ikeda 22.2%
Overall games % ITM: Carballo 58.8%, Goixerri 55.3%, Ikeda 53.3%
Don’t forget to get your FREE fantasy contest entry in for the 15-Battle Court H2H matches for Sunday through Tuesday for the coming week! Should you get all 15-winners there’s a $1,000 cash prize (split if multiple winners). Also, attend the live performance on Sunday for pelota games and the awesome H2H matches where H2H attendees get a FREE shot at the “5 AT 5” contest where contestants who pick all 5-match winners split $1,000. Plus, don’t forget about the big Jai-5 Jackpot for Sunday’s pelota games!
Steve M.