The week was another great one with amazing short-court Jai-Alai action as these fast-paced games won’t put you to sleep at this fronton! The players keep improving and always give it 100% here, something revered and respected by Magic City Jai-Alai fans!
Anderluck had the most singles wins for Week 6 and prevailed in capturing his 5th Golden Cesta Award of his career. He is tied at 3rd with Carballo on most GC Awards, both players having 5 each! Douglas leads with 25 overall and RonRon is next most with 15.
The 2021 Regular Season Singles Championship is setting up to be the most competitive ever with more than a third of the roster jockeying for the top spot with only 6-wins separating the top 7 contenders. Currently, Ben & RonRon top the leaderboard with 23-wins, Julen has 22, Anderluck has 20, 17-yo Benny (brother of Douglas) is tied with Ikeda at 19-wins, and El Barba has 17. Strong late game players Spinner and Douglas have 14 and 12-wins each, respectively, and Tennessee also has 12-wins. Kubala isn’t far behind with 10-wins. The remainder of the players have 7-wins or less and are not out of the picture with this long season of short-court action extending through the end of November.
The 2nd Doubles tournament of 2021 has been quite the showcase of team talent at Magic City. Former Dania professional, Spinner, new to the Magic City roster for 2021 has been a great addition to Magic City with his strong competitive spirit and command of the Magic City short-court. The team of Cool Fitness and Spinner have so far been dominating this tournament with 15-wins in their 55 appearances for 27.3% wins, however 2nd place team of Kubala-Benny are closing in with 11-wins and dominated Week 6 doubles with their top 33.3% wins for the week and 66.7% ITM. Carballo-Tennessee are a close 3rd with 9-wins. Doubles teams at the low end are currently Anderluck-Vuelo with no wins in 24-starts and Bueno-Ben with 1-win in 22 starts.
Juice, a Magic City fan favorite since the inaugural season, was seen practicing on Tuesday and makes his return to play on Sunday, June 13. So far, Juice has missed all of 2021 as he underwent knee surgery and has been recovering. Welcome back Juice and my website “SayHiLi” and I wishes you the best on your return! Juice is well known for his spunk on the court and catching opponents off-guard with his surprise dejadas and caroms.
Don’t forget to catch even more exciting short-court Magic City Jai-Alai action with H2H Doubles games on Saturday at 1-pm on the JAC (Jai-Alai Channel) and H2H Singles at 10-am every Monday before the Monday double-header at 1-pm and 4:30-pm. Also, something new in 2021 is Tuesday Jai-Alai with another double-header at the same times. Be sure to get those Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai League selections in before Saturday at 4-pm to for your shot at FREE weekly cash!
The exciting and fast-paced action of short-court Jai-Alai returns to the Magic City Jai-Alai court at 4-pm on Saturday, May 1st. Magic City Jai-Alai fans have been anxiously awaiting the return of Magic City phenom Douglas who missed a large portion of the 2021 10-week mini-season due to a wrist injury. Douglas will kick-off the regular season by playing only in doubles games for Week 1 and is expected to start playing at least one singles game a performance starting Week 2.
Players Bueno and Juice are both sidelined Week 1 due to injuries. Bueno is suffering from chronic shoulder pain and will miss Week 1. He will be scratched from play for Saturday & Sunday. The Monday & Tuesday double-header entries have been re-uploaded without Bueno in the entries so be careful to use only the newly released entries & programs without Bueno for Monday/Tuesday. Juice is out with a knee injury and is expected to be out for 2-weeks to a month while recovering. SayHiLi wishes the best to both of these players in their recovery! We believe this is the first time Bueno has scratched in his entire Magic City Jai-Alai career which is an amazing accomplishment for such a physically demanding sport.
The 2nd Doubles Tournament of 2021 again looks to be another highly competitive event with evenly-matched teams thanks to doubles tournament matchmaker, Scott Savin. The doubles teams are as follows: Anderluck-Vuelo, Bueno-Ben, Carballo-Tennessee, Cool Fitness-Spinner, CRB-Bradley, Diaz-Douglas, El Barba-Ikeda, Jeden-Julen, Juice-RonRon and Kubala-Benny. The top four teams in the 1st 2021 Doubles Tournament remain the same for this 2nd tournament: Kubala-Benny, Bueno-Ben, Juice-RonRon and Ikeda-El Barba. The doubles tournament games will continue to be played in games 5 and 7 like previously during the 2021 10-week mini-season.
The 2021 regular season now features the addition of a Daily Double wager, a $2.00 minimum wager. There is an early Daily Double games 1&2 and a late Daily Double games 7&8. There are only 8-games a performance now, so the game 9 superfecta game has been discontinued and all eight games are 7-point games with points doubling after the first round (aka the Spectacular 7 format). The Mighty Ocho wager, a $1.00 Pick 8 Jackpot wager which works exactly like the “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager now has a $5,000 guaranteed jackpot to a single winner correctly picking all 8-winners in games 1-8; this is increased $1,000 from the previous $4,000 guaranteed jackpot. The Jai-5 Jackpot wager, with it’s $2,000 guaranteed jackpot to a single winning ticket, still starts with game 3 (games 3-7). There are still two Pick 3’s on the wagering menu, however they are now games 2-4 and 6-8. Magic City’s Pick-X wagers still offer the low takeout rate of 20% which is 5% lower than the Jai-Alai industry standard of 25% for these type of wagers.
Live fans are being allowed in the spectator area to watch the Saturday 4-pm performances only and this kicks-off with Week 2 for the Saturday, May 8th performance. Note the addition of exciting H2H doubles games on Saturdays at 1-pm before the 4-pm performance; these start on Saturday May 1st. The H2H games are not open for live fan viewing so please take note of this when planning your next visit to Magic City Jai-Alai. H2H singles will be played on Mondays only at 10-am. There is an amazing $100,000 in total H2H prize money for the singles and doubles H2H so get ready for some intense competition. Remember to watch all H2H games on The Jai-Alai Channel and if you miss the live games be sure to watch after the fact.
The Magic City schedule for the 2021 regular season is 6-performances a week from May through November. Here is the schedule:
Saturday: 4:30 pm
Sunday: 1-pm
Monday: 1-pm and 4:30-pm
Tuesday: 1-pm and 4:30-pm
Last but not least, the highly popular Magic City Fantasy Jai-Alai league kicks off again this week, a continuation of the first 10-week mini-season of 2021 for the grand prize (a one-of-a-kind merchandise prize). Be sure to go to www.fantasyjaialai.com to sign-up to submit your picks for this opening week of the regular season (everyone needs to sign-up again). You can win up to $100 a week for being the first place finisher and possibly even more depending on the number of live entries for the week. A special thanks to Andrew Blechman, Fantasy League Commissioner, for all his efforts in running this Fantasy Jai-Alai league!
Magic City’s regular season from May 1 through November brings lots of changes. The biggest change to the roster will be the return of Douglas from his wrist injury rehabilitation which will make the late games even more competitive. The regular season schedule includes six performances a week from Saturday through Tuesday. There will no longer be any 12 noon performances. The schedule includes a twilight performance on Saturday at 4-pm, matinee on Sunday at 1-pm and double-headers on Monday and Tuesday at 1-pm and 4:30-pm. There will only be 8-games a performance instead of the usual 9-games a performance. Jai-Alai H2H games will also be continuing with the addition of Doubles H2H on Saturday’s at 1-pm. Singles H2H games will be only on Monday at 10-am where previously they were on Monday and Tuesday. If you haven’t yet seen Jai-Alai H2H, you certainly need to check this out.
Live Jai-Alai viewing is partially back at Magic City beginning on Saturday May 8th and will only be allowed for the 4-pm Saturday performances until further notice. Magic City Jai-Alai has taken smart steps in prevention of the spread of covid-19 plus there have been different county regulations for Dania Jai-Alai which in Broward compared to Miami-Dade where Magic City Jai-Alai resides.
There are several changes in the wagering menu, some game changes for exotic wagers and a Jackpot minimum guarantee increase. May 1st brings the addition of Daily Doubles to Magic City Jai-Alai. There will be an early Daily Double on games 1&2 and a late Daily Double on games 7&8. Pick 3 wagers will be changed to games 2-4 and 6-8. The Mighty Ocho, a $1.00 Jackpot wager like the popular Jai-5, will increase from the $4,000 minimum guarantee to a $5,000 guarantee. There is no change to the Jai-5 Jackpot wager. The Superfecta wager, previously held on Game 9, will go away since there is no longer a game 9. All games will be the Spectacular 7 format which means all games are to 7-points with points doubling after the first round of play.
Mini-Season Wrap-Up
The Magic City Jai-Alai 10-week mini-season concluded on Monday, April 12th. Here is the mini-season wrap-up:
Singles Championship:
RonRon – $5,000 for First, 35 wins in 90 games (38.9% wins) CRB – $3,000 for Second, 19 wins in 93 games (20.4% wins) Spinner – $1,000 for Third, 16 wins in 90 games (17.8% wins)
There was a tie for 3rd between Spinner and Bueno after the conclusion of game 9 on Monday, each had 16-wins. Bueno’s record was 16 wins in 118 games (13.6% wins). The tie led to a dead-heat tie-breaker game to 6-single points between Spinner and Bueno. The tie-breaker was using the same format as a set in an H2H match, the first to win 6-single points was the winner for third and 2-serves were allowed just as in H2H. Spinner was favored to win the tie-breaker and won with a score of 6-3.
1st Doubles Tournament of 2021:
Kubala-Benny – split $10,000 for First, 11 wins in 50 games (22.0% wins) Bueno-Ben – split $5,000 for Second, 10 wins in 53 games (18.9% wins) Juice-RonRon were 3rd with 9 wins in 53 games (17.0% wins) Ikeda-El Barba were 4th with 7 wins in 51 games (13.7% wins) Jeden-Bradley were 5th with 6 wins in 51 games (11.8% wins) CRB-Spinner were 6th with 5 wins in 53 games (9.4% wins)
Golden Cesta Awards:
RonRon won 6-consecutive GC Awards from Weeks 5-10. He was the only player to win multiple GC Awards. Other winners were: Week 1 – Vuelo, Week 2 – Douglas, Week 3 – Ikeda, Week 4 – CRB
Mandatory Payouts on Closing Day, April 12th:
Jai-5 paid $5,533.60 to (1) lucky winner with 5 of 5 winners ($5,952 total handle on Jai-5).
Mighty Ocho paid 4,477.60 to (1) lucky winner with 6 of 8 winners ($3,840 total handle on MO).
Record Jai-5 Payoff:
The Jai-5 paid a whopping record payoff of $27,348 to a single ticket holder with 5 of 5 correct winners on April 5, shattering the previous record of $12,220 in 2019.
Congratulations to Magic City Jai-Alai players, support staff and management for a successful 10-week mini season!
Magic City’s 4th season debut showcased outstanding Jai-Alai talent at Saturday’s 4-pm performance and fans were wowed at just how far this short-court development Jai-Alai program has come since it began in 2018. Magic City Jai-Alai has a roster of 20-players and all played during the 9-game opener, including three new players on this 2021 roster. New additions were Spinner (Daniel Spinner) from Dania Jai-Alai, Julen (Julen Goitiandia) with playing experience from Casino Miami Jai-Alai & Markina Spain, along with 17-year old “Benny” who is Ben Langhans, the brother of Magic City’s 21-year old top player Douglas (Matt Langhans). Douglas has won all doubles tournaments and both singles championships since he started his professional career at Magic City in 2019.
Carballo was hot in late game singles and looked phenomenal, winning two of his 3-games and a second place finish in the other. Douglas had a win in his first singles game of the day. Magic City early game player, Vuelo, definitely looked improved as Stu Neiman had been touting this week. Vuelo had a show in game 1 and a win in game 2. Vuelo’s game 3 singles game almost gave him a second place finish had Jeden won his final match-up when it appeared he was on his way to a perfect game. Bueno, son of Magic City player manager and former Jai-Alai superstar, Benny Bueno, also had an exceptional day with a first, second, and a 3rd in the four singles games he played. CRB looked impressive and scored the first win of the 2021 season in game 1 and also won the show playoff in the very competitively-matched game 4 mid-singles game which was won by Kubala, one of Magic City’s top five late-game players.
Doubles game winners for game 5 & 7 were Juice-RonRon in post 1 and Jeden-Bradley in post 7. The Jeden-Bradley win was an incredible display of talent for this doubles team with a perfect game from post 7, the toughest post to secure victory from in the Spec 7 format. This first doubles tournament for 2021 is already shaping up to be some very competitive games with evenly matched teams. The teams of Juice-RonRon and Jeden-Bradley are currently 100% ITM for their two games each team has played. There are 10-teams for the doubles competition so not all teams get to play twice daily.
Trifecta pool were decent for Magic City Jai-Alai, averaging $1,527 per game over the 9-game performance, ranging from $1303 to $1,668, which is a huge increase in trifecta pool size from the recent Casino Miami Jai-Alai performances which ended on Monday. The $1.00 trifecta prices were phenomenal for day 1 and averaged a high $421 which is about double that of average season trifecta prices for Dania and Magic City Jai-Alai. Five of the $1.00 trifectas paid between $330 and $1180. The lowest $1.00 trifectas of the day were $48.70 on the easy 3-2-5 combination in singles game 6 which was a handicap special with Douglas-Carballo-Spinner along with the very easy 1-4-2 trifecta combination which paid $86.30 in the game 1 opener (CRB-Bueno-Vuelo). Note that Magic City offers $0.50 trifecta tickets, just like Dania Jai-Alai. Casino Miami Jai-Alai trifectas were not available for $0.50, Miami fans had to spend $1.00 for base trifecta wagers at that venue.
The$1.00 Jai-5 jackpot wager was nailed by one lucky bettor for the $2,000 guaranteed jackpot. The five winners of the game 3-7 sequence were: Bueno, Kubala, Juice-RonRon, Douglas, Jeden-Bradley. Fans wagered $1,244 into the Jai-5 opening day and this popular jackpot wager starts out again with another $2,000 guarantee for the Sunday noon performance if there is a single jackpot winner with all five winners correctly selected.
The Mighty Ocho wager, a $1.00 Pick 8 wager which works exactly like the Jai-5, has an increased guarantee for a single winner with all eight winners correctly selected for games 1-8. The jackpot was increased to $4,000 for 2021; previously this jackpot had a guarantee of $3,000. The Mighty Ocho wager first started in 2020 and no handicapper has had all 8-winners correct, although there have been winners with 7 of 8 winners several times. There were 2-winning tickets with 5 of 8 correct winners for the season opener that paid $24.40 each ticket holder.
Magic City Jai-Alai features two $1.00 Pick 3 wagers, game 4 and game 7. All Magic City pick-x wagers feature a low 20% takeout rate, which is 5% lower than competitor Dania Jai-Alai and fans took advantage and played more on the Pick 3 wagers than at the opening day of Dania Jai-Alai on Wednesday this week. Magic City fans wagered $753 and $466 on each of the Pick 3’s and the $1.00 payoffs paid quite handsomely to Jai-Alai handicappers with prices of $150.60 for the Kubala, Juice-RonRon, Douglas sequence and $372.80 for the Jeden-Bradley, Carballo, Carballo sequence.
The total handle for all the games was $20,222.
The next performance at Magic City is Sunday at noon and is followed by a Monday 1-pm performance.
Be sure to check out the new head-to-head matches at Magic City Jai-Alai at 10-am on Monday and Tuesday mornings (10-am to noon). These are non-wagering events. Check out the JAI-ALAI H2H page on the Magic City website.
Stu Neiman from Magic City Jai-Alai contacted SayHiLi.com 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 ChampionshipInfo
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 performance. Performances will be at least 9-games each. The 10-week meet runs through mid-April and then the regular Magic City season will consist of games from early May through the end of November.
The 2nd U.S. National Jai-Alai Championship will be played at Magic City Jai-Alai in the month of September before the Dania fall meet.
Magic City Jai-Alai in Miami Florida concluded their 2020 short-court Jai-Alai season on Sunday, November 29th. The second and final doubles tournament was a nail-biter coming down the final doubles game #7 to see if Diaz-Carballo could tie the team of Asier-Douglas who had 17-wins. The team of Juice-RonRon upset the plans of Diaz-Carballo by winning the game from post 4.
The team of Asier-Douglas split $10,000 for their tourney win while Diaz-Carballo split $5,000 for their second place finish. The final standings for all 9-teams can be seen under “Wagering Info” under Magic City Doubles Tournaments on the SayHiLi.com website. Douglas has won all doubles tournaments since he started doubles tournament play at Magic City in 2019.
The top 3-finishers in the Magic City Singles Championship were awarded their checks on Sunday. Douglas won the singles championship again as in 2019 and took top prize of a cool $15,000 for his 179-singles wins. RonRon won 2nd place prize of $10,000 with his 151-singles wins and Bueno took home $5,000 for his 3rd place finish with 109-wins. El Barba was a close 4th place finish that came down to the final performance with 105 wins and is well deserving of an honorable mention here for his late-season run where he won the Golden Cesta Award weeks 24 through 26.
The 2020 Coaches Award was awarded to Magic City player Tennessee for the 3rd consecutive year. Tennessee is the “spirit-head” of the entire program. He is a vibrant bright personality and all-around “nice-guy” and even helped Limonte move recently.
The Most Improved Player Award went to Ben. Ben played an astonishing 898 games this season and was never sick, injured or scratched from any performance. Ben worked constantly on his game and was first one there and last to leave according to Stu Neiman.
Both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho Jackpots were Forced-Out on Sunday. The Jai-5 already had a carryover jackpot of $2,983.60 going into Sunday and another $3,738 was wagered on it Sunday. After the 20% takeout rate on Sundays Jai-5 pool, the Force-Out was a total of $5,974 to be paid to the ticket holders with the most winners. Asier pulled somewhat of an upset in the leg 1 game 3 of the Jai-5, however, Asier had only been playing in one singles game lately and had won two of the three singles games in game 3 already this week. The remaining winners were Bradley in post 1 game 4, Diaz-Carballo in post 5 game 5, Douglas in post 8 game 6, and Juice-RonRon in post 4 game 7. There was one-team live for a 5 of 5 payout of $5,974 had the team of Diaz-Carballo won from post 6. The $5,974 force-out jackpot was paid out to (9) ticket holders with 4 of 5 winners correctly selected, with each ticket paying $663.70 for a $1 wager.
Asier, the son of Magic City Player Manager Arra, deserves an honorable mention for closing out the 2020 season by winning 3 of his 4 singles games for the week! His hard-throwing left side can be a bit too hot for some to handle when he gets going. Some of the older fans of the 1980’s Tampa roster have noticed Asier’s left side throws have similarities to those of the famous player, Laca.
The $1 Mighty Ocho wager only had $546.80 in the jackpot, but Magic City COO, Scott Savin, guaranteed a $3,000 payout to be split among ticket holders with the most winners correctly selected for the 8-game sequence. Bettors spent $2,920 into this Jackpot and after the 20% takeout had been removed from the $2,920 and the prior jackpot carryover of $546.80 was added, there was $2,882.80 to be paid back, so Magic City had to make-up only $117.20 to bring the Mighty Ocho Force-out up to the $3,000 guarantee. Going into the final leg of the Mighty Ocho, there were 4-posts covered for 6 of 8 payoffs (posts 1,3,5 for $3,000 each and post 8 with 2-tickets for $1,500 each). Douglas won game 5, result 5-1-3, and the $3,000 was paid out to a single winner with 6 of 8 winners correct. Games 1 and 2 of the Mighty Ocho were won by Diaz in post 1 and Ben in post 7, respectively.
Magic City short-court Jai-Alai action returns on February 6, 2021 to kick-off an additional 10-weeks of Jai-Alai next year before the regular season starts in May. Word from Stu is the performances will be on Saturday, Sunday and Mondays. Stay tuned for more info.
Don’t forget to tune in to the Jai-Alai Channel on Saturday and Sunday, December 5 & 6 for the US National Jai-Alai Championship at Magic City Jai-Alai. Tourney games start at 10 am each day. The US Nationals are only open to US citizens and like the Magic City 2020 Jai-Alai season, there is no live viewing of the event due to covid-19 precautions. Jai-Alai fans won’t want to miss this!
Congratulations Magic City Jai-Alai players, staff and management and all involved for providing this great entertainment opportunity, including the FREE Fantasy Jai-Alai League, during these trying times in 2020. Well Done!
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 $$ 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 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).
Mid-Games (like Week 20 games 4 & 5), 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 Week 20 games 6, 8 and 9). These are 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).
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.
Another rumor just starting to wind its way through the Jai-Alai underworld and perhaps a real whopper, or who knows, maybe a reality? Here it is: Installing a glass-panel back wall like Magic City Jai-Alai to shorten the court to 120’ which will allow an extra 50+ feet plus of room for adequate player social distancing behind the glass wall along with relocating the announcing area and video equipment.
Actually this rumor makes a lot of sense and could be a genuine cost-cutting measure that might perhaps extend the life of Dania Jai-Alai for years to come? Thinking about this one, the expense of the back wall change would be pretty minimal and could happen relatively quickly. Also, the higher ceiling height than Magic City could make for some pretty intensive short-court Jai-Alai action? If this rumor turns out to be reality, a short-court National Jai-Alai Championship could get really competitive and be a blast!
Haven’t heard much for details on this rumor, whether it’s for near term or a modification for last half of December or down the road. Source on this one has adamantly insisted that “mum is the word” which is the rumor mill standard, LOL. Only time will tell…..I have my doubts on this one. This would involve Magic City type balls and cestas too, but who knows, this whole rumored concept with a reduced roster size (attrition/visas being a factor I would imagine, some players would likely say “no” and play in Spain/Europe) would definitely be a cost saving measure. One thing for sure, Dania rumors are a dime a dozen right now…..
Maybe soon we will find out what is really going on? Let’s hope so!
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 wager 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 the Mighty Ocho wager impossible to hit? Apparently not at Magic City! Recently on August 22 at the 4-pm performance one talented bettor came very close by selecting 7 of the 8 winners. Now the Mighty Ocho gross 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 with a cool $2,000 within their grasp. 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 had a guaranteed $50,000 Pick 8 in the 1992-93 era, see the referenced photo of a Palm Beach Jai-alai program cover touting the $50k Pick 8 wager).
Handicappers at Magic City Jai-alai are among some of the best and handicapping at Magic City Jai-alai isn’t as difficult as Jai-alai handicapping in the past since there is more disparity between player’s records at Magic City. 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 in our lifetime! Let’s take a look at the statistics on the Mighty Ocho for the first mandatory payout that occurred on the June 28 Sunday matinee performance. We understand the Mighty Ocho is up for grabs again very soon with another mandatory payout at the end of the Edgewater meet at Magic City. This is on Sunday, August 30. This is an important date for anyone wanting a shot at a BIG PAYOFF. Both the Jai-5 and the Mighty Ocho will be mandatory payouts at the end of the Edgewater meet on Sunday. The first Mighty Ocho mandatory had a jackpot carryover of $1,631.60 going into the Sunday matinee (Note: currently the Mighty Ocho jackpot 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 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 (of 92-events), Average $1.00 Payoff). The average Mighty Ocho betting pool for these 92-events was $92. What is usually seen when bettors hear about an upcoming mandatory payout is a drop in wagering activity as they are waiting for the mandatory payout to make their investment, and a larger investment too. Perhaps that is the part of the reason for the recent drop-off in the Mighty Ocho wagering activity? Here is the real scoop on Magic City’s Mighty Ocho statistics: x/8 Correct: # Winners & Average $1.00 Payoff 7/8: 1x $15.60 (pool was $39 for this one 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 “mighty meager” as someone has been saying on one of the Jai-alai chat posts? Not exactly true that’s for sure, LOL. Get real and give Magic City and Scott Savin a break, enough of this BS and Magic City “bashing and trashing” at every chance and trying to tell Magic City how to run their business model. Good grief, Magic City Jai-alai has made a boatload of great decisions in every area and the short-court version of Jai-alai is rapidly growing in popularity! They are to be commended for what they have accomplished. Keep in mind, a $1.00 investment on a Mighty Ocho wager is for a sequence of 8-games, so effectively it’s costing 12.5-cents a game (pretty cheap entertainment). The Mighty Ocho can be a fun and challenging wager! It’s pretty amazing that Magic City has been able to provide Jai-alai sports fans with this great opportunity to watch and wager on Jai-alai games from the comfort of one’s home during this awful covid mess! They even offer a FREE Weekly Fantasy Jai-alai League and last week’s cash prize was $150 to the weekly winner. As previously stated, 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 be able to offer an array of various options to try and satisfy more of their fan base? SayHiLi applauds Magic City Jai-alai for offering customers a wide variety of wagers on their wagering menu. Time to stick a fork in this “Mighty Ocho whining”……is the whining ever going to stop?……it’s getting pretty old and repetitive! Do you actually think that Magic City Jai-alai fans or management cares that it “really bothers you?” Have you even spent a $1.00 on the Mighty Ocho yourself? Like a famous Jai-alai fan we all know has often said “You know who you are.”
Owner and builder Art Silvester Sr. looking over plans for the for the jai-alai fronton in Newport in May, 1976. The fronton was open from 1976 till 2003.
By Steve “Straymar” Martin
I recently had the opportunity to reach out to a Jai-alai acquaintance from the past, Art Silvester Jr, on Tuesday morning on the 4th 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 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.
