What’s New for Magic City in May & Mini-Season Wrap-Up
By Straymar
What’s New for Magic City in May 2021?
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!
