I think this situation is all about managing expectations and
how I would play it would depend on my Jai Alai goal for the evening,
so I'll make multiple answers.
1) If my goal for that particular evening is to try to make a
score, then I'd probably take a balls out approach in the first
game and wheel whoever I thought the best team in the game was
with 5 others for $2 quinelas, if I'm lucky, I hit and I have
enough to try this bet a few times and build a roll. If I lose,
I can walk, or sit and watch, or sit and watch and hope somebody
I know is around and can float me a couple of bucks to take a
shot with.
2.) If my goal for the evening is an evening's entertainment and
the hope of maybe walking out with say 20 or 30 bucks if things
go my way, I'd start by trying the place pool, hope to double
up my $2 a few times, and then move on to some $1 quinelas as
they evening wore on. On a $10 stake, this would more likely be
my plan for the evening, even if you go bust out early, then by
the time youre broke its the late games and if you want to just
watch, youve got better players and more entertaining games for
the viewing. Another option here would be the "show parlay"
style of playing, staying in the show pool, rolling everything
in off your winners, and see how it works out. As a side story,
a group of friends and I did this one night at Dania years ago
when broke, I think we put 5 bucks apiece in before game 1, we
hit a show bet in every game, parlaying the winnings every time,
and at the end of the night, we had something like 15 bucks apiece.
I can say, you never know with Jai Alai, the best run I've ever
had started with a bankroll not much bigger than $10, I walked
into Dania with $25 one Thursday afternoon years ago (this was
back in the days when Dania had a double header on Thursdays) and
decided that it was either going to be a win or a one and done
showing, I played $3 perfecta boxes with my 25, hit the first
game for a good perfecta that got me back 150 or so, and then
went on a run for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening
where I just could not miss, when it was all said and done, I
dont remember the exact number, but I was over 1000 by the last
game of the evening show, so you never know.
