In May, the Marlins have scored more than three runs just three times – against the Dodgers’ Matt Magill, against the Mets’ Dillon Gee, and against Roy Halladay’s busted up shoulder.

The only problem with this is that others are also thinking this way, and it is now factored into the price of pitching at a site like FanDuel. Today Arizona P Wade Miley will draw $6,900 in salary. Doug Fister, who averages over 2 points per more per start according to FanDuel costs only $6,400.

Still, it is worth a thought until the Marlins start hitting like a major league team (should be sometime in 2015).

If you are looking for a sleeper, though, Padres P Andrew Cashner ($5,700)  is worth a look. He has been good in his last couple outings (though granted one was against the Marlins), the Nats strike out a lot, and Dan Haren is on the mound for the Nats, not looking sharp.

Also, a pair of cheap position player options from the WhiteSox – 1B Paul Konerko ($2,800) is on a 4 game hit streak, has hits in 7 of his last 10, and is 7 for 13 lifetime against Justin Vargas. SS Alexei Ramirez ($2,800) has hit in 6 of 7 games, including three multi-hit games, and he is 7 for 15 lifetime against Vargas.

Pirates OF Andrew McCutchen has three multi-hit games in a row but is still only $3,700. Today ‘Cutch and gets to face Astros Lucas Harrell today. In one game previous he went 2 for 3 against Harrell.

I think there are some good bargains available to help manage a roster with that salary, including a pair of young Marlins. Brandon McCarthy will pitch for Arizona tonight, and he has been yielding a 1.54 WHIP and is being hit over .300 by both lefties and righties.  2B Derek Dietrich ($3,000) has cooled off a bit, but has till been hitting well since coming up. And OF Marcell Ozuna ($3,100) has warmed up again with 5 hits in his last 19 at-bats.

Cardinals SS Pete Kozma ($2,220) is on 4 game hit streak, and has a hit against Estrada in 5 at bats. Cardinals C Yadier Molina ($3,300) has hits in 8 of his last 10, and is 8 for 15 career versus Estrada.

Right around an average price, Atlanta’s 3B Chris Johnson ($3,400) is ona 3 game hit streak, and is 4 for 15 career facing Chris Capuano with 3 extra-base hits.

More expensive but probably excellent value tonight is back in Pittsburh. OF Andrew McCutchen ($3,700) is 5 for his last 10, and gets to hit against Eric Bedard. He has not faced the lefty before, but Bedard is seeing righties slug .589 against him this year.

And getting back to the Cardinals, OF Matt Holliday ($4,100) is 6 for 12 facing Estrada, with a double and a home run. Holliday also has hits in 8 of his last 10 games.

After that, the fun really starts: The Breakfast Buffet on the beach will be available daily starting June 27. Nothing like a buffet on the beach after an all-nighter in the casino.

The 21,500 square foot outdoor party area will feature live music, DJ’s and chilled cocktails all day and night. Then there’s the food: Buffalo Chicken Dip, Bang Bang Shrimp and Steamers, Caribbean Shrimp Salad, Fried Fish and Chips, the Beach Bar Cheeseburger.

Photo: Coutesy Trump Taj Mahal casino-hotel.

The new bargain-priced buffet begins June 5, and will be offered Wednesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. Check at the casino for specific start and close times. The value-priced buffet is a smart move for the Plaza that’s been struggling lately.

The menu will change daily and feature hot and cold dishes, a soup of the day and desserts.

Typical items …

Cold
Mixed green salad and a Caesar salad with all the fixings; Mexican corn salsa, red bliss potato, fusilli pasta salad, creamy cole slaw and Harvard beet salad.

Hot
Carving station with roast turkey and ham, Chipotle chicken, Casino crusted salmon, mussels marinara, summer vegetable medley, rigatoni carbonara, saffron rice pilaf, along with meat balls, sausages, mac and cheese, red bliss mashed potato, and old fashion sage stuffing.

Photo credit: stockimages

Players cost money. Players in demand cost more money than others. With a $35,000 salary cap, if you spend $7,000 on a pitcher (a relatively modest amount) that leaves an average of $3,500 for eight position players. $3,500 is a median kind of salary. A player getting a lot of hype like Brewers SS Jean Segura is going to cost $5,000 tonight. Top pitchers like Justin Verlander are going to cost $9,900.

Sometimes you may feel compelled to buy into one of those expensive players, but the key is to find cheaper players to afford that player. See what I did to get Mets stud pitcher Matt Harvey on Sunday, for example.

To do this, you will need underpriced players. To find them, I like to look at the day’s starting lineups for teams with favorable matchups (that is, they are facing a struggling pitcher) and looking for bargains. This is how I picked up the Reds Donald Lutz Sunday in my Matt Harvey roster.

Tonight, I think Red Sox P Felix Doubront is relatively weak. Looking at the Rays lineup,  Zobrist and Longoria are known names, but Sean Rodriguez is not. That is a guy to check out. He is playing LF and batting 7th. FanDuel lists him as SS Sean Rodriguez ($2,600). That is a great price.  He has hit in his last four games, and is 3 for 9 in his career against Doubront. That is a guy I want to pick up.

Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez ($2,800) is cheap because he has not been hitting well this year. When he does hit it comes in streaks, though. He has already seen Hiram Burgos just two weeks ago and went 1 for 3 with a HR. Again, this could be a spot to save some money. I would prefer to do it at a defensive position like SS with Rodriguez, but the option is there.

Still sticking with traditional power positions, Nationals 1B Adam La Roche ($2,700) is another find. He has not been great this year. But he is riding a 12 game hit streak, and managed a HR last night. Plus he is 5 for 14 against Edinson Volquez, who is walking more batters than striking out lately.

Mariners OF Jason Bay is no where near a 12 game hit streak. But he went 2 for 4 two days ago, is a .400 lifetime hitter against Andy Petitte, and is available for $2,800.

Even better, leftie OF Xavier Paul ($2,500) gets to face a rightie in Miami. He has not been great this year, but he is more consistent than Bay. His problem is getting in the lineup, which he only does against righthanders. He’s cheap because he gets in games a lot in pinch hit spots, and so has a low average point per game number. But when he starts, Paul can be a good buy.

Not the sexiest names, but if you want Reds P Mat Latos ($8,200) against the putrid Marlins tonight (and I know, I do) then that is what you need to do to build a lineup.

Ultimate Poker, a website affiliated with the Station Casinos company in Nevada, was the first poker website to open for business on April 30 under Nevada online gaming legislation.

And so far … not so good.

The most recent ugly news is that late last week the poker website ended a short-lived relationship with the company that was supposed to do its player verification. In Nevada, players must be within the state and be 21 years old to play.

The company that is, uh, was doing the verification is called Iovation. Iovation got some unflattering notice in the online poker community because the company’s co-founder and CEO is a fellow named Greg Pierson. Pierson was a co-founder of UltimateBet, a poker website at the center of one of online poker’s nastier cheating scandals that occurred approximately 2005 to 2007.

It seems that one of UltimateBet’s top players, Russ Hamilton, was allegedly using a so-called super-user account to see other players’ cards. He allegedly made lots of money.

Despite their names, Ultimate Poker and UltimateBet had no connection — other than Pierson’s roles in UltimateBet and Iovation. Poker players on online poker forums, such as Two Plus Two, were not pleased to say the least, especially since the type of information players have to hand over to be verified by Pierson’s Iovation included Social Security numbers. Reports on poker news websites have detailed recently released audio tapes, allegedly made by Hamilton, that implicate others at UltimateBet who may have had various roles in the scandal, including devising ways to cover up what happened.

On May 9, Ultimate Poker waved goodbye to Iovation. Asked directly if the end of the relationship was due to Pierson, Ultimate Poker said through a spokeswoman, “Ultimate Gaming discontinued use of Iovation on the 9th of May. We have no further comment.”

While Iovation may not have required licensing by Nevada gaming regulators, the affair brings into question the scrutiny that Nevada is applying to companies with arguably sensitive roles in the online gaming business out there, including subcontractor vendors. Gaming regulators apparently are curious about what happened between Ultimate Poker and Iovation.

While Iovation may have been an embarrassment for Ultimate Poker, a couple of other problems are even more vexing.

Apparently, customers need to have a cell phone to be geolocated within Nevada.

OK, no problem.

However, customers of Verizon, the largest mobile network operator in America, could not be verified through Ultimate Poker’s process. That changed in mid-May when Verizon, Virgin Mobile and Cricket customers were able to get the greenlight to participate.

And as they say on the food processor infomercials … there’s more.

Ultimate Poker’s software doesn’t work on Apple computers, unless the player is willing to download some work-around software. That sounds handy.

Still, Ultimate Poker is getting props among some American poker players for being a pioneer in bringing the game back to the Internet in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the biggest beneficiaries may be other companies who plan to offer online games because Ultimate Poker is making some of the bigger mistakes those other websites will now have a better chance to avoid

The 12 casinos made $228.53 million in April compared to $259.93 million in April 2012.

Here are the highlights and lowlights.

The Good. The best news was for the Atlantic Club, the small casino at the south end of the Boardwalk that’s been on the verge of going out of business. With a strategy of trying to attract value-minded customers, the Atlantic Club increased its gaming revenue 36.6 percent from last April. Atlantic Club made $11.34 million in April compared to $8.30 million in April 2012. The Atlantic Club is on a hot streak. In March, the Atlantic Club had a 32.7 percent gain to $12.64 million from March 2012.

The only other Atlantic City casino to post a gain in April from last years was Caesars with nearly a 6 percent increase from April 2012. Caesars made $29.14 million in gaming revenue in April compared to $27.52 million last April.

The Bad. Of the 12 casinos, eight had double-digit declines from April 2012.

The Ugly. The worst of the news was for Revel. The luxury resort that recently filed for Chapter 11 dropped 40 percent to $8.06 million from April 2012. Last April was Revel’s first month in business and it was considered a soft opening with some of its restaurants yet to open.

Revel is in the midst of trying to alter marketing and operational strategies that clearly alienated some customers by putting in a high-limit slots area, opening a high rollers players lounge and offering specials to attract customers over age 50.

The Greenwood bid faces stiff competition from MGM Resorts and Wyomissing, Pa.-based Penn National Gaming. MGM, which submitted its bid on Thursday, is widely considered the favorite to win the license and operate an $800 million facility at National Harbor on the banks of the Potomac River.

Despite its status as the favorite, MGM will need to demonstrate to Maryland regulators that its proposal will deliver the greatest benefit to the state. Maryland officials have indicated they intend to announce the winning bidder for the Prince George’s County license by the end of this year.

If the Parx group were to win the Maryland license, it would become a direct competitor with its partner in its bid for the second Philadelphia license. The Cordish Cos., Parx’s joint venture partner in Philadelphia, operates Maryland’s largest and most successful casino, Maryland Live!, in Anne Arundel County.

The future casino in Prince George’s County is expected to divert many of Maryland Live’s customers from the south to the new facility.

Penn National’s bid follows its highly publicized — and expensive — attempt late last year to kill Maryland legislation authorizing the license it now seeks. The company spent about $40 million on advertising trying to convince Maryland voters to reject the ballot measure establishing an additional license for Prince George’s County, a move designed to protect its Hollywood Casino in Charlestown, W. Va., from significant new competition.

Penn National already operates one Maryland casino, the Hollywood Perryville. Under state law, the company would need to relinquish virtually all of its ownership stake in the existing casino in order to be eligible to operate the Prince George’s County facility.

According to a report in the Washington Post, Greenwood’s plans call for a multi-faceted $800 million Parx Casino Hotel & Spa featuring 4,750 slots — the most of the three bids — and more than 100 table games.

The Penn National bid proposes a $700 million facility, also with more than 100 table games but just 500 slots, according to the Post.

This week the struggling resort shed its top marketing executive after just six months on the job in favor of a casino consulting group. The Fine Point Group, led by former Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment) executive Randall Fine, will set Revel’s marketing course moving forward.

The Press of Atlantic City reported that Darlene Monzo, who was hired in November to revamp the resort’s marketing in an attempt to reverse its woeful performance, was replaced with the authorization of Jeffrey Hartmann, Revel’s interim CEO. “As part of our ongoing restructuring efforts, we are evaluating all aspects of our business to uncover new ways to drive growth,” the Press of Atlantic City quoted Hartmann as saying. “We are committed to attracting new guests to Revel, and creating loyalty among our current guests.”

Monzo, the previous marketing chief, was hired by Revel’s former CEO, Kevin DeSanctis. When DeSanctis vacated that role and Hartmann assumed the position on an interim basis in March to guide Revel through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, widely anticipated strategic changes came with the transition.

Monzo’s departure is merely the latest in a series of shakeups aimed at changing the $2.4 billion resort’s operating fortunes. As shoulder season ends at the Shore and the summer months approach, Revel needs to act quickly to capture greater market share and improve its bottom line.

In recent months, the resort has announced initiatives as varied as poker promotions and dog-friendly accommodations to attract a wider range of customers. It remains to be seen what direction the Fine Point Group will recommend and implement, but there’s no question that its strategies will be scrutinized throughout the High Season at the Shore.

After a highly successful inaugural run, the Parx Big Stax concept — developed by area poker pro Matt Glantz — returns to the Bensalem casino May 8 and continues through May 20.

Big Stax II, as it is being called, will include a range of events; however, it will feature three No-Limit Hold’em tournaments, each serving as its own Main Event:

Big Stax 300 ($300+$30) with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000
Big Stax 500 ($500+$50) with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000
Big Stax 1500 ($1,500+$100) with a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000

Each of the Big Stax tournaments is a three-day event featuring three start days to accommodate large fields. Players in the Big Stax 300 receive 30,000 in chips; those in the Big Stax 500 receive 40,000 in chips; those in the Big Stax 1500 receive 50,000 in chips.

According to the event’s published rules:

Registration for each Day 1 will remain open until the end of play;
Unlimited re-entries through each Day 1;
All late entries and re-entries receive a full chip stack.

The event schedule includes five super satellites for the Big Stax 1500, with buy-ins ranging from $85+$15 to $330+$30. Among the other events on the schedule are a Limit Omaha High-Low 8 or Better tournament ($250+$30), a No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Turbo ($300+$30), and a No-Limit Hold’em 6-max ($500+$50).

Shortly after the launch of the first Big Stax tournament, Glantz explained vision for the event to PhillyGambles.com this way:

“My goal is to cater to the average player and the newer player. It’s not my intention to go after the pro poker player (at Parx), even though I’m a professional. The pro players will follow the money.”

The complete Parx Big Stax II schedule is available here.