Caesars Merger Arb for Beginners. 40x+ or Bust!

Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets, Ambassador to Italy, and close friend of the Mango Man has been in exclusive negotiations to buy Caesars Entertainment since mid-March, with the bid reported by Bloomberg and CNBC to be at $34 / share, beating out a competing bid from Carl Ichan at $33 / share. The exclusivity ends this Friday, May 15th. Caesars has been trading in the \~$27 range the last couple of weeks as reports have suggested the price might be closer to $32 and exclusivity deadline was extended from the initial mid-April deadline after his dad died (RIP!) Mid-afternoon yesterday, the stock dropped \~9%, despite no news coming out about the deal. 18 hours later, still no headlines. Had a lottery bid in for 1,000 29.00C at $0.05 that I did not expect to get filled that got filled on the drop. Currently sitting on a lottery ticket that will either expire worthless Friday afternoon if there's no deal or will be worth 40x+ (assuming stock trades to a 5 to 10% discount to the deal price). **TL:DR Casino bet on Casino deal. 40x or nothing** **Position: 1,000 CZR 20260515 29.00C bought at $0.05** [Lottery Ticket](https://preview.redd.it/ywasy5eynv0h1.png?width=1370&format=png&auto=webp&s=53a6bd23c2046992cf8352d95dbcc111c835dcaf)