Mystery Wedge: To Flip, or Not to Flip?

The risk outweighs the reward greatly. Neither my mother nor I like the Mystery Round, and that's one of the many reasons why I felt the Express should've replaced the Mystery Wedges over the Jackpot round. When a player chooses to flip over the Mystery Wedge, it's not just the money, prizes, wedges, and tokens you're risking; it's your turn. Control of the Wheel is undoubted the most powerful thing to have when it comes to gameplay. As a result, that gives you a strong edge over your competition. I read somewhere (possibly the Wiki) that an Aussie player kept winning so many games because his opponents did not understand the power of the turn while he did.

Unlike the Mystery Round, my mother strongly recommends hopping aboard the Express because unlike going for what's underneath the Mystery Wedge, you're no better off spinning again than you are hopping on the Express. In fact, she says spinning again carries a greater risk than hopping on. Sure you guess a wrong letter on the Express, you go Bankrupt, but will the turn come back to you anyway? Maybe, maybe not, but the Mystery carries perhaps the biggest unnecessary risk of losing your turn over anything else.

So, just like my suggestion is to choose consonants on Free Play (especially ones you're not sure about), another suggestion of mine is to leave the Mystery Wedges alone.

The expected value of flipping isn't very high.. especially if you have over $4,000 like I did. Of course, there are other factors like knowing what the puzzle is, how much your opponents have that round, and how much you're leading or trailing by. A lot of people don't realize, also, that any money for calling a letter on that spin is forfeited when you flip, no matter what the outcome is. I think that is a major role-player, as well. One note about Express, too. The weird thing about Express is that I don't see any risk in hopping aboard. The risk is much greater, and the reward is much lower if you choose to keep spinning.

It's funny you brought up the home versions, ThisWheel13, because on the versions released by THQ (except the Wii U version, of course), there's a award for winning the $10,000 Mystery Prize. If you want that award, here's my suggestion. Play solo, and if you don't have much to lose, go ahead. After you win the award, I recommend you stop going for what's under there. If you're on the actual show, however, I strongly recommend you do NOT go for it regardless of what you have. The reason why is that it's not like the home games in that fact that this is real money you're risking as well as missing out on. Furthermore, you have to remember, there will no longer be any Free Spins to bail you out of this. I can relate this to episodes of Life After People, only the people are Free Spin tokens and the collasping buildings are made of coins and dollar bills. So, if you're on the actual Wheel, don't go for the Mystery. The fear of the unknown should keep you from doing it.

Arguably, you're playing with the house's money, so there IS an argument for flipping it for that reason. It's not like you're in a casino and you're paying out of pocket to see what's on the other side of the wedge.

Now, if you're playing against, say, bmothersele and you're down $10,500 after Round 1? That's when I'd go for it. Sure, there's Express and the Prize Puzzle, but if you're not the one who hits it, you're not going to reap the benefits.

Considering that's where one of them usually goes anyway... (I'm kidding, I'm just being obnoxious.)

I understand that everyone's style of play is different, and that different people will think something is risky while other people think the same risk is not as dangerous as it looks.

I would flip a Mystery Wedge if two things happen: if I don't have a considerable amount of money at the moment (for me $3,000 is already a good amount) and if the puzzle has not much letters revealed. The more letters are revealed in the puzzle, the least probabilities you have to get the turn back if you flip the Bankrupt. In my own, I think it's better to solve a puzzle for $2,000 than risk them and lose the turn foolishly.

This is one WOF question that I can never give a straight answer to. Just about every standing in the game depends on my decision to flip or not...

If I know the puzzle, I'll definitely go for it if I'm already in the lead by a lot and there are hardly any consonants left, because if I Bankrupt, the next player can't earn much. They might even solve for nothing or spingle.

I would only put the MDW or Wild Card at risk if I was behind and could really use the big total boost. If I'm in the lead, I don't want to hurt my chances of taking my cardboard to the Bonus Round.

If I'm not in the lead and I have accumulated enough money to overtake the leader, I'll play it safe.

If I'm behind by a lot of money thanks to someone having a big R1 (like maybe a Prize Wedge win, a multiple on $2500, or a 1/2 Car win), then I'm definitely going for it. No doubt about that. Anything to increase my lead significantly. I can't rely only on the $3500 wedge.

If I'm already ahead and by a decent amount, I probably will go for it, because regardless of what happens, you also take away the chance of another player flipping a wedge, so no matter what happens to you, nobody can get the $10K after that.

If I end up with $5,000+ counting the $1000 per letter, I'll probably play it safe since there would be a lot of money to pass up by flipping. Even though you're not really putting the "bribe money" at risk like Pat puts it, he mentions it for a reason (and from what I remember from the NYC tapings, they DO add the bribe money to the offscreen scoreboard on gambles, just not the on-camera one, which is probably why Pat goes with that amount in his spiel).

Something important to consider is that the $10,000 doesn't even mean anything unless you solve the puzzle, but the "safe money" you get right away. How many times have we seen somebody get the $10K on their first spin, then being forced to spin again and hit a penalty wedge or call a wrong consonant? It seems to happen about half the time someone has the $10K and less than $250 in actual cash. If I hit the Mystery on my first spin, I will only flip it if I am confident in my next consonant choice, like if I call N or D on Same Name or start with a T in an obvious THE. If I only have, say, a T in the dead center of the board with no clues for any other letters, then I'll take the $X,000 to buy an E or what have you. (This is why I think WOF should make the $10K spendable like in most international versions)

If you flip, it may backfire. If you don't, there are two other risks:

1. You still want more money but end up spinning Bankrupt or Lose A Turn.
   
2. You could lose to an opponent who solves for the Express/Prize Puzzle and wins an $1,800 Speed-Up. You really can't tell what's going to happen.
   

Control is important, but building a big lead may also be important (though it may also depend on confidence in calling a "multiple" on $3,500).

Of course, if you're taking it one step further and trying for a clean sweep, don't bother flipping, as there would presumably be no way an opponent could catch up anyway.

At this point, as soon as I'd be concerned about getting at least one puzzle, the Mystery Round would already be over.