November 30, 2016 recap (Debby & Ray)

Oh my puzzle! There were some big winners tonight - and the biggest winners are right here. They gave authentic BAV quick-solves to the first 2 Toss-Ups and had great multiple awareness. The BR puzzle was just not meant to be; it wasn't even a good puzzle, Q and V are hard, and all vowels were up there, though the A was a trap. The Right Letters would be QVCI, but who calls that? Just the C may have been what they needed, as they figured out UNIQUE. I no-lettered T1! The finalspin was extremely decisive, and Express did nothing despite being hit twice. Anyway, nice to have a game where everyone wins following a sweep.

Like Debby & Ray, I also thought it was A UNIQUE MOVIE even though the M was called.

Good job guys! A great episode!

Did they say you could buzz in with no letters? I still wonder that just to this day, but I imagine the Toss-Up officially starts when the first letter is revealed and the music begins.

I think I spotted an edit in the Speed-Up. Do you remember what letters were cut out? I'm sure R and S...

I did not do any original study of the Bonus Round, but I found a reddit post of someone who did to research specific to the BR and letter frequency, and he said GHPO were the most common letters. Now, obviously frequency isn't the only concern, as some letters give better hints as to what words are, but over the last year I've been watching and paying attention to bonus rounds and felt good about those picks. Debby and I agreed we would kind of go back and forth on letter guesses unless we felt really strongly. We didn't want to guess "A" as that was a gimme. Even with C I don't think I could have gotten it in time.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

This was such a fun episode to be a part of. The other players were really nice and we had a fun time filming. It makes it easier to lose puzzles when you feel like the wealth is getting spread around to great people. If you can’t sweep it, then at least it was exciting!

A few notes for those of you who are interested:

TU1- I no lettered this one. Like I said in a previous post, I had noticed that the Toss Up puzzles from past seasons were family themed more than Christmas, so that’s what I had studied. I had specifically thought of AUNTS AND UNCLES and when I saw the category, I knew it right away. However, no lettering a puzzle at home is one thing, but I didn’t want to buzz in with nothing up there and be wrong. So, I decided to wait for a letter to validate my solve. Of course they start with the letter from AND, so I waited to see one from AUNTS or UNCLES and then buzzed in.

Pat Chat - They have you practice that thing so much and I was totally fine in practice, but guess I got nervous during the actual filming. I started to say, “We grew up watching our Mom on Wheel of Fortune,” but that made it sound like she was on regularly or something. I realized that in the middle of it and kind of fumbled up my words, but it wasn’t too bad. Pat was really gracious and made this patient, encouraging face that was helpful. They edited out a bit of Pat waxing nostalgic about the old days on Wheel when my mom was on.

TU2 - Yay! We got it! A nice way to start off the game - two Toss ups on the board.

R1 - Ray and I are both pretty good puzzle solvers, so before filming, we just decided that we would try to keep side talking to a minimum and trade off turns, trusting each other’s picks. We did have a couple hand signals for if we knew the puzzle or if we wanted to take control of the calls, but I think we pretty much just stuck to taking turns. We felt like we were in a good spot on the wheel, so we kept spinning to rack up some money. It felt good to get a puzzle under our belts and I was kind of on cloud nine at this point. Before I went to tape, I told my mom that I would love to win, but really, I just wanted to feel like I got to play the game. After R1, I remember thinking, even if we win nothing else, I will go home from this experience happy.

R2 - I knew this one pretty early, too (although FEUD eluded me for longer than I liked), but the sisters did a great job with this puzzle and it never got to us.

R3 - This was a crazy round. Chris kept spinning closer and closer to that Express wedge and finally hit it and I thought it might be over at that point. Then, they called a bad letter and I spun and landed on the Express! This was definitely on my Wheel bucket list, so I was thrilled. Unfortunately, it didn’t go quite how we would have liked. Ray can speak for himself, but I know that he thought the last three words were BAY OF _ _ _ _ _ _ (which I had thought of, too), so he guessed the B confidently. Unfortunately, it wasn’t up there and our Express ride was super short lived. It was a bummer, but totally understandable and I didn’t know the puzzle at that point, so his guess was as good as mine. I was glad to have Chris and Anne solve the puzzle in the end because it meant that the game was neck and neck.

TU3 - This was the only puzzle I couldn’t remember post-filming. I had to wait until it aired tonight to see it again. It just didn’t come to me in time.
R4 - Obviously, this was the most exciting round for us. There was so much going on that I don’t really remember being that aware of what we would need to win, I just knew that we were behind. Because I was so happy with how the first few rounds had gone, though, I don’t think I felt extra pressure, I just figured I’d play my best and see what happened (that was my theme for the whole game). When Pat spun $5,000, the feeling was electric and we knew it was anyone’s game. It was fun to watch it again tonight. As soon as Chris called the D (he seemed to have an affinity for D, which I’m thankful for), I had it and I was relieved that they didn’t solve. Pulling off the win with a $5000 final spin round was thrilling.

BR - Oh man, guys. If only. RSTLNE came up and I knew the first two words right away (one of my big regrets is that I didn’t whisper UNIQUE to Ray right then so he could have had more time to think about it and make more informed choices, although it probably wouldn’t have changed our choices or the end result). In retrospect, C or V would have been good choices with the E on the end of the last word, and with either of those letters, I probably would have gotten it, but hindsight is 20/20, right? Am I so sad that I didn’t win $100,000? Yes (my kids told me to get confetti and it would have been so fun to have pulled through for them). But it was a tough puzzle and I’m proud of how we played. I can honestly say that in the moment, I really wasn’t disappointed because I was so happy about how the whole experience had gone. As time goes on, I kick myself a little and definitely would have loved an extra $50,000 on my total, but it was an obscure puzzle and I’m not beating myself up about it. I’m proud of myself for getting UNIQUE, though I wish I hadn’t drawn a blank and not even make any guesses.

This was such an awesome experience, made even better because I got to share it with my brother. Now every time I watch Wheel, I’m overcome by a desire to go back and do it again. We’ve got to get them to lift the whole once-in-a-lifetime restriction, amiright?

Thanks for all of the support, encouragement, and tips from board members, I felt way better prepared because of my membership on this site.

You two were great. Reading your lengthy posts about all your knowledge and research made me smile. You guys pay attention to the small details that easily give you the advantage. I was very pleased by the first segment monopoly (when someone gets both Toss-Ups and plays R1 by themselves). $7700 was a great amount for no $2500 hits or prizes. I was kind of scared when you got overtaken by a way-to-expensive Prize Puzzle. I bet if this were singles, you still would have had the lead. But then you came out on top! And BTW, the cut to Pat means that three wrong letters were indeed cut out, plus I heard the music double-tracked. And S and R were wrong letters but never called.

Very impressive you got UNIQUE right away. I got the whole thing and knew right away that you wouldn't get it because most contestants would need the V or maybe a C and O. Oh, well. Both of you still played really well. Great all-cash total!


I think Pat must have read my posts. He didn't do the "(close envelope) Oh boy... well you already won $x... I guess I have to show this..." spiel for once.

Ray and Debby you guys were awesome! So quick with those Toss-Ups. That was such a great episode to be a part of. No multiples were left in any puzzle and everyone walks away with a good chunk of change!! All of the contestants looked like they were having a great time and were really fun to watch. Have no regrets, you guys did a great job!