Advice/Strategies For My Episode!

I could start it by moving the relevant posts to a new topic if you like.

Any advice on being left handed and spinning the ridiculously heavy wheel? I'm nervous.

I spun the wheel in February as a standby contestant. It's still 2500 pounds. Extremely heavy, and worse when you're left handed.

Oh, so this is a new thread. In that case, there are a couple common maingame inefficiencies I'd like to mention, with advanced strategies to avoid them -

-U-voiding. Surprisingly often, contestants buy every vowel but U, then find dud vowel(s) while there are Us. Look at the words and see if U is obvious. If it's down to one of A/E/I/O and U, do not just assume only the non-U is there. U-voiding has wrecked PPs and thus games.
-Wasting. When you hit big money ($2500+) early in a round, although one of RSTLN may be a common consonant dud designed to keep the budget in line, try calling one of them. Do NOT call G in WAYD for -ING, B/Y in BY of SONG & ARTIST, those category-guaranteed calls, they often are just singles or doubles at most when there's a lot out there (also applies to H of THE). Not always of course, but especially on money take a couple seconds and try to make the best call available. On non-money cardboard however (now just the MDW & Prize on Wheel), try to call exactly singles, or at least just a double. Wasting a triple+ on 0/letter can ruin the output of a mode, most extremely the 10 T's on MDW last season.
-Leaving multiples behind. Unless it's the PP or you have quite a lot in your bank (or in the next player's bank) and you don't want to risk, try to get all the doubles and above called, leaving only singles. Unless you're at the minimum you're shedding dollars that way. If you are below the minimum and there's only a double, the spin may not matter so this can change. In speed-up though, quite a few people will call a single (often the first letter on the top left not yet called), often leaving a triple, and have cost themselves the game (and no, it isn't always that they don't know it yet!). Definitely don't be a goof doing that.

As far as the BR goes... I can go into this in detail, but in general BGHO win a lot of BRs, more than CDMA. A mix of BGHO and CDMA can do very well also, but not mostly CDMA too often. In fact, M is the most overcalled letter (how many times called / how many times in the BR).

If you're looking for something funny, during your on-air interview after the first Toss Up you could say that you're a huge fan of Jeopardy, but they wouldn't take you so you ended up at Wheel. You could also mention that you're going to try really hard not to say "What is..." before your answers, and give a shout out to Alex by saying that you're glad he's feeling better after his heart attack. I'm sure Pat can have some fun with this.

Just keep calm and know that you'll do well and you will do great during the show.

An approximate order...

ETAOINSHRDLUCMFWYPVBGKQJXZ

Still, don't be set on HDCA for the Bonus Round.

There's a video archive in the wiki (the button) where there are lots of episodes to look at. There are also some episodes in the Real Wheels section.

I would add this: Sometimes the best piece of strategy is knowing when to ignore the strategy. Gut instinct is just about as important as anything that you might do to prepare beforehand.

For example, when it comes to letter choice, if you think there's a good shot of a particular letter (outside of the obvious ones) being on the board, call it and you might be pleasantly surprised. Especially if you're on Free Play - you may look like you're taking a shot in the dark by calling an uncommon letter, but it's a no-risk guess and may lead to a big solve!