April 28, 2014 recap (Josh Woo)

So I'll write up more about this when I update my Spinning Story, but for now I'll give you a blow-by-blow of what was going through my mind as I was playing the game...

Opening: They actually shot a pickup after R1 (and after the $3500 space had been placed on the wheel), but it appears they didn't use it.

TU1: I was in such a daze that it didn't even register with me. I remember being transfixed by the "!" on the board that, by the time I realized the game had started, the other Josh had already buzzed in!

Interviews: Truth be told, I was actually hoping they'd cut the bit about Shinkendo out, since I wasn't sure that my "junior instructors' license" was the actual term for what I got. Without going into much detail, it's the first step on the instructors' track...so I guess you could say "Well, they're all junior until you get to the senior ones..." Even I have no idea when that is, so if I'm lucky, I'll actually be in the clear.

TU2: Good thing I woke up in time. I think I caught onto the fact that the last word was HEART pretty quickly, and only after the A's came up did I realize, "Aha! ACHY BREAKY HEART."

R1: I know they tell you to make sure you're looking at the right arrow, but that's certainly easier said than done! I decided to have a little fun with the wheel considering I was dancing around that Bankrupt, but...I guess you can file that one under "Tempting Fate." And the irritating thing is, I knew it right after Rachel lost control.

I slightly tensed up when Josh hit that first 1/2 Car tag and then the gift tag right after, but I had to keep telling myself, "$4,900 to my $2,000 isn't an insurmountable lead. There's plenty of time left."

R2: My routine before each puzzle was not to look at the board, but at Pat's camera--they held up a cue card with the category on it for him. Since I was to his immediate left, I could also see it very well. Even before the puzzle was revealed, just judging by the category, I already knew which letter I was going to call first.

I didn't want to pay a whole lot of attention to what she was hitting, but as I stole a glance behind Pat I could see on the video wall in the middle of the set that Rachel had hit the Caesar's trip. She picked it up. Then she hit a Mystery wedge right after.

Panic mode, engage.

S called. Buzz. Panic mode, disengage. Whew.

When Josh lost control, I took a brief look at where the wheel sat before I spun, then I took a quick look at the scoreboard. I needed $2,900 to catch Josh, and I was in an area where I was relatively safe from Bankrupts given my ~72 spin power. When that first spin just clicked off the MDW, I knew my next spin(s) had to be more powerful--I didn't want to touch any part of the MDW with a ten-foot pole. Knowing that my spin power was going to keep me safely away from trouble, I just kept going and going. The very nanosecond I catch the other Josh, I said, I'm solving. And that's exactly what I did.

Even if I had hit that Mystery Wedge, no way was I turning it over. I had a rhythm going and I didn't want to mess it up.

The Now-Infamous R3: This was the one to win, I said going into the show. But you've seen that something very, very different happened instead.

After I bought the O's, I thought the first word was LOOKING, which was why I called the L. But as the wheel was spinning, I was debating..."do I call L or K?" I then reminded myself, "L is a more common letter anyway. Besides, what if it's not LOOKING after all? Could be COOLING, POOLING, FOOLING..."

Guess that was a blessing in disguise for me, because we all know what happened a few spins later. As soon as that word left her mouth, I could see Pat visibly flinch out of the corner of my eye. It was an awkward position for all of us--I had to do everything in my power not to move a muscle. To his credit, Pat did everything he could to help Rachel shake it off and concentrate on the rest of the game.

This is now TWICE I've gone viral for something I didn't even do.

TU3: I actually had it off the first letter, but I was waiting for a letter in the second word to confirm my suspicions.

Before the Final Spin: I took a glance at the scoreboard after getting that third toss-up and did some quick math: I needed $3,000 to catch Josh. Three letters at the very least, I need.

Pat hits $700.

Make that two letters.

I couldn't tell you exactly at what moment I knew, but I can tell you that Josh B. told me after the show that when I solved it, he was still figuring out what the first word was. As Rachel and Josh were taking their turns, I was scanning the rest of the puzzle to see if there were any multiples still on the board. There weren't. Next step: can I break $3,000 with just one letter? Of course I could! And the next thing you know, I squeaked it out in the end!

The eerie thing: my margin of victory was the exact same as my Final Jeopardy! wager from 10 years ago.

Rachel and Josh were great sports about the whole thing. Very friendly people all around.

Bonus Round: Pat and I had a funny little chat about my previous game show experiences, and I ragged him a good one about Jeopardy!

In short: I knew the A was a trap. Consonants were a shot in the dark. Get lucky off my calls. PROFIT!

Apparently, someone at Golden-Road decided to spoil both the bonus puzzle and the outcome about 19 hours early. Regardless...

"Yep, we're definitely celebrating 6,000 shows this week. Okay, fine, the slate said #S-6011, but come on you saw the actual 6,000th show right?"

The first Toss-Up sucked, let's be honest...and Round 1 should've had an exclamation point instead (even though it's a vastly-outdated Phrase).

Have I mentioned how much I hate Before & After? Because I do. A lot. MY FATHER IS HALF-IRISH SETTER and OLD KING COLE WAS A VERY OLD SOUL MATE come to mind, and yes those are legit puzzles.

I can summarize the Round 3 puzzle in five words: [LoudBoomyVoice]IT CAME FROM THE BROCHURE[/LoudAndBoomy]

Oh, and I called it. I frickin' called it. All that buildup and promotion for this week's Big Freaking Deal of $6,000, and Round 4 begins as a Speed-Up. Yay.

Your optimal Bonus Round strategy for April 28, 2014:
* Josh W. almost hit on it -- PHMO([any]) gets the near-complete snark, since oh look a completely useless, pointless, and redundant A-trap for the first time in not-long-enough.

And because I haven't done this in a pretty long time...in the ever-present battle of CDMA versus BGHO, tonight's winner is BGHO and the "Super Mario(GS)" BPYO with four letters each versus CDMA's two (one useful) and the "take a third option" FGHI's one. The "Scott be trollin' combo" WKYI, the "Prizes be trollin'" DICK, and the "CU be trollin' combo" FUCK give nothing.

A total of $47,300 cash was pilfered from Harry's wallet tonight, nearly all of it by BAV's own Josh Woo. Congratulations!

Hopefully they'll at least try to make easier puzzles to allow for a few normal turns in R4+. I won't be too upset if it doesn't get hit, but I WILL be upset if every show has a full R4 Speed-Up. And if it does get hit, there better be an audience reaction...

At least the show is finally upping some kind of gameplay ante on a special occasion (besides inflated trips, of course). The wedge looks cheap, but that's probably because they don't want to spend money on making a glitzy wedge that's only going to be used for 5 episodes and never again. Still, they could have at least formatted it like a normal cash wedge. Regardless, it's about time we see something different. Glad they learned from their mistakes from show #5000 for the most part.

I really hope we don't get any more ridiculous themed $1,000 Toss-Ups. That was stupid. Are we going to see "SOLVING A TOSS-UP" as WAYD?

I didn't realize at first that the recycled S25 opening used newer clips. Among them, I see the $100K Best Friends win from Hawaii in S26 (even though they lost the MDW during the game), a contestant from last season doing her signature "Tooty-Ta" dance as she called it, and the first $1M win.

"BOOZING" could be one of the funniest missolves of the 2010's. Even better than the also-acoholic "I HAVE THE WINE"! :lol:

As for Josh, what an exciting win! The good thing was that you were always still in the game since nobody had a ridiculously-large round thanks to being stopped by duds. I loved how your spins got stronger when you almost Bankrupted on the MDW, and how you strategized everything well, especially your Bonus Round picks. That darn $30K...

Great euphemism! :lol: We'll all have to remember that.

I think that's what they should have done for $5,000 on the 5,000th show since it's one of the show's icons. I don't mind 6K being only in R4+ as long as they manage the time so that it can actually have a chance of being hit.

IIRC, Australia used two $5K wedges, and they essentially like the Big Money Wedge $5,000. If a correct letter was called on it, the player got the $5,000 once (which was the case with any wedge in Australia), and it was removed from the Wheel, so it could only be claimed once.

That's pretty cool

Oh yeah, I totally agree. The money was nice, but this? You can't replace this.

Why yes. That's exactly what I said. (Hence Pat's comment, "Well, it's out there somewhere!")

And if you were tearing up after reading my blog entry, I was nearly bawling my eyes out after I won the BR. Thank goodness the cameras cut away before my makeup inevitably started running. Perhaps that's why they stayed on the wide shot during the credits...

I heard one of the staffers say, "Aww, he's crying," after I stepped offstage. Karen told me I made it look so easy, then asked me how I went about picking my letters. I don't even remember what I blubbered out to her.

I actually pulled the wedges out of my pocket and showed them to Pat and Vanna myself after the tape stopped rolling. Even once the money's long gone, I'll always have the best souvenir forever.

Jimmy Kimmel, PLEASE make that a regular segment to rival Conan's "Alex Trebek Has Gone Insane"! :lol:

Though sadly, that's not too far off from some phrases the show has actually used...

No doubt the best reaction of the episode: