January 12, 2016 recap/discussion (for Michael)

First off, I have to say: What a night for Robin! I liked her spinning technique with the leg up in the air... I guess her bowling paid off! It was exciting to see her win the Spain trip in R1! I loved Pat's reaction to Robin trying to pick up the 1/2 Car Tag without having called a letter! She seemed to just be a savvy player in general since she knew to call the Q for UNIQUE. I thought she was going to get buzzed out before she called the R... but she wound up with the car! And the trip in the PP! (And side note: I liked that the Prize Puzzle was Alaska. Nice to see some variety; that sounds like an awesome trip!) In regards to the BR, I thought it was a challenge... HUGE was easy enough, especially with Robin's letters, but it took me most of the 10 seconds to finally solve the puzzle and get YACHT... that H there was everything!

It was nice to see Monica finish up with a tidy sum herself! Good decision to call the E in the final round... I thought it seemed early to call vowels but then BAM! She got it! Good for her!

My sincerest condolences to Michael. Unless my memory serves me wrong, the one time he spins the wheel, he gets a bankrupt! I'm sorry that luck didn't go your way, but I hope you had an awesome experience! And very nice job on that first tossup as well... I was got it right as I was hearing your buzzer, and I did that from the comfort of my couch... so I was impressed with that quick solve! Congrats!

presidentbacon you did great. Kept smiling, even when you weren't getting a chance to spin.

Sooooo......first off, I have to say, that Robin and Monica were both the nicest ladies I could have played against.

Tossup one: It's actually funny because we adopted my brother from Romania, which of course. borders Hungary. The hardest thing was not saying Bucharest which is the capital of Romania. From the moment Pat said, okay Michael's got the right idea, Let's get your buzzers ready...Okay Michael's won first the first tossup. Thought it was going to be the start of something glorious and it was just not meant to be.

Tossups 2&3: We all buzzed in at the same time. You could actually see on TU2 that I thought I got in first. On TU3, I knew I didn't get in first. Don't know what took me so long on the tossups. Normally, I'm much quicker on the draw. It almost felt like a basketball player shooting at an away game and not getting familiar with the sightlines at the arena, therefore having a lower shooting percentage. For this very reason, I would have rather had a later game than being 2nd out of 6.

Round 1: I think I knew that one before she called the O. Fairly early on, just waiting for my turn. Even after she solved, I knew there was plenty of game left and that I could recover. All I needed was to get something positive going in Round 2.

Round 2: First spin: Bankrupt. Oh come on!!! I calmed down, realized that it will probably get back to me at some point, it usually does. Monica never gives up control and solves it. I remember knowing this one during the middle of the round as well, earlier than R1. I'm a geography guy so THE CZECH REPUBLIC came to me fairly quickly and the A's of course gave me BANANA.

Round 3/Prize Puzzle: This is the round I was upset about. I knew this one so early on, I believe after the N's were called. Then she called a Q. I thought for sure I was done, she knew the puzzle, and that I lost the game. Then she's calling vowels, I think there might be hope yet, maybe she'll call a T, L, something (She told me later on that she only knew UNIQUE). Then, I don't know if it seemed like it to you guys, but it felt like it took her 3 eternities to call the R. I'm actually looking over to the side where they have the countdown clock and I saw it was at 4, 3. I'm thinking to myself are you kidding me? I thinking it's going to be at 0 or 1. I get that she was going for her 2nd half of the car but come on.

Round 4/Speed-up: I was pretty defeated at this point, being down $43k with no hope of winning. I realized the puzzle as soon as she called the E's, which you can see. (There's a reason I gave up playing Poker, I'm quite animated with my facial expressions.)

Bonus Round: While backstage, they showed us a monitor playing the live feed. Monica wasn't able to solve the puzzle, I solved it fairly quickly. I don't think I RSTLNE'd it. I think I needed the H's. That said, I think it might have hurt more than helped in a sense because of the common -GHT ending as tenpoundhammer also stated.

I would have done well had I actually gotten a chance to play, but when the person before you never gets a letter wrong, never gets LaT, never gets a Bankrupt, there's not much you can do really. I still am upset about the amount of time she got to call the R in the PP Round though. That completely changed the game. After PP, the scores were $5K-$44K-$1K. Had they buzzed her out, the scores would have been $5K-$17K-$12K. Maybe I'm wrong and she didn't exhaust her all of her time, but it sure felt like it. I was smiling on the outside alright, but crying and dying on the inside, just to think your dream is going to come true only to have it come crashing down, hard.

presidentbacon: Thank you very much for sharing your story. I can only imagine your frustration and disappointment while standing there on the stage. I know you said you were crying on the inside, but if it's any consolation, I really think you presented yourself well, and you yourself did not make any mistakes! You had rotten luck with the wheel not cooperating when you spun it, and then the player next to you having great luck with the wheel didn't help matters.

And as far as the PP and that R... as you saw in my comment above, I did think she was going to get buzzed out there. I have no idea how the timer thing works so I guess I am oblivious in that regard. At any rate, congrats again on your tossup solve and for presenting yourself in a great way on America's Game. You have nothing to be ashamed of!

First off - Michael, I feel real terrible that you had almost NO shot at the wheel, but at least you got a Toss-Up. And here's to another boardie appearing on the show!

Monica won some decent money for her first flight; I wish she called the P's in Round 4 to get a five-figure total.

Robin, on the other hand - talk about cleaning up! I could tell she knew the answer to the Prize Puzzle when she called the Q.

And it finally happened - someone won the Collette featured prize on a Collette week!

The A was the hot vowel in the Bonus Round; I had it with Robin's picks. But when you lose $33,000 and win almost $12,000 more than that, you had a great night.

My rating: 8

The ultimate dream would have been the million, renting out one of the clubs at MetLife Stadium where I work and going viral of some kind whether it be for that or something else positive. I went to school with a kid that works on Good Morning America so that would have been the place, either that or Ellen as thanks to her, I met one of my really close friends (her crew came and did a few segments at my university in MD and that's where we met).

The realistic dream was to get the Bonus Round puzzle right and go to Mel's Diner afterward and feel like a celebrity, even if no one knew why yet. Simply put, I have college loans and my parents have a decent amount of debt. I wanted all of that to be gone from us so that we could start things anew almost. I was looking at this as something that could change my life, and maybe it will, just not in the way I thought it would. Only time will tell.


That's also the thing that makes it better, knowing that there really wasn't much that I could do. Like I said before, Robin never got a letter wrong, never got a Lose a Turn, never got a Bankrupt. I never got a letter wrong either, I was just only able to call one during the speed-up. 100% success rate on calling letters for me, counts for something, right?   But seriously though, there wasn't really anything I could do so that makes it a bit easier on myself. I'm always my harshest critic, whether it comes to trivia, athletics, work, whatever.

I also talked to Monica (Red) for just about an hour tonight and had a really nice conversation with her, which helped out a bit as well. As I said, super nice and awesome lady.

cowheelfan That seemed to be the general consensus about me presenting myself well. I wanted to make myself, my family, and my jobs proud, even if the outcome wasn't what I wanted or expected.

genius2751 You could see my reaction, I thought I had the second tossup as well. She actually didn't know the puzzle when she called the Q. We all thought she did but she told me afterward all she knew was UNIQUE.

Bacon you really looked and sounded amazing! Thanks for all the great information about your special day, you are a winner in my book.

I am preparing myself for the possibility of this happening to me too....sometimes the wheel and pace and flow of the game is all left to chance. But that timer situation left me scratching my head too. Seemed ALOT longer than 5 seconds.