May 20, 2016 recap/discussion

You obviously didn't watch Nickelodeon Guts.

I slept right through this episode, but heard about it through Kev347 and others...

You can't blame the producers for not having every vowel be there in every puzzle, mecha. The contestant needs to realize mass buying is a risk. It sucks it happened on a time where someone could have a gigantic round, but it is what it is. Of course the producers like one or two non-U vowel duds in a puzzle to derail exactly the type of situation going on tonight, and on average to save a few bucks.

Meanwhile, the BR... meh. I mean they really shouldn't use WOMAN, MAN, GUY etc for PERSON, but would HUMAN have been much better? Still should have been solved but negbait is hard to recover from.

T1 was tricky in that both of the negs were perfectly cromulent and happened to fit in the blanks. Rare that there's a double trap like that.

Shame that none of the $3,500s could be taken, but the successful Express run was somewhat of a compensation.

I precalled the HUMAN trip-up in BR.

Anyone else nervous from that first round solve? I narrowed it down to Rocky or Rambo for the last word, but I would not have wanted to solve it before confirming which of those was the last word, especially after the cake/cone/soda toss-up earlier.

Well that, I didn't know, though I probably should have. I could have gone for either one, as I have seen Rocky and First Blood.

Philly is obsessed with Rocky. His statue sits outside the art museum and one of our marathons is called the Rocky run. That puzzle was (in my opinion) the biggest gimme of the night.

Hi everyone, this is Dan (from the blue wedge). Even though I was not the big winner, I decided to recap our episode from my point of view to preserve my memories of this experience. Before I go into the actual game, just some context: Emily, Todd, and I were the fifth episode to tape that day, so by the time we were on stage and mic'ed up, we had gotten to know each other a bit, and were chatting and joking around most of the time the cameras weren't on. Before our episode, we all wished each other luck, and made it our collective mission to "break the bank." They are great people and it was an honor to share the stage with them.

Toss Up 1
Pat and Vanna came out from behind the big board, and before I knew it, we were off! I must admit I had spent a good hour (ok, maybe four hours) thinking about possible Philadelphia-themed solutions while I watched the first four shows being taped. Sadly, "ice cream soda" was not one that I anticipated, since I had never heard of the term "ice cream soda" (though I had heard of an ice cream "float"). I would later learn via the internet that "ice cream soda" was invented in Philadelphia in 1874. As they say, you learn something new every day!

My Introduction
Our episode was taped at the height of the NCAA Tournament, between the Elite Eight and Final Four games. As a Villanova graduate and loyal fan, I was hoping to discuss their ongoing run for the championship in the interview, especially since it was Philadelphia Week, but I was instructed in advance not to discuss it, due to airdate timing concerns. So, the entire interview, I was exercising restraint. At any rate, four days later, the Wildcats would go on to win the national title, so it is safe to say this was a banner week for me. Congrats to the 'Cats!

Toss Up 2
Since the taping, I have been racking my brain to remember what the answer was to this toss up. I knew that I solved it of course, but neither I nor my friends in the audience could remember the solution at the end of the day. It was sort of a relief to finally see and remember the answer. Anyway, I was especially excited to get this one, not just because I got money in the bank, but because it meant I got first dibs on the next puzzle.

Round 1
Based on the category, I figured "S" was in the puzzle as part of "AS," so while making that first spin, I was already racking my brain to think of one-word, five-letter movies. For whatever reason, Hitch and Mulan were the only two that came to mind. I was really hoping to get the wild card at some point, so when I hit it on my first spin, it was pretty amazing. As soon as I guessed "S" and the three additional S's were revealed, the lightbulb turned on and I knew the solution. Now this was a Philadelphia themed puzzle! Since I knew the solution at that point, I started mentally crunching the numbers to figure out which letters were multiples. The three L's were next, so while those were being revealed, I was thinking about what other multiples were left.
As the Wheel was turning on my next spin, I figured I would go for the 2 "Rs" next, but then I looked down and saw with dread that I was about to go bankrupt. In those milliseconds of misery, my mind immediately flashed back to my conversation the day before with my wife when we agreed that I would not be too greedy, and I would to try to bank some money early on if I was lucky enough to be in that situation. As my fear of bankruptcy reached its apex, the wheel juuust clicked past the bankrupt wedge. I was alive! I quickly asked for the 2 Rs. However, that brush with "death" had me spooked, so I solved immediately.  
This is one of those moments that you could easily second-guess and wonder what could have been had I kept spinning, at least for the multiple Ts and Ys. I could have won the Vegas trip that was on the wheel, or hit a big money wedge; on the other hand, I could have just as easily hit bankrupt or lose a turn. In the end, having just narrowly missed bankrupt, and since it was early in the game, in the moment I thought it was right to solve and bank my winnings. 

Round 2
I did not get a spin in this round, so I set my sights on the prize puzzle round coming up after the next commercial break. Go Todd!

Round 3
This round obviously had the highest of highs and lowest of lows for me. When the puzzle first came up, my initial thought was that there were a LOT of words and letters for a prize puzzle, which meant lots of money to be made, but also more work to do than usual. For my first spin, with the possibility of "the" out of the way from Todd, I was 99% sure that the middle three-letter word was "and" to join all of those words together. I must confess when I spun the wheel this time, I was looking at the wrong flipper and did not at first realize that I had landed on $3,500! I was shocked when Pat said $3,500, then I was more shocked to learn there were 4 Ns, for $14,000! My head was suddenly spinning with thoughts of a big cash round PLUS a trip! 
*Side note: amazingly, this would be my final spin of the wheel... ever.*
Before Pat even mentioned the Wild card usage, I was thinking that with my current bank, if I solved this puzzle, with the value of the trip, I would be well on my way to Bonus Round Land with an extra consonant from my wild card if I chose not to use it here. However, my narrow brush with the bankrupt wedge in Round 1 still had me a little hesitant to spin the wheel, which would put my $14,000 and the wild card on the line. With my mind spinning at a million miles per hour, I decided to use the wild card and get the sure $3,500 for the D in "AND" and avoid spinning a bankrupt. Imagine my surprise when there were 3 Ds! Now I was in major money territory, and retreated further into defensive mode. With lots of unturned letters left and about $25,000 and a trip on the line, I made it my mission to turn all of the vowels to help me figure out the remaining words in the puzzle. I got on a roll with A, E, and I... and then I blew it. 
I knew "GIANT SAND DUNES AND." There were obvious S's to be had, and the U in DUNES was right there in front of me. Alas, my heart was pounding, and I was so focused on trying to figure out the last two words, with so few letters turned, with only seconds to decide what to do, that my mind jumped right past the words I had already figured out. In those split seconds I figured there was a good chance that there would be at least one O in one of those two long words at the end of the puzzle. You can tell in my face, as I was saying "O," I wasn't sure about the O. Had I just gone with the U in DUNES first, I would have not only gotten more help on the first half of the puzzle, but I would have also been alerted that there were no more vowels.
Obviously, I was bummed to learn that there were no O's in those last two long words. This was a spur of the moment mistake that still haunts me. Not only had I blown control of the board, I had finished off the vowels for my co-contestants. Who knows, if not for the narrow brush with the bankrupt wedge in Round 1, maybe I would not have been so hesitant to spin the wheel rather than try to clear out all of the vowels first. That said, with so many unturned consonants, I figured I still had a chance that it would come back to me with over $20k still in my bank. Unfortunately for me, it never did. Emily, being the great player she was, ran the board after that. She made the most of the Express wedge, maintaining control at a $1,000 per letter clip, and it was impressive to watch (also heartbreaking of course).
As much as I would love to blame "CRAGGY CLIFFS" for not containing any Os, or blame the Express wedge, in the end, all credit is due to Emily for dominating the puzzle. While I have my own regrets about not spinning again, and about guessing O rather than taking U, I hope this does not come across as sour grapes in any way. Emily, well done, and have fun in Aruba! 

Toss Up 3
I figured this puzzle out a split second after Emily buzzed in. I wish I had gotten it an instant earlier to get $3k and control of the board!

Round 4
Like I said before, our episode was taped during the height of the NCAA tournament, and as a Villanova alum, the tournament was already on my mind, so I knew this one very early on. However, I did not get to spin, because Emily continued her strong play and ran the table. 

Speed Up Round
At this point, I figured the game was pretty much out of reach going into the last round, so I went in with the mentality that I just wanted to solve one more puzzle. What you won't see (unless you're a trained Wheel ninja) due to the magic of editing is that when it was time for Pat to spin for the letter value, he came soooo close to landing on the $5,000 wedge. Everyone thought he had nailed it live, but sadly that silly little flipper made one more terrible click to hit the bankrupt, which forced a respin. When it came time for me to make my last guess, I thought I had figured the puzzle out, and I was lucky enough to be able to go for a letter (B) that I figured was there four times, and added some serious cash flow to my total! Of course, if that $5,000 wedge had stuck on Pat's spin, my 1 N and 4 Bs would have been worth $6,000 each, for a total of $30,000 and a trip to bonus land! Regardless, I got to solve another puzzle and made some more money, so it still ended on a very positive note.

Emily's Bonus Round
Todd and I both got it backstage (with no pressure on of course). I feel terrible for Emily that her solve was deemed too late.

Closing Remarks
The beauty and tragedy of the Wheel is that one little flipper click either way can change the outcome of a puzzle or game for any contestant... but ultimately that is the way it should be! I am happy to say that all of us contestants took some money home and supported each other throughout the day, and I had a blast getting to know everyone during the orientation and commercial breaks. This was truly an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am incredibly grateful to have gotten my turn at the Wheel. Congratulations to all of my fellow Philadelphia contestants on a great week!

I wish I had hit the $2500 wedge in round 1, but I hit wild, then 500, then 900. Regardless, I don't think I would have used it that early.

My head was spinning when I got the 14k but I was already leaning towards using the wild card for $3500 before Pat began his usual explanation. Not to come off as cocky, but I told myself that if I had the chance to use a wild card on $3500 or $5000 going in, I would do so, because I was confident I could solve the bonus round without an extra consonant, and it seems like just about everyone who holds on to to the WC loses it to bankruptcy lately.