While you should still be sure to select letters that you know are in the puzzle, choose letters that are less likely to appear within the puzzle frequently. This is the least valuable cash wedge on the wheel. Contestants can continue spinning the wheel until they miss a letter or spin a Bankrupt or Lose a Turn. Each consonant is worth the cash value of the wedge the wheel lands on. In the main game, contestants have three options: spin the wheel and call a consonant, buy a vowel for $250, or solve the puzzle.
You have to be careful-'Wheel of Fortune' requires you to answer almost immediately after ringing in-but going a split second early ensures that you have first shot on what will (hopefully) be an obvious puzzle. Ringing in immediately following a letter-but before you actually know the answer-might be smart. Here, the interaction resembles what game theorists call a duel.
However, occasionally the tossup reaches a point where almost all letters are on the board. The tossups tend to reward better puzzle solvers, not clever strategists. The board automatically reveals letters one by one until a player rings in with the correct solution. Each episode of “Wheel of Fortune” has three tossup puzzles, worth $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000.
