I don’t know if this is necessary, since we kinda did the story of the show itself.
And, it’s a game, so things are always changing. It’s hard to say what was truly ‘lost’ or not, since then we’d also account for things I got I shouldn’t have. And then we’re just describing the game.
But, just for funsies –
What I lost in straight-up player error: ~$6,000, give or take. I rang in on one toss-up too early, before I knew it (losing $2,000), and I couldn’t get “Honey bun.” We don’t exactly how much I would’ve gotten for Honey Bun, but based on what I had and where I was on the wheel, it would’ve been in the general range of $4,000, probably.
So about $6,000 was lost to player error.
What I gained in player error: ~$17,930. I lucked out majorly on the prize puzzle. There was no reason I should’e ever been in control of that. Ben didn’t really have reason to call S. Absolutely no shame towards him, as I obviously also made two mistakes (above), but when he relinquished the board, I had the luck of a lifetime to get Express and get the trip. So, that was an extra $15,930, that shouldn’t have necessarily been mine.
And then Steve ping-ponged back to me the toss-up that shouldn’t have been mine. I’d buzzed too early and lost $2,000. Then he buzzed, and didn’t get it and I took that $2,000 back.
So, I still netted + $11,930, give or take from player error alone.
Then we had:
Unclear: In the 4th puzzle, I relinquished control of the board again, which was bad and could’ve been building up money, which you could argue was money I was losing, but that also gave the wheel a chance to get back to me, and have me almost land on the $5,000 space – with a consonant with two instances still on the board. But I landed on bankrupt.
So, that was sort of player error for letting it leave my control, and sort of Wheel luck for spinning bankrupt. So, I would say math-wise, this is just too hard to know what the total “should” have been, and what ‘fault’ there was.
Played “correctly” but didn’t have it: I don’t fault myself when playing games for the things I did “correctly,” but just didn’t go my way. So, on the bonus puzzle, I picked the category I never got wrong at home. And I called statistically good letters – 2 of which to try to figure out what was in that first word.
You could argue there was maybe a better letter to call than H, but the letters were reasonable. I tried to keep in mind everything I knew as the puzzle played out. And I just couldn’t think of it.
I know some people got it in those 10 seconds, but not me.
The reason I don’t view this as “player error” is because I made actual definitive mistakes in the other examples – not calling the letter that most makes sense, buying a vowel when I should’ve spun, buzzing in before I know the toss-up. Those are things that are definitively wrong.
But, just doing your best at a puzzle and not knowing it is more like Knowledge error – that’s your brain not having it, as opposed to an actual mistake.
So, knowledge gap/error/whatever you want to call it: $37,000 (Oof, that hurts.)
Wheel: ~ $10,000 (give or take). This one is tough to say. Could’ve been a lot more. Could’ve been a little more. But on that first puzzle, I was gonna just keep going. I already had over $5,000, which plenty more consonants left. And I got a lose-a-turn.
(I also think we probably could count the 4th puzzle in here, because at that point, I did have money in the bank, and I was in control of the board, and I was about to guess a letter that was in the puzzle. So, the wheel did do me in there. But since I had ‘thrown off’ where the wheel could’ve been by losing control earlier, I won’t totally make the wheel take the blame for this.)
Conclusion: So, as you can see, there was SO much room for more or less money – that’s kind of how games [at least partially] of chance work. But that’s kind of the breakdown with the money. I’m ultimately happy with what I had, overall.