--- title: Wheel of Fortune Contestant Solves Puzzle With One Letter description: He did his research ahead of time canonical: https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-30T11:38:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:13.992Z og:title: Watch a "Wheel of Fortune" Contestant Guess the Answer With Only 1 Letter og:description: He did his research ahead of time og:url: https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a "Wheel of Fortune" Contestant Guess the Answer With Only 1 Letter twitter:description: He did his research ahead of time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch a _Wheel of Fortune_ Contestant Guess the Answer With Only 1 Letter  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 30, 2016 11:38 AM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Mar 30, 2016 11:38 AM UTC Here’s a _Wheel of Fortune_ pro tip from a guy who just walked away with $76,000 in cash and prizes: study up. Contestant Robert Santoli, who successfully solved a puzzle with only one visible letter, credited his success—captured in the above video—to careful preparation. Santoli and his competition were notified ahead of time that the episode was going to feature a nautical theme, so he compiled a “list of possible puzzles and key words themed toward sailing, cruising, water and even fishing,” [he explained](https://www.tapinto.net/categories/news/articles/i-d-like-to-solve-the-puzzle-yorktowns-santol) to TapInto.net. “There are websites that keep track of past _Wheel of Fortune_ puzzles, so I did some research on previous weeks themed toward these things and wrote them down,” he said. “The show does sometimes repeat puzzles, especially themed ones. “Port & Starboard” had been used at least twice before my show … as soon as I saw that “Places” was the category, I had a hunch and then I saw four blanks, an ampersand and nine blanks, and my face just lit up.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/"},"headline":"Watch a Wheel of Fortune Contestant Guess the Answer With Only 1 Letter","datePublished":"2016-03-30T11:38:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:13.992Z","description":"He did his research ahead of time","url":"https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4276045/wheel-of-fortune-contestant-solves-one-letter/","name":"Watch a Wheel of Fortune Contestant Guess the Answer With Only 1 Letter"}}]}] ```