'Wheel of Fortune' player wins almost $120,000 after stunning letter picks in wild TV moment

"Wheel of Fortune" contestants are often called out for silly mistakes that cost them easy games, but a few manage to surprise fans with their performance. One such player was Catrice Sandt, who pulled off a stunning win to bag nearly $120,000 on the show. Her accurate selection of letters in the Bonus Round made her job easier. While she said too many words to solve the puzzle, the host, Ryan Seacrest, indicated that the judges ruled in her favor. To make the win even more special, he went on to reveal that Sandt had won an additional $100,000 from her Golden Envelope.

Sandt showed great potential from the beginning as she quickly solved the first few Toss Up puzzles to take the lead. However, Exama soon started to catch up by solving a couple of puzzles, which put her only $100 behind Sandt. However, Sandt went on a roll to preserve her lead, and she even got the "Million-Dollar Wedge."

Unfortunately, she couldn't hold on to it for long as she landed on "Bankrupt" in her very next turn. Sandt then clawed back by solving a few more puzzles in a row to get the lead again. She went on to solve a few puzzles in the "Express Round" to win more money, and she got the prize puzzle as well to win a trip to Africa. With this, she emerged as the big winner with $19,800 in the bank in addition to the exotic trip.

Going into the Bonus Round, Sandt picked the popular category “What are you doing?” for her final puzzle and was joined by her husband, mother, and, in her words, her "evil step-father." With the show's standard letters, "R, S, T, L, N, E" on the board, Sandt unfortunately had only a handful of letters in the long two-word puzzle. However, she made a great comeback by smartly picking the letters, “B, G, M, and A," to get additional clues. With those letters on the board, the puzzle read, “BEG_NN_NG AGA_N.”

Sandt looked confident as she smiled from ear to ear. Seacrest told her to "hold on" as he still needed to start the ten-second timer before she could solve the puzzle. As soon as the host gave her the signal, Sandt guessed, “I am beginning again," which had more words than needed. She again said, "Beginning again, is that it?" and Seacrest told her that the judges had accepted it and she had won. While Sandt celebrated, Seacrest asked her to turn around, saying, “And Catrice, I need to show you this,” before revealing that she had won $100,000 from the Golden Envelope.

As the confetti dropped from the sky, Sandt's family joined her on the stage. Seacrest and his co-host Vanna White then went on to reveal that Sandt was taking home a total of  $119,800 and a trip to Africa.

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