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Gameplay[edit]
Three contestants competed on each episode, usually a returning champion and two new challengers. The game began by asking the contestants multiple-choice questions in order to earn spins. Tomarken asked a question and a contestant buzzed-in and provided a response. That response, plus two additional choices, were then offered to the contestants who had not buzzed-in. Providing a correct response after buzzing-in earned that contestant three spins. Selecting the correct answer from the three choices earned one spin. If a player buzzed-in and failed to come up with an answer, within five seconds, that contestant was locked out of the question in play, leaving the other two contestants to answer in multiple choice. If no-one buzzed-in within five seconds, Tomarken offered three answer choices to all the players. Four questions were asked, after which the first Big Board round was played.

In the Big Board round, contestants used their spins to win cash and prizes. The board consisted of 18 spaces, each of which displayed a continuously changing image indicating the result of landing there. The contestant with the fewest spins played first; in case of a tie, the tied contestant seated farthest to the host's left played first. Before each spin, a contestant was asked if he wanted to "press [his/her] luck" or pass their remaining spins. If the contestant chose to "press [his/her] luck", a selector light flashed among the 18 squares, while the contents of each individual square rotated. The contestant then stopped the lights from flashing by hitting a button in front of him/her. If the square landed upon contained a cash amount or prize, that value was added to his/her score. If it contained a Whammy, the contestant lost any cash or prizes accumulated up to that point. If at anytime a contestant accumulated four Whammies, he/she was eliminated from the game. Some squares offered the contestant a choice of two or three different squares, moved the selector light, or awarded a cash value plus an additional spin.

A contestant's turn continued until they ran out of spins or chose to pass. When passing, the spins were automatically assigned to the opponent with the higher score. In case of a tie, the contestant chose which contestant would receive the additional spins. Unlike spins earned by either answering questions or winning spins from the Big Board, contestants were required to take any spins passed to them. However, if a Whammy is hit and there are any passed spins left, those spins become earned spins. Once a contestant had used all of his spins or passed any remaining spins, play continued with the next contestant. The round ended after all spins had been taken.

A second question round was played after the first Big Board round, followed by the final Big Board round. In the final round, play started with the contestant who had the lowest score. If scores were tied, the player with the fewer spins began, again starting with the contestant seated farthest-left if the number of spins was also the same. Once that contestant exhausted any remaining spins or was eliminated, play continued with the next-higher scorer from the previous round and eventually to the highest scorer.

Any contestant who accumulated four Whammies over the course of the game was eliminated from further play and his/her remaining spins forfeited. Whichever contestant had the highest total at the end of the final round kept his/her winnings and returned on the following episode. If two or all three contestants tied with the highest total, the tied players returned as co-champions on the next episode. In the rare event that two contestants were eliminated from the game after accumulating four Whammies, the last contestant continued to play until either exhausting all of his/her spins, or choosing to stop and end the game. If all three contestants accumulated four Whammies, then the game would end with no winner, and three new players would appear on the next show. (This scenario never happened at any point in the history of the show.)

In the first Big Board round, cash amounts ranged from $100 to $1,500 and prizes typically were worth no more than $2,000. The second round featured cash amounts from $500 to $5,000, and prizes potentially worth $6,000 or more. Three special squares also appeared throughout the course of the show. The first, Double your $$, added a cash amount equal to the contestant's score at the time. This square later became Double Your $$ + One Spin, awarding a spin in addition to the cash amount. Add-A-One added a "1" to the front of the contestant's current score (e.g., $0 became $10; $500 became $1,500; and $2,000 became $12,000). The third, $2,000 or Lose-1-Whammy, offered the contestant a choice of adding $2,000 to his/her score ($2,000 was automatically added if (s)he has no Whammies), or removing a Whammy received earlier in the game. Add-A-One was only featured in the first Big Board round, with the others only appearing in the second Big Board round.

One square present in both Big Board rounds was Big Bucks. This square, appearing third from the right in the bottom row, automatically moved the selector light to the corresponding position in the top row. When the show premiered, the top dollar values in this square in Round One were $750, $1,000, and $1,250; the $750 space was later doubled to $1,500. For the second round, from the show's pilot episode to cancellation, the top dollar values were $3,000 + ONE SPIN, $4,000 + ONE SPIN, and $5,000 + ONE SPIN.

Limits on winnings[edit]
Any contestant who won five games or exceeded the winnings cap retired undefeated. From September 19, 1983 to October 31, 1984, any contestant who won over $25,000 retired undefeated, but contestants could keep up to $50,000. The CBS game show winnings cap was raised to $50,000 on November 1, 1984, with contestants being able to keep up to $75,000.