In a recent episode of Wheel of Fortune, one of the longest-running game shows in the history of longest-running game shows, a contestant Robert Santoli solved a puzzle with just one letter and ampersand appearing on the board.

The answer he correctly guessed? “Port & Starboard”.

Santoli eventually went on to solve nearly every puzzle on the game show, as he walked away with over US$76,000 worth of cash and prizes, including two cruise vacations.

Host Pat Sajak was initially surprised by his ability to get the puzzle right so quickly, but grew accustomed to the player racking up win after win.

After a while, Sajak quipped: “Robert, what took you so long?”, before Santoli solved yet another puzzle.

Here are the highlights of the Santoli's puzzle-solving edited into a 100-second video, uploaded on March 26, 2016.

How he pulled off the feat was not due to sheer luck though.

Santoli is something of a Wheel of Fortune buff as he helps to run a message board called Buy A Vowel where others like him discuss strategy, trade tips and congratulate each other on their winnings.

After his big win, Santoli provided a breakdown of his game.

His explanation for how he was able to come up with “Port & Starboard” so fast was that he did all the research beforehand through data from past episodes and went through a thorough cross-reference of words and phrases that had been used before:

The instant I got my theme, I immediately came up with an ever-growing list of puzzles themed towards cruises, sailing, fish, boats, anything on or in the water. Some I came up with in my head right away, like ‘Port and starboard’ ( :P ) and ‘Popeye the Sailor Man’. I opened up MS Word and began typing anything that came to mind. Then, I went to this extensive WOF episode guide and did a Ctrl-F search for ‘Cruise’, ‘Fish’ and ‘Sea’ and made note of the dates. Then I went to the compendium and wrote down all the themed puzzles from those weeks, marking such puzzles with an asterisk to note that they had been previously used on the show. I then alphabetized the list to organize it by category.

As you saw, having a list of possible themed puzzles and key words really paid off. :)

Instead of listening for Pat to announce the category, I just look at the Used Letter Board since it shows up there about a second before he says it. I see that it’s Places and I think “Could it really be PORT AND STARBOARD?” and then the blanks come up... with an ampersand where it’s supposed to go! It’s the answer after all! I can’t believe it! Let’s just make sure Vanna touches a D (poor choice of words, I know...) and BAM! I didn’t realize how much I spazzed when I pressed the buzzer. :P The crowd went nuts, and I’m really thankful that I had a great crowd.

Intense.