Local Teens Win $50K on Wheel of Fortune

By uttering three words, “It Might Happen,” winning $50,000 did happen for Redwood City’s Adam Lumpkin and San Mateo’s Mike Bertoldi. The teens made a last minute surge to advance to the final round to secure an additional $20,000.

The Serra High School seniors, both varsity sports players, both said the entire experience was surreal, and that they had never anticipated winning so much money in such a short amount of time.

“I almost don’t remember the experience it all happened so fast,” Lumpkin said. “We were down the whole time and we won $50,000 in a matter of five minutes.”

“Pat Sajak kept saying ‘don’t get down,’ this happens all the time,” Bertoldi added. “And he was right. I never expected to win that much money.”

Bertoldi applied to the show online in summer 2010 because he said his family had always been avid fans of the show. He then asked Lumpkin to be his partner and the duo headed to Los Angeles to try out.

“We’re 6’6” and 6’3” so we had a pretty good combination working for us,” Lumpkin said. “But we went in thinking nothing’s really going to happen and it would just be a neat opportunity.”

But this “neat opportunity” turned into a tidy $25,000 for the two teens. Both insisted that they adopted an open-minded approach and sat down to practice for a few shows, but that was the extent of their preparation. They said they plan to put most of their money towards college funds with a little extra for spending money, if they can keep it away from their friends.

“We tried to keep it a secret from the whole school, but it got too difficult,” Lumpkin said. “We basically ended up telling everyone. So a bunch of people keep coming up to us and ask, ‘can I borrow a dollar? You just won $50,000!’”

But the varsity volleyball and varsity lacrosse player have stayed humble throughout their 30 minutes of fame.

“We’re thankful that our parents were very supportive of us,” Lumpkin said. “They came down to Los Angeles with us and were just as enthusiastic as we were.”