In rounds 2 and 3 of a regular game there will be people who can steal your spot and cash if you mess up. Those people are the spoilers.
Play well enough in round 1 so that you are ahead by round 2. Then purposely flub the first question of round 2. A spoiler will probably get it right and elect to steal your place. Now you just need to buzz in and get it right when one of the computer players blows a question.
Don't forget that in local games, you can pause the game and look up the question in an online crossword dictionary like oneacross.com. You'll probably get this playing normally since it's really easy to pop in and out.