| | still not there, but merely aspiring to brilliance is enough fun for this chickadee. and along the way, being more than a little bit obsessed by the drive to become ever more scrabble savvy - albeit in less than altogether satisying internet-mediated games - the real aim is building up prowess for future reallife latenight chocolate-munching games with my siblings.
so meanwhile, the important thing is to learn words
I already talked about the two letter words. once you've got those , you need the three letter words. concentrate particularly on the big scorers that are going to help you get rid of your q or j or x
some favourite useful and unexpected sowpods words are; aby, adz, azo, biz, cwm (!), dex, fez, gox, haj, jai, joe, jun, qis, wex, zex . . .
and then you also need to collect other good words which are potential high scorers;
just a few words i like;
ojime - (bead)
oxime - (chemical compound)
toaze - (tease) touse (to haul)
luv
jeat
qadi qat qua qi quep quod suq
* take note of good words unknown to you played by competitors. learn them. play alot. win. learn . win more. (winning isn't everything. but it's not nothing either). track especially words with Q, with J, with X and Z. and SEVEN LETTER words. Once you get obsessed enough by scrabble you'll find yourself unable to read even a novel without noticing all the seven letter words. (once you've got them, got the the EIGHTs. Maybe I should admit aroiuynd now that the word list way to play scrabble is a little bit crazy manic-compulsive - most of the real scrabble champions could probably be described thus - and they wouldn't even be offended)
*
BUT
just as important as having the words there at your fingertips, is maximizing your chance of a bingo (getting all your letters out for a 50 point bonus) by keeping a balanced rack. aim to keep the letters for RETAINS on your rack. this is the combination of letters that generates the biggest quantity of bingoes.
the idea is to get rid of anything else as fast as possible to get these letters on. ESPECIALLY you want to get rid of an "x", a "z" or a "q" as fast as possible. - If you have to choose between playing "PUT" and "PAT", play "PUT", to get rid of the "U", and keep the "A" which has more chances - as you already know - of generating a bingo.
- If you have an unpromising rack, full of vowels or unlikely consonants, exchange them rather than make a dud low scoring play. - anything lower than 20 is a LOW SCORE. You might opt for a score between 14 and 20 if it's going to leave you a great promising rack for a bingo only. Tournament scrabble players exchange their letters an average of three times a game.
- Never play an "S" or a blank for a lowly double word score - never open the game playing an S! or - heaven forbid - a blank - save it for a bingo. It's preferable to pass than waste a blank on a bingoeless opening move.
- the only time you'd think about playing an "S" or a blank for less than a bingo is when it is going to enable you to get rid of a high scoring tile - "z" or "q" or "x" AND score above 30, or else towards the end of the game where plays are limited. you might want to give up an "S" to play "QIS" or "SUQ" and access a triple letter score for your Q. otherwise, ditch the Q asap, keep the S.
the most important thing is to enjoy. and the best thing about scrabble is, when you lose, you can blame it on bad luck with the tiles.
but when you WIN you can attribute it to your brilliance alone.
what could be more enjoyable than that?
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| | Posted 6/16/2009 11:41 AM - 17 Views - 0 eProps - 5 comments
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