Scrabble tips

Scrabble is an educational and challenging game, and sometimes it seems as if your winning the game is completely dependent upon your vocabulary and upon sheer luck as to whether you do well. In actuality, Scrabble is very much a strategy game. There are a number of things you can do to improve your game, and confound those cocky opponents who always win.

Easy Tips

2. Instead of trying to use most of your letters, look for ways to score high with your high-value letters on the doubling or tripling tiles. For instance, if you have AXE, do everything you can to ensure the X falls on the triple-letter. Ultimately, you’ll score higher than someone who uses five or six letters with every turn.

3. If you have an opportunity to lay down all seven of your tiles to form a word, take it! That’s called a Bingo, and it’s worth fifty bonus points – almost impossible to match with straight scoring.

4. If a triple-word score tile is open, use it if you can; even if you play a low-scoring word, it prevents your opponent from taking the triple. And avoid playing words in spots that are easy to play triples from. Especially avoid putting your highest-scoring letters in spots that can give your opponent a triple (and I speak from painful experience!)

5. If you get the high-scoring tiles J, Q, X, or Z early in the game, try to play them where you can at least double them. If you get them late in the game, dump them as fast as you can; if you’re caught holding them at the end, your opponent will get their points!

6. Blank tiles don’t get points, but are wild cards; use them wisely, to complete high-scoring words or to get Bingos.

7. An S is almost as good as a blank tile; always try to play it so that you can pluralize an already-played word and get those points as well as the word you’ve played. Example: PIRATE is on the board; you play SERENE so that the S turns PIRATE into PIRATES. Score points for both words!

Two Letter Words

One of your most valuable strategic tools in Scrabble is the properly-used two-letter word; you should memorize these and use them as often as possible. When you know the two-letter words, you can put more words down in parallel orientation to words on the board, instead of intersecting; this gives you a score for not just one word, but 2, 3, or however many new little words you’ve created. For example, start with MANY on the board; just above it starting on the square over the A, place LABIA. This gives you points for LABIA, LA, AN, and BY. Using this technique also makes it easier to play Bingos – using all seven of your tiles in one move.

In groups, here are the 98 2-letter Scrabble words currently accepted by the National Scrabble Association. The international SOWPODS list is extended by another 23 words, and is used everywhere but in America; you should be aware which list you’re using prior to beginning play.

Common words (27): am, an, as, at, be, by, do, go, he, if, in, is, it, ma, me, my, no, of, on, or, ox, pa, so, to, up, us, we

English letter names (7): ar, ef, el, em, en, es, ex

Interjections (18): ah, aw, bo, eh, er, ha, hi, hm, ho, lo, mm, oh, ow, oy, sh, uh, um, yo (io, oi, oo, st, ug, ur are also accepted by SOWPODS)

Musical notes (5): fa, la, mi, re, ti (te accepted by SOWPODS)

Greek letters (4): mu, nu, pi, xi

Antiquated words or slang (9): ad, ax, ay, bi, ed, jo, op, ta, ye (da, fy, po accepted by SOWPODS)

And at last, the words that don’t fit anywhere else (27): aa, ab, ae, ag, ai, al, ba, de, et, id, ka, li, mo, na, ne, od, oe, om, os, pe, si, un, ut, wo, xu, ya, zo (ch, di, ea, ee, gi, gu, ko, ky, ny, ob, ou, ph, qi, yu accepted by SOWPODS)

You will notice that there are NO 2-letter words in this list ending with C, K, J, Q, V, or Z. If you truly want to block an opponent, careful placement of these letters is a good strategy.

Other Advanced Tips

1. Learn other sets of letters. Three-letter words make up a subset of about a thousand words. Words containing high-scoring letters like J, Q (without U, especially!), X, and Z are the first ones you should memorize. (a very short list: JAB JAG JAM JAR JAW JAY JEE JET JEU JEW JIB JIG JIN JOB JOE JOG JOT JOW JOY JUG JUN JUS JUT QAT QUA XIS VEX WAX TAX LUX MAX ZAG ZAP ZAX ZED ZEE ZEK ZIG ZIN ZIP ZIT ZOA ZOO)

2. Make a list of the words you’re working on and keep them in the bathroom; if you read them while you’re, um, otherwise occupied every day, you’ll learn them surprisingly quickly.

3. Memorize what the letters are worth. Even though it’s written on the tile, if you can glance down and see “K” and know it’s worth 5 points, it makes it easier to strategize words around that letter without really thinking about it.

4. Memorize how many of each letter are in a Scrabble tile set, and count tiles when you’re waiting for specific letters. This will give you a good idea of what your chances are of getting a letter later in the game. For instance, there are 4 S tiles in the game; if three have been used, your chances of getting the S you need are pretty small.

5. Keep a good balance of vowels and consonants on your tray. There are about two vowels to every three consonants in the bag. If you play a word that’s vowel-heavy, you may have put yourself at a serious disadvantage; chances are good you’ll draw more consonants than vowels for the next round. Instead, try to maintain something close to that 2::3 ratio on your tray. Don’t use three vowels to leave yourself with four consonants, for instance; probability dictates that you’ll draw at least two more consonants, possibly three.

6. Try not to hold duplicate letters on your tray; they’re usually a waste of space. If you have I’s, use them up; the worst tray you can have is one filled with I tiles!

7. The tiles to save for strategic use are blanks, S’s, T’s and E’s, in that order. These four tiles are the most versatile. With an S, try to play on a word scoring 40 or better. With a blank, try to play on a word scoring 50 or better. Using blanks appropriately is one of the best ways to make your Bingos.

8. Buy a copy of the official Scrabble dictionary (sometimes called the OSPD, Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) and keep it in the bathroom when not in use. Not only is it great for arbitrating the validity of a word, but familiarizing yourself with it frequently will help you learn new high-scoring words. After you’ve memorized the 2- and 3-letter words, aim for learning at least one new word each day.

Really Advanced Strategy: Word Sets and Rack Management

The best Scrabble players manage their racks in such a way as to acquire word sets – they play words strategically to build toward and hold onto these sets. Word sets are groups of letters that can be used to create a number of words by themselves, or that will combine with most other letters in the alphabet easily to create longer words. There are dozens of these, but some of the best ones are listed below.

ERST is the most powerful four-letter set you can acquire in Scrabble. When you have these four letters sitting on your rack, you have a 95% chance of drawing one of the letters OUTALPINE – and any one of these letters with ERST makes a good 5-letter set to build from. Say you draw the A; now you have the set AERST. With a sixth letter from BCDEFHILMNOPRSTUW – most of the rest of the letters – you have a 60% or better chance of making a bingo with any other letter you draw.

So start with ERST

Draw A – AERST

Draw I – AEIRST

With this combination, you can make a seven-letter Bingo-scoring word with any other letter excluding JQUXYZ.

If, however, you don’t get a 7-letter word you can use on the board, then you’re stuck with a tray filled with letters you can use on a much less valuable 6-letter word – or that you can play strategically in the following manner. Keeping either the set ERST or AERST, play the other letters in your tray. Chances are excellent that your next draw will bring you the 7-letter word you wanted.

Other excellent four-letter sets are AEST, AERS, AELS, AENS, TELS, EIST, EIRS, EILS, and EINS. By building from those sets with the OUTALPINE group, you will maximize your chances of getting a Bingo – and shaming into humbleness your previously-gloating opponents.