Playing Games (scrabble)

Category: Statistics

Published: 05/13/2009 05:08 p.m.

After a recent game of Scrabble with the family, it became apparent that there was a need to discuss some of my scrabble strategies.

Most people that are playing for fun (aka not to win) stress out trying to make big words, thinking that this is the strategy to do well. It isn't. For example, take the word STARTED. It looks great. 7 letters long, but generally it is only 6 of your tiles and 1 from the board and therefore no Bingo (50pt. bonus for using all 7 of your tiles). The second mistake that is likely is that the word isn't played on a double- or triple-word score place. So, while wasting good tiles (S's) they only earn 8 points.

Instead of focusing on big words, a seasoned player focuses on the placement on the board. Anytime you can place a letter on a double-word-score space you will do far better, even with a smaller word. A second strategy is playing tiles in a manner that produces words in two directions. If START is on the board, you could play ONE off the tip and make TO across as well. While that example isn't great, splitting the X, Q, or Z across two words (and on a double-word or double-letter space) can really boost your score.

The last secret is to know the two-letter words in the game. These come in handy when stuck with junk letters, when left at the end with no more tiles to draw, and when there is a triple-word-score trapped in a tight place.

To sum it up, fight the urge to play big words and instead play on big multipliers.