MT Danielson - Happy Scrabbling: 5 Steps To Becoming A Better Scrabble Player

Happy Scrabbling: 5 Steps To Becoming ABetter Scrabble Player

by
MT Danielson

Copyright 2013 MT Danielson

Smashwords Edition

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Table Of Contents

Intro: HappyScrabbling

When I was around 7 years old, growing up inLakewood, NY, I used to love to go over my Aunt Sals or Aunt Lydsand watch my mother and my aunts play Scrabble. Right off the bat,when I saw the colorful board, with all the blue, dark blue, pink,and red special squares and whatnot, I was intrigued. Sure, I wouldhave loved to play with them but I was too young. Even at thatyoung age, I could tell there was no place for me at that table.Not yet, anyway. I didnt know how to play. I didnt know a lot ofwords. And more than likely, I would have slowed the game down.Afterall, Scrabble was serious business with my aunts. So, I didntpress the issue. I didnt mind just watching and learning the gamefrom afar.

My Aunt Sal usually dominated, while my AuntLyd followed close behind, and my Mom brought up the rear. Aunt Saland Aunt Lyd were actually my Moms aunts, and my great aunts. So,my Mom was always respectful, deferring to Aunt Sal and Aunt Lyd,keeping my Mom forever the pupil or apprentice in these games.These were Italian women, and dominate to begin with. Occasionally,Aunt Sals husband, Uncle Al and/or Aunt Lyds husband, Uncle Don,would join in on a game, like lambs to the slaughter. This wasserious business. Aunt Sal and Aunt Lyd werent just passing thetime. They were asserting their dominance. My Mom wasntcompetitive enough for them, and was often destined for cannonfodder.

This is what I remember from watching my Momand my aunts play Scrabble, and what a great way to learn thegame.

By the time I was old enough to play, it wasa bit too late. Our family moved to Salem, N.H., and the only oneto play was my mother. It wasnt long before I dominated thosegames.

Years later now, I sometimes wonder if I evergot good enough to hold my own against my Aunt Sal and Aunt Lyd. Ithink I did. After all, Im quite good. I dont mean to come off asconceited or whatever. But Im just being honest. Theres aboutfive things on this planet Im really good at, and Scrabble is atthe top of that list. Ive been playing Scrabble for about thirtyyears now, and as you can imagine, Ive gotten pretty good. So muchso, I decided to write down some things Ive learned along the way.And who knows, maybe youll learn a little something along the way,too.

This ebook is dedicated to my Mom andAunts.

Step One:Prime Real Estate

Happy Scrabbling is certainly about happyscrabbling, but its also about winning. A good Scrabble playershould be able to look at a board, with about half the tilesplayed, and spot all the prime real estate on the board.

Obviously, from the first time I ever playedScrabble, the triple word spaces were the Holy Grail of the game.However, while these may be the best places to go, they arent theend-all and be-all as far as prime real estate on a Scrabbleboard.

Another great source of points, though it cansometimes come off as cheesy or too easy, is the double or tripleletter spaces. Placing a Z, Q, X, J, or any high value tile onthese spaces, going two directions can get you in excess of 60points.

Another great technique is getting a highvalue tile on a double or triple letter space, while making a wordthat reaches the double word, resulting in mucho points.

A good rule of thumb is to always make asmany words in one turn as possible, and getting all themulti-directional points. Sometimes, you can get a good amount ofpoints just making a word adjacent to another word. If all thetiles match up, you might have something there.

Theres no shame in piggybacking. Whereveryou see an open Z, Q, X, J etc., or a way to extend an alreadyplayed word, take advantage because you can often net more pointsthan the original play or anywhere else on the board.

When you look at a Scrabble board, in play,you should be able to take a glance and almost instantly form ahierarchy of the best places to play. Something like: open tripleword spaces, open triple letter spaces, and open high value tilesfor piggybacking or extending a word.

Step Two: AllThose Little Words

As your knowledge of Scrabble grows, you willeventually need to take the time to learn all the little words.They are invaluable. They come in very handy for multi-directionalplays. Many of these little words are nonsensical words that casualScrabble players will scoff at, as their meanings are usuallyunknown. If it makes you feel better, you might wanna learn theirmeanings but its not necessary. Here are the 2-letter words. Youmight as well just memorize them, since they will get youeverywhere in Scrabble and save you a lot of time looking them upall the time.

AA, AB, AD, AE, AG, AH, AI, AL, AM, AN, AR,AS, AT, AW, AX, AY

BA, BE, BI, BO, BY

C: Notice there are no 2-letter C words. Thisis one of the reasons why Cs are so annoying.

DE, DO

ED, EF, EH, EL, EM, EN, ER, ES, ET, EX

FA, FE

GO

HA, HE, HI, HM, HO

ID, IF, IN, IS, IT

JO

KA, KI

LA, LI, LO

MA, ME, MI, MM, MO, MU, MY

NA, NE, NO, NU

OD, OE, OF, OH, OM, ON, OP, OR, OS, OW, OX,OY

PA, PE, PI

QI

RE,

SH, SI, SO

TA, TI, TO

UH, UM, UN, UP, US, UT

V: No 2-letter V words either. Thats why IHATE Vs.

WE, WO

XI, XU

YA, YE, YO

ZA

I have yet to memorize all the 3-letterwords. This would be quite a little undertaking, considering thereare currently 100 2-letter words (according to the American versionof the Official Scrabble Dictionary) and about 8 times that much3-letter words. Pretty crazy, considering its only one lettermore.

As you can see, and probably know already,the best 2-letter words to keep on a short leash are: ZA, QI, JO,XI, and XU. Considering how valuable these five words can be, youmight wanna learn their definitions, just in case someone youreplaying with gets a little bent out of shape and says, What theheck is that? Is that even a word? What the heck does it mean? Atwhich time you will say, Yes, its a word. Its in the officialScrabble dictionary and it means

JO: A Sweetheart or Lover (as my Aunt Salused to say).

QI: The Chinese word for force, as in forcewithin. Yeah, like Star Wars.

XI: Some Greek letter.

XU: A word for Vietnamese money.

ZA: Short for pizza.

Step Three:Tile Management

One of the things that is always beyond thecontrol of any Scrabble player, no matter how good or bad they areis the randomness of tile selection. However, there are waysthrough forethought and Tile Management, to minimize potentialproblems.

Avoid Redundancies. Whenever you have themisfortune of selecting redundant letters, make an effort to reduceredundancies. For example, if you select 2 Hs or 2 Us, any letterthat rarely appears twice in one word, make sure you try an use anH or a U or better yet one of each, on your next turn. Obviously,some redundancies are less troublesome than others and can even begood Bingo Building Blocks, ie. 2 Es, 2 Os, 2 Ls, etc.

Respect the Four Food Groups. In the sameline as Avoid Redundancies, you need to maintain a well balanceddiet of consonants and vowels. A good ratio is four or fiveconsonants to two or three vowels. If you start to get too many ofone of the food groups, you need to try and use the excessconsonants or vowels on your next turn.