23 Scrabble Tips

I’ve been playing Scrabble a lot on Facebook and I thought I’d pass on what I’ve learnt in the hope of getting some better games!

1. Don’t play a short word if you can play a long word for a similar score. The more letters you play, the more chance of getting some good ones. And the more open the board, the better for both of you. Defensive play closes it up for both players. (Thanks to Chris Wilding for this tip. It’s improved my game no end.)
2. Don’t play the first word you see. There is always a better choice.
3. You get roughly 12 to 14 turns in a game. Good players score upwards of 450 in  a game. You need to score an average of 34 per turn to do that. Bear that in mind when deciding if the word you’ve found is good enough.
4. Look for the high scoring squares and the high scoring letters and try to play the latter on the former.
5. Look out for opportunities to play on two double word scores at once so you multiply the score by 4. The chances are few but the best chance is usually on the second player’s first turn. (Getting two triple word scores at once is the Scrabble player’s holy grail. I have done it four times and it’s made my day every time! It’s the only way you can hope to score over 200 on a single play.)
6. Practice on “correspondence” games. Facebook Scrabble allows you to play games with a week between moves. You can have as much thinking time as you like without feeling pressured to make your move.
7. If you’re playing a quick game (Facebook Scrabble has an option for a maximum of 2 mins between turns), you can pile the pressure on your opponent by playing rapidly. If you know the word you’re going to play and play it immediately it’s your turn, you get the advantage of thinking during your opponent’s time and denying him the chance to do the same. Facebook Scrabble allows you to have the letters pre-placed on the board so all you have to do is click “play”. Looking at this another way, if you think during your opponent’s time and he doesn’t bother, you get twice as much time as he does – and that’s a pretty good advantage.
8. Now you’re thinking during the other guy’s time, try to have two good words lined up in different parts of the board so your opponent’s play won’t spoil your plan.
9. Don’t be scared of (or annoyed by) opponents using anagram generators. Bring ’em on! Anagrams alone do not make a Scrabble player.
10. When someone plays a useful word against you, make a note and remember to use it yourself. One of my favourites in SOUARIS. I have played that three times since I discovered it.
11. Learn the two-letter words. Facebook Scrabble helpfully lists them.
12. Don’t just learn them as a list. Get to know their component letters. It saves a lot of wasted effort when, for example, you know there is no two-letter word with a V in it and there is only one with a C. As important as knowing what exists, is knowing what doesn’t exist; e.g. you can play WO or WE but not WA, WI, WU or WY. I can’t tell you how often I’ve tried to play WA only to realise I’ve wasted a whole lot of thinking time.
13. Learn which two-letter words extend to three letters and how. E.g. ZO extends to AZO, DZO, ZOA, ZOO and ZOS. This is helpful in building your own words and in knowing when you’ve made an opening for your opponent.
14. Don’t be shy! Some very rude words are also very useful. Scrabble players don’t care and won’t be insulted. In fact, they tend not to even see the words as such, just the letters that make them up. I am certainly not alone in having a large “Scrabble vocabulary” of words I know exist in the official Scrabble dictionary but whose meaning I neither know nor care. And yes, I don’t like that when I think about it… so I try not to think about it.
15. Try to balance the vowels and consonants remaining in your rack. Often easier said than done but worth thinking about when you have a choice of words to play.
16. Keep an eye on which letters remain in the bag. Facebook Scrabble has a tab that does this for you.
17. Never bother with trying to swap a couple of letters to get the one you want. The odds are invariably against you – and will the lost turn be made up for by scoring double next time?
18. On the other hand, if you have a rack full of difficult letters, cut your losses early and swap the lot (having checked what’s still in the bag). The longer you hold on and hope, the worse your overall score will suffer.
19. Got a seven letter word and nowhere to put it? Never mind. The better you get at spotting seven letter words, the more this happens. If you let it distract you, you’ll mess up the next moves.
20. If you have a J, K, Q, X or Z near the end of the game, the rule about trying to place them on good squares goes out of the window. Just get rid of them as soon as you can, even at the price of better scores. A Q in your hand at the end costs you 30. 10 for the points you failed to score with it, 10 deducted from your score and 10 to the other guy.
21. At the end of the game, if you have a handful of letters, it is often better to use them all even for a poor score. When working it out, remember that whoever is left with letters will be penalised double their value. Look at your opponent’s tiles and work out what he is likely to do and who will be left with what. (Once there are no tiles left in the bag, the Tiles tab shows you exactly what’s in your opponent’s rack.)
22. Getting thrashed? Don’t resign. Keep playing and learn from what the better player does. (OK, maybe luckier player – but let’s assume better for the sake of this tip.)
23. Don’t waste blanks or Ss on a paltry few extra points. They can get you out of a scrape and blanks in particular are your best chance of getting a seven letter word. Hang on to them until you can really make them count.

In summary, it’s the letters that score, not the words. Get the right letters in the right places and your score will improve. Hang on for appealing or clever words and your less clever opponent will walk all over you.

Looking forward to meeting some of you over a hot virtual board.

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