Scrabble/scrabulous

[karen2205]

I've never been very good at scrabble (despite reading a lot and various other characteristics that would mean I 'ought' to be good at it). It's just hard.

I can't pick out words from a series of randomly ordered letters. [well, sometimes I can - sometimes words 'leap' out at me, other times I can't find anything]

Coordinating finding a word with the letters on the scrabble board I can play on and with playing on good bits of the board for getting high point score just makes it incredibly difficult.

If you consider yourself good at scrabble what did you do to become good at it? Any other scrabble playing hints/tips?

Comments

[cyberpunkgrrl.livejournal.com]

I find it both incredibly hard (not least of all because I'm dyslexic) and incredibly fantastic, all at once :D

I find the keys to having fun playing it are to move the tiles around on your holder-thingy, just messing around with them, and also look for work endings - like -ing, -ght, -er and then try and get another word to fit in the front :)

Also, don't try and make huge long word, but use the higher-scoring letters first. A word like "zoo" will be more points that something like "coats" :)

[rho]

Learn lots of obscure 2 letter words. They're very useful to know.

Look for letter combinations, like "ed" or "ch" or similar.

Look on the board for premium squares, and try to figure out how to play on them. Say there's a triple letter score two squares above a T, and you have a W on your rack. That means you're looking for something with W*T in it, which is easier to look for than just "any combination of my letters and the ones on the board".

Pay attention to the balance of tiles on your rack. If you have two possible moves, one of which scores 20 points and leaves you with 4 vowels on your rack, and the second which scores 19 points and leaves you with 2 vowels and 2 consonants, play the second. You'll make up the points later.

[vicki-t-veg.livejournal.com]

sorry can't help, I'm completely useless at Scrabble.

[faerierhona.livejournal.com]

I play it on my phone! It's great - especially as I can randomise letters on it so it rearranges and words might leap out. I can also try combinations and if a word isn't real then it tells me! I also only embarass myself n front of me and my phone :-)

[pthalo]

play it with yourself. try to use all the pieces.

play it in your head while you're trying to fall asleep.

[thefairmelissa.livejournal.com]

Do crosswords, but only the non-cryptic ones. And just keep practising! Know when to pass a turn and change some letters over - that can really make a difference to your score if you refresh a couple of times in a game. Learn words with X, Z and Q in.

[ixwin.livejournal.com]

There are some good tips on the official Scrabble website.

I second the remark about two letter words - you can often score significantly more by placing a word parallel to an existing one rather than at right angles to it, because every tile scores twice (once for the long word you've played, and once for each two-letter word that's been created). We have a house rule that the list of valid two-letter words is available to check during play, and Scrabulous also provides a list for reference.

Also, if you're playing a good player, it's worth being a bit defensive - i.e. if you've got a choice of two plays, and one scores slightly higher but will make it really easy for the next player to play on a triple word score, you might want to go for the lower scoring word.

[lizzip.livejournal.com]

Nod regarding placing words parallel and looking for word endings - it was when I started doing both that I began to score over 400 semi-regularly. I've yet to break 500, but it ought to happen before 2009, I reckon, depending on how much I play... :)

Scrabble/Scrabulous

[(Anonymous)]

Scrabulous offers you the opportunity to practice...you can play against yourself or against the Robot. Play the Robot and you'll learn many, many tricks of the trade, plus a ton of words you never knew existed.