SCRABBLE Strategy Al Carlson
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SCRABBLE Strategy Al Carlson On this August 18, 2018, I am beginning to reveal the details of my SCRABBLE strategy which is possibly among the best in the long history of the game. First let me show you how I came to this conclusion. There are 56 consonants and 42 vowels in this game. Of the 56 consonants, the five letters L, N, R, S and T account for 26 of these consonants. Each of these letters is worth only 1 point. There are 68 tiles whose letters are each worth one point. There are 30 tiles that are worth 2 to 10 points for an average of 3 points for each tile. If the two players together received only one point for each tile, that would be a total of 68 points divided between the two players. If the two players received an average of 3 points for the tiles worth 2 to 10 points, they would get a total of 90 points divided between them. Many factors like bingos can contribute to the total score but the player drawing the majority of the higher scoring tiles almost always wins, when they nearly maximize the scores produced by these tiles. The single-point scoring tiles however will still usually account for the majority of the total points scored by both players. This is because most words will contain more of these letters than the higher-scoring ones. And when a high score is produced by a high-scoring letter, the single point letters are included. If a player plays the word HARES for example on square O1, the H would score 12 points but the A, R, E, and S would score 15 points. If the letter on O1 would be a Q, Z, J or X however, that high-scoring letter would score more points than the other letters. There are premium squares also where only the letter played on that square gets multiple scoring points. There are five arrangements of vowels and consonants that are most often the first three letters in words. In order of frequency of appearance these are… a consonant followed by a vowel and a consonant, a vowel followed by a consonant and a vowel, a consonant followed by a consonant and a vowel, a consonant followed by two vowels, a vowel followed by two consonants. In any of these letter arrangements there are many more words produced with the higher-scoring letters than with the single- point scoring letters. Assuming that the letter A is the second letter in the word, there are only five one-point scoring letters L, N, R, S and T representing the 26 tiles of these letters that can be the first letter in the word. There are all of the sixteen letters worth two to ten points representing the 30 tiles of these letters that can be the first letter. These letters are … B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, P, Q, V, W, X, Y and Z. While having the letter E as the second letter, all of the letters but Q can be the first letter. Frequently in the game you will have to play a word that contains two consecutive vowels. The only really useful pairs of these consecutive vowels are AE, AI, IA and OA. If we were to place the vowels EA as the second and third letters in our word, there are only the five one point scoring vowels L, N, R, S, and T that can precede them in the word whereas there are fourteen letters worth two to ten points that may precede these letters. These letters are…. B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, M, P, V, W, Y. and Z. The following words would work…… BEAD, CEASE, DEAF, FEAR, GEAR, HEAT, JEAN, KEA, MEAN, PEAN, VEAL, WEAL, YEAN, and ZEAL. The same is true using the letters AI, IA and OA. You will find hundreds more in your SCRABBLE dictionary. Other more useful consecutive vowels are IA, IE and EI. There are a fair number of words where the IA vowels are preceded by the letter D. Most of these consecutive vowels are found earlier in the words. There are fewer words when these letters appear later in the words. Next we have consecutive vowel letters that are the same letter. The most common are EE and OO. Some double E words are BEEN, CEE, DEED, FEEZE, GEEZ, HEEZE, JEEZE, KEEVE, MEED, PEERY, VENNA, WEEVER, YEESH and ZEE. The consecutive vowels UI produce the words BUILT, CUIR, DUIT, GUILT, HUIC, JUICE, PUISSANT and QUIRE. How many words can you find preceding these consecutive letters with L, N, R, S, or T? Some double O words are BOOZE, COOLTH, DOOZIE, FOOZLE, GOOMBAY, HOOKAH, JOOK, KOOBOO, MOORHEN, POOKA, VOODOO, WOONERF, YOOF and ZOOIDAL. Double consecutive consonants using the five one- point scoring letters L, N, R, S and T can appear earlier or later in the words. Once again the are much more frequently found in words that contain at least one letter from the group of thirty letters each of which is worth two to ten points. By studying the consecutive vowel and consecutive consonant combinations, the size of your vocabulary should increase immensely. You will also be more able to spot the words using these letters more readily on your tile racks. The most common ending letters in a word are S, D, E, L T, N and H. The higher-scoring letters appear often near the ends of words. This happens mostly before E as the last letter. We have the words BIDE, CADE, DACE, FACE, GUDE, HIKE, JOKE, KOPJE, MIKE, POME, TOPE, VIDE, WIVE, YOWE, and ZYME. The letter H is a great scoring letter since it can be preceded in two-letter words by any of four vowels before or after it as in AH, EH, OH and UH before and HA, HE, HI, and HO after it. The letter Y is quite useful, since all of the following three-letter words with no vowels except when Y is considered a vowel, can be used … BYS, CRY, DRY, FRY, PLY, PRY, SHY, SLY, SPY, STY, THY, TRY, WHY and WRY. I would like to thank former world scrabble champion Joel Wapnick for suggesting that I check to see what is already written about SCRABBLE before releasing my self-published book The “Little Word Source”. SO WHAT’S MY STRATEGY? In my early SCRABBLE days I was presented with certain challenges. I would look at my rack and try to find a starting letter of a word I could play. This was hard enough but something else was much harder to do. When there is a letter on the board that you want to be the last letter in your word, it was very difficult to come up with that word. I took me two years to write a book showing up to ten-letter words with a particular letter in every position in the words, listing only the less common words. The book was almost 1000 pages long. It was never published. Words with a higher scoring letter within them are listed showing that letter in all positions in that word. Then I calculate where I can play that letter to take advantage of the premium squares. These premium squares are arranged in certain patterns. In my book “The Little Word Source”, the words were listed showing the last letter in the word. When a player plays their first word it goes latterly from the center area towards the right side of the board. This way you can start with the first letter. In order for the next player to play a word latterly left of that word they must hook the last letter of the word with a letter in a word that has already played vertically. So they must think of a word that ends with that letter. The same problem arises when a vertical word is to be played from the top left side of the board down to an earlier played last letter. I have noticed that even in games played by world-class players that the upper left –hand corner of the board is often unused. IF you are the first one to play and prefer an open board, make a play that gives you the option of playing the right or left of that word on your next play. Play a vowel as the first letter of your word between the first two premium squares. The next word you play can be a short word ending with the consonant that is played above the vowel. When playing words in the top left corner of the board at the start of the game, more areas of the board are used. More triple-word scores are played and more bingos are possible. You must not however sacrifice too many points to have this happen. Most of the higher-scoring plays are played in the other two thirds of the board. This way you can play a three- letter word that can be extended to a longer word or play the longer word. This is not as easy to do when playing a word according to the last letters in the word. Using the letter P, you will know numerous words starting with this letter. There are even a large number when this letter is the second or third letter in the word. There are fewer words ending with this letter, when the letter is the second last letter, or third last letter.