Scrabble 2

[Pablo]

As my wife and I were transitioning to our new life in Washington, we didn't play Scrabble for several months. We are now happily settled here and have resumed our nightly games. In fact, we have played 11 games. If you remember, I previously bemoaned the fact that she consistently drew a statistically ridiculous percentage of the blank tiles. Starting fresh, I decided to keep track once again.

In our first 11 games, of 22 blanks, I have drawn 4, none in the last 4 games. We are drawing out of the bag, sight unseen, with frequent shaking and mixing.

WTF?
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Gomez*]

Maybe she's secretly running her thumb over the faces of the tiles as she collects them? That's what I'd do

[Deception]

[Pablo]

[Chuck]

Have you counted how many total tiles you each draw?

[Jack_Ian]

You need to keep track of total tiles chosen too.
You might be one of those surgical players deftly placing 2 tiles to maximum effect while she keeps going for the big words.
If she pulls out twice as many as you then she'll get twice as many blanks.
Also, she might swap tiles more often.

Incidentally, I'd recommend WordsByPost on the iPhone. I even paid for WWF to remove ads, but I never play it now. WordsByPost has a much cleaner interface. Though the chat interface needs some improvement.

If anyone's interested, my username there is jackeen.

[Pablo]

I would guess that I pull more tiles than she does. I consistently make longer words and I don't hesitate to trade.

I'm 100% confident that the distribution of tiles is not behind the anomaly.
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Zag]

She's just luckier than you. Actually, I should say that you are equally as lucky -- you spent your luck in your acquisition of a mate, whereas she got a refund from that and has lots more to spend elsewhere.

[MatthewV]

I starting playing allowing the Q to a Q/Qu tile. Still 10 points if you use the invisible U. It makes the Q much much better because it removes the "Gah! I have the Q and no U to play it" from the game. But it really doesn't make the Q an unfair advantage.
But QI isn't on my list of allowed 2-letter words (kept visible for all players).

So if you are playing against Gomez or Deception, line up all the tiles. Each player starts at one end. You could also put a marker at the 50th tile mark to see who drew more tiles

[LordKinbote]

[Thok]

[joke]She's subconsciously trying to tell you she's cheating on you in real life by cheating at scrabble?[/joke]

[Pablo]

Maybe you guys are subconsciously trying to tell me that you're clueless to explain the phenomenon of the Scrabble blanks?

How about THAT?
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Deception]

[MatthewV]

I thought blanks were to make playing all seven letters much easier.

I think that Deception is trying to tell us that he might be sleeping with your wife.

[Zag]

[MatthewV]

People would play better if the S was worth -5 and the black was -10

[Jack_Ian]

Racist!

[LordKinbote]

[Jack_Ian]

I'm always happy to get Q, X, Z or J. I find them easier to get rid of than a C.
But then I would accept ZA, XI, XU, QI, SUQ, QAT & JO.
As for blanks, I would generally hold on to them until I'm stuck or I need it to reach a good bonus square or of course to help get a bingo.

[MatthewV]

http://www.donaldsauter.com/national-scrabble-championship-2009.htm

There is a great disparity between a player who plays frequently and has memorized the "stupid" words. The QZJX almost are always used to score lots of points in very uncreative ways. The F and H are also used in this manner. But is playing AX/OX/XI/EX to milk 20-50 points by playing one letter really that fun? Did it really involve any skill?

So the first trouble is players really must memorize a list of two-letter words. Without them, the number of possible plays reduces dramatically. But why should a casual player have to memorize AR, OE, OM, LI, UT, TI etc are legal? Hence the list.
On top of that, it appears that is purposely bloated just to allow more two-letter combinations.

[Deception]

I don't exclusively use blanks to +1/+2 existing words, but the joke wouldn't have worked otherwise.

Also, serious Scrabble player? I'm good at strategically laying out the board, but my vocabulary isn't strong enough to earn the title of a great Scrabble player. (whoever it was that had 'quizling' in their name-title: thank you) I don't know some of the obscure words which are really good in scrabble, and I don't think I know all of the 2-letter words (which I try to stay away from anyway).

Also I could never play a timed game of Scrabble, it takes me too long to analyze the whole board and calculate all possible moves, weigh pros/cons etc. I am decent at chess, but my Achilles Heel is not analyzing the board quick enough.

I also welcome the big-point letters; but if you get more than 1 in a single hand it can get unfortunate (although once I had Q and Z and laid down quizling on a triple letter in the corner, thanks again).

[Jack_Ian]

I find the fun in controlling the board. Forcing your opponent into placing a vowel beside a TL square, for example.
For me the words are just the tools. The board is the game.
Of course, a perfect tactical game could then be blown out of the water by SQUELCH and 140+ points on a last move (as just happened to me yesterday), but that's the luck of the game.
Once you play enough games online you play to expect those "weird" words.
I rarely place my best scoring word down. I rather look at what the board would look like afterwards and if I've given my opponent a chance to regain control and start forcing me into giving away points.
There are various forms of the board, but they all seem to have one common theme. Playing a word on a bonus square rarely exposes another square for use and playing a word without bonus squares is likely to expose a bonus square for use by your opponent. That means one guy is forced into playing a low-scoring word that is likely to expose another bonus square, getting caught in a vicious death of a thousand cuts until they can turn the tables.

[MatthewV]

Right- you would beat any player who doesn't regularly play. But most of the time I play with people I know and in person. So being able to say aha HOWFF, what I don't know what the hell it is but it is a legal word really wouldn't go over well. Of course, it works best when turning OW into HOW into HOWF and then into HOWFF and maybe even to HOWFFS on the board.
Seriously, HOWF?

[Jack_Ian]

[Jack_Ian]

[referee]

So, if your opponent empties the bag, you have to finish with a bingo? hehe.

Where I go playing Scrabble, in Catalan, we play Q as QU tile (no option, the U is always there). How many valid 2-letter words do you guys have? We have 93. Also we have lots of "big letters", four at eight points, and four more at 10. It's interesting how playing in a different language makes the game (with the same rules!) be so different.

The other day I had a very close game where I drew the L·L in my last rack, and that is a painful thing to happen. Luckily, I had an U too, and I could play NUL·LES (null, void, femenine plural), and won the game. Had I have to eat it, I would have lost.
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Jan 21st, 2008: The pillaging continues.
Mar 4th, 2008: Rest in Peace, Gary Gygax. May your dice always roll a natural 20 wherever you are.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[Zag]

[MatthewV]

Well once they find it being used on the GL it will make it to their dictionary...

[Dread Pirate Westley]

[Deception]

[Jedo the Jedi]

I'm with Jack_Ian: I try to manipulate the board so I get the bonus squares. That's why I will piddle around with two letter words, waiting for them to play near the bonuses.
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Paragon Tally: 19 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Courk]

[MatthewV]

Only without the B, N, or G.
Wookie isn't allowed either.

So is the goal of Scrabble to make the most points possible, or is it to make better words than your opponent? I would favor house rules that allows both to happen.

[Deception]

[MatthewV]

The attempt of the link I posted. Even if you don't modify the dictionary, playing with 8 tiles, giving bonuses for 6,7,8-letters played, and requiring one new word formed to be 3 or more letters will open the board and encourage "real" words.

Consider this: HA/HA Is worth 10. Played with the H on a DLS-- 18. TLS--26
HEALED is worth 9. So unless you can get some bonuses/extra words, it is better just to play two letters.

Oh right, latter was referring to wookie. Whoops, I wish I could read correctly.

[referee]

[Pablo]

Playing words like ex, qi, za and others requires no skill, granted. However, it does take some defensive skill to avoid presenting those opportunities to your opponent. Then there's also the (very fun) dimension of assessing risk and agonizing over whether the points you gain and the letters you use are worth it against the opportunity you give the other person.

Overwhelmingly, the blanks are to make bingoes. However, game circumstances my dictate other uses. For example, often later in the game there are very few, if any, places to make a bingo, so perhaps a 20-30 point word is worth using one. Earlier in the game, a crappy rack with a blank is usually a good reason to trade. Otherwise, you're looking at 6 points and another crappy rack.
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Thok]

[MatthewV]

I am starting to view Scrabble as a social game.

Take Apples to Apples. The stated objective is to get as many green apples as possible. But the real objective is to have fun, make people laugh etc. Winning Scrabble by making the game really painful to play shouldn't be the objective. Hence a modified set of rules that allow winning through playing a good game.

[Quailman]

You're not married, are you?