Scrabble
From WIN-ipedia - information and strategies about winning
Scrabble is a popular word game and board game in which 2-4 players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a 15×15 game board. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion, and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works (e.g. The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary, now in its 4th edition) that provide a list of permissible words, some of which are rarely found in standard English writing, are also available.
The name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the US and Canada and of J. W. Spear & Sons PLC elsewhere. Apparently Mel Gibson, Sting, Joan Collins and the Queen are all keen players. It would be an interesting death-match to get them all together!
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How not to lose
Two Letters Words
Top players all agree that one of the keys to good gameplay is learning all those unusual two-letter words - like "aa" (a kind of lava), "ye" (a...) and "xu" (a monetary unit in Vietnam).
Learn as many words as you can that use the high scoring letters (J, Q, X and Z)
A good way to remember them is in pairs:
JEUX () JINX ()
OJIME (a carved bead used as a clasp) and OXIME (chemical compound)
TOAZE (alternative for tease) and TOUZE (to haul)
JEMMY () JIMMY ()
QUAKY () QUAFF ()
No Vowels
If you have a lot of consonants, there are many legal words without vowels, here are just a few:
RHYTHMS TSKTSKS CRWTHS CRYPTS MYRRH RYNDS XYLYL WYNS TSK WHY WRY WYN
Keep track of which of the most useful letters (J, Q, X, Z, S and blank) have already been played. This should help you make decisions about which tiles to play and which to keep. With good tile-tracking, it is also possible (towards the end of the game) to work out the probable tiles your opponent has on their rack and to take this into account when making your play.
An other effective strategy is to look out for seven-letter words that net you that all important 50-point bonus. Find common prefixes and suffixes, like -ING or -TION from among your seven letters, then jiggle the remaining tiles to see if there is a useful combination.
External Sites
http://www.mattelscrabble.com/en/adults/index.html Mattelscrabble.com http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/scrabblelists.htm Scrabble Wordlists
