I'm a nationally-ranked Scrabble player, and these are the 7 biggest mistakes I see inexperienced players make

mark abadi scrabble

I'm a nationally ranked Scrabble player who's played in tournaments across the United States.
Inexperienced Scrabble players tend to make the same basic mistakes, and eliminating them from your game will take your skills to the next level.
The mistakes include playing too fast, holding on to the Q, and wasting the best two tiles in the game.

Scrabble is an easy game to learn, but an extremely difficult game to master.

Take it from me — I've been playing in Scrabble tournaments since I was 16 years old, and I've competed in the past two North American Scrabble Championships. My official ranking puts me among the top players in New York City.

If you're looking to improve your skills, a good place to start is working on your strategy. I see inexperienced players make the same basic mistakes all the time, so if you can eliminate them from your game, you'll stand a great chance at your next game night.

Here are the 7 biggest mistakes inexperienced Scrabble players make, and what you should do instead.

1. They play the first word they see

One huge mistake inexperienced Scrabble players make is playing too quickly.

You should never settle for playing the first word you see, no matter how many points it scores. Instead, take a moment to scramble your tiles to see what other words you can make. Look to see if you can form any common prefixes or suffixes with your letters, which can be used to make longer and higher-scoring words.

And importantly, always survey the board to see if there are any hotspots you can use to your advantage. It might take a little extra time and brainpower, but it could lead to much higher scores than if you play impulsively.

2. They think the best play is the one that scores the most points

There's a big difference between a good play and a high-scoring play.

In many cases, a play may score a ton of points, but has hidden drawbacks — for example, it could leave you with nothing but consonants or nothing but vowels, which will hamper your ability to score on your next turn.

Alternatively, your high-scoring play could open up an even more high-scoring spot on the board for your opponent to use, like if you play a word right next to a triple-word score. What's the point of scoring 35 points if it allows your opponent to easily score 40?

When you're deciding multiple words to play, consider not only how much they score, but how they affect both your ability to score on future turns and your opponent's ability to score right back. Defense is just as important as offense in Scrabble, and the best move isn't always the highest-scoring one. It's simply the one that gives you the best chance of winning.

3. They waste the two best tiles in the game

The two best tiles in Scrabble are the S and the blank.

The S is valuable because you can tack it on to the end of most nouns and verbs. That can turn your six-letter word into a seven-letter word, earning you a 50-point "bingo" bonus. The S also allows you to hook your high-scoring word onto an existing word on the board, like in the example above.

The blank, meanwhile, can be used as any letter you want.

There are only four S's and two blanks in the game, and because they are so rare, they should only be reserved for especially high-scoring plays. One rule of thumb holds that you shouldn't use your S unless it scores at least eight more points than your next highest-scoring play, and you shouldn't use the blank unless it scores at least 25 points more than your next highest-scoring play.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

from Strategy https://read.bi/2HNZT9R
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