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Category: Strategy
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Imagine it is your start, and you draw the following rack :

 

 

 

G K G L H T S  

 

What should you do ?

 

 

 

You have three alternatives.  Play, Pass or Change.  Which is best ?

 

 

 

PLAY : There are only 2 words you can play ST or SH. Both are wasteful of an S. (In general, a single S on your rack in the first half/two-thirds of the game is best used to score at least 30 points and more likely a bonus word.)  Therefore PLAY is not a good option.

 

 

 

PASS : What are you hoping to achieve by passing ? Your opponent will do one of the following :

 

Play .. and therefore give you a vowel. But if the vowel is placed centrally, you may only score 8-11 points next time (e.g THUG or KITH).

 

Your opponent may change or pass themselves. They know your rack needs something from them, in this case a vowel, so they could and should change to make their rack better. It might be they have a word like QUICK or ZEBRA which is worth playing for over 40 points, but if they can only score 16 points they may as well change and see if they can improve their rack. It follows that a PASS will by you will lead to a ‘defensive’ more from your opponent, so you will gain nothing. Therefore PASSING is not a good option.

 

 

 

CHANGE : The all consonant rack, at any time of the game, generally should suggest CHANGE (Unless you can score over 30 points or play 3-4 consonants). So what to change ?

 

There are a variety of options we shall consider :

 

Keep S and change G K G H L T

 

Keep ST and change G K G L H

 

Keep L S T and change G K G H

 

Keep H S T and change G K G L

 

 

We have decided on these specific keeps,  as there is synergy between the kept tiles. (i.e they make lots of words).

Although 'K' is quite a good scoring tile, it is also a 'hard' tile, there are fewer words that contain it.

Although G is an okay letter, it really needs IN to be ultra useful.

With these facts in mind the GGK are to be changed in every case.

 

 

Probably the best way to illustrate what might happen with these various changes is to sample 20 different pickups. (i.e 20 different changes).

 

Here are the racks if just the S was retained.

 

 

 

S + NOSGME

S + REROVE

S + OEIPOA

S + RRFILL

S + GYVAFE

S + VWEAOS

S + NOLBMX

S + LUAFOA

S + PEFISS

S + ICOYU?

S + ETOIEL

S + FSDZUD

S + PAUIEA

S + NONI?E

S + INTDOF

S + RTTEAP

S + DAYJET

S + MAGECH

S + NCFIIE

S + APATRH

 

 

 

Interestingly 4 of these racks yield bonus words (20%) .. can you work put what they are ? (Answers at end)

 

Despite changing 6 consonants, three racks have one vowels or less (15%).

 

 

 

What if ST was retained ? Again 20 changes were undertaken.

 

ST + ADEPI

ST + VPPOE

ST + AATEE

ST + NHAOI

ST + EHVAY

ST + LCOGI

ST + TZTYR

ST + JAOOL

ST + CBEID

ST + MOTSM

ST + AEUJE

ST + IQITO

ST + NIDOO

ST + VEXRO

ST + EASMD

ST + TRADO

ST + IROTA

ST + NDXAI

ST + ?AVIY

ST + OPYET

 

 

 

3 of these racks yield bonuses (these are a bit harder, so don’t worry if you can’t spot them), and two racks yielded one vowel or less. (10%)

 

 

 

What if STH or STL were retained ? Here we used the same 4 letter changes against both sets of unchanged tiles.

 

 

 

STL   or     STH

      + AECI

 

STL   or     STH

     + HZOM

 

STL   or     STH

     + OUCO

 

STL   or     STH

      + ?PGW

 

STL   or     STH

      + HOII

 

STL   or     STH

     + AECY

 

STL   or     STH

      + WDLE

 

STL   or     STH

     + RNCO

 

STL   or     STH

     + IGIS

 

STL   or     STH

      + SNEA

 

STL   or     STH

      + NELR

 

STL   or     STH

      + HXEU

 

STL   or     STH

      + AOID

 

STL   or     STH

     + CITT

 

STL   or     STH

     + WEAM

 

STL   or     STH

     + EEOG

 

STL   or     STH

     + HNIE

 

STL   or     STH

      + EEIX

 

STL   or     STH

      + IEAI

 

STL   or     STH

      + UBCF

 

 

 

 

4 of the STL racks will yield bonuses, 3 of the SHT racks yield bonuses. (Which can you spot?)

 

But, and here is the big difference between these racks and the other two changes, 7 racks have one vowel or less. Thus there is a 35% chance of have only one vowel (or less) next time. This is a considerable jump from the 10-15% on the other two changes we have analysed.

 

 

We did not consider changing 3 tiles. Such a change, is more likely than the 4 tile change to yield a consonant only rack next time, and should therefore be avoided.

 

  

 

In summary, if G K G H L T S was your opening rack, it is recommended that you change either six tiles (keeping S) or change 5 (keeping ST).  Both have a 15-20% chance of a bonus but more importantly a very high percentage of getting two or more vowels next time.

 

 

 

Please note – the sample size in each case was only 20 racks. Statisticians will argue (correctly)  a larger sample size is required, but hopefully the sample size of 20 is sufficient to prove worthwhile.

 

 

 

Bonuses :

 

S only keep : REVERSO,  ETOILES/ESTOILE, ENJOINS/PENSION/TENSION/VENISON + 16 others, SPATTER/PATTERS/TAPSTER

 

ST keep : ISODONT, DEMASTS, VARSITY/SUAVITY/VASTITY

 

STL keep : LACIEST/ELASTIC + 3 others, ACETYLS/SCYTALE, SEXTILE, LAITIES

 

 

STH keep: TOADISH, ACHIEST/AITCHES, HASTENS/SNATHES/SNEATHS

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Category: Strategy
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Last week, I was told after a particular game…”I had the Q for ages and didn’t know what to do with it”.

 

The Power Tiles of J,Q,X and Z ought to yield high scores because of their high point value.

 

 

But another way is to consider them as, PROBLEM tiles.  There are various problem tiles in Scrabble – a V, two Is… and if the JQXZ were added to this list, then it would be more obvious what to do with them.

 

 

My ‘gut feel’ for the PROBLEM POWER tiles was that I would play the Q off within 1-2 moves. Similarly for the J. The X and Z may stay on the rack a move or two longer.

 

I keep records of racks at the tournaments I play in. I discovered, through sampling 50 games I picked the POWER tiles 101 times (broadly in line with probability).  67% of those times I played the power tile on the VERY NEXT MOVE. 21% of the time I played the power tile on the next subsequent move. So 88% of the power tiles I picked up were played in the first 2 opportunities I had.

 

 

I also analysed 10 games played at the 2016 British Matchplay Scrabble Championships. (Frequently at this tournament, they have a recorder who writes down every rack and move so that the games can be subsequently analysed using a tool called Quackle).  http://www.centrestar.co.uk/tsh/16bmsc/html/annotations.html

 

 

Those 10 games would have yielded 40 POWER tiles.  (Actually 41 as there was one change and the Q appeared twice in a game).

 

In 33 occasions out of 41, the POWER tile was played/changed immediately. That is over 80% of the time.

 

So the top players play off the JQXZ very, very quickly.

 

 

But the top players know more words – they can obviously play the tiles quicker !

 

 

Here are the words that were played in those 10 games.

Most of the words are everyday English, or a 2, 3 or 4 letter word.

Knowledge of these short words will enable the JQXZ to played off quickly!

Don’t forget though to try to get a score when you play them!

 

 

JURA                     QAT                       REZ                         LEX

 

XI                            JEWED                  ZO                          QI

 

ZEA                        FIQUE                   JOWL                     DEXY

 

JAVELINA            CHIZ                       OXEN                    QAT

 

NOX                       QIN                        JAI                          REZ

 

PUTZES                 TAX                        QIN                        JUROR

 

WAX                      JIZ                          change + QI        (JIZ included both J and Z)

 

BISEXUAL            ZEA                        JOE                         QANAT

 

RELAXINS            JIZ                           QI                           (JIZ included both J and Z)

 

 

QAT                       JILT                        HOX                       RIZ

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Category: Strategy
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How many vowels are there in a standard set ? How many consonants ?

 

Have a little think ? Are there 30 vowels ? 40 ? 50 ?

 

There are 42 vowels, and 56 consonants. (and 2 blanks).

 

That is a ratio of 3:4, which is very difficult to work out especially as the letters come out randomly.

 

 

One way to consider the ratio is a 50:50 ratio with a slight emphasis to consonants.

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Although the point value of S is one, and the value of  a blank is nothing, it well worth considering their worth to your rack and in particular their usefulness in generating a large move score.

 

Many top players will rarely use an 'S' for less than 30 points during the first half of the game.

Many top players will rarely use a blank for less than 50 points during the first half of the game.

 

In all likelihood both will form the basis of a bonus word (ie 70+ points).

 

There are exceptions : perhaps you are holding 3 esses, or maybe a rack with no vowels, or there is a high scoring opportunity that needs to be blocked before your opponent uses it. In  general (and probably 80% of the time) the 30/50 values should be considered.

 

 

As the game progresses the point worth will diminish as the board becomes more blocked, and letters are used up. However, the value of 'the last' S or blank is a useful weapon, so may be worth retaining for the end-game.

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Category: Strategy
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This section of the East Berks Scrabble Club is concerned with Strategy.

Mainly hints and tips on becoming a better player, though one of the main ways is TO LEARN MORE WORDS.

Word learning, and vocabulary puzzles, appear in the 'Wordplay' section.

 

This section will cover the 'why' a move is better than others.

'Why' certain word lists are more profitable to learn than others.

'Why' the top players always seem to have a bonus on their racks!

  

If there is a question you'd like answering do send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

and we will do our best to answer!

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