Truth Does Not Blush. . . usually
I’ve been noticing a greater number of phonies being played at club in recent weeks. (Not by me, of course.) Actually, I’ve earned a reputation over time as being a king of ‘the phoney’. It’s not that I go around trying to play ‘illegal words’. It’s just that there are so many strange words in the scrabble dictionary that I am often willing to stretch my knowledge and get tripped up along the way. Most higher rated player catch me every time and challenge me off the board. Others often wrongly respect my years in the game and think that I know something that they don’t know. On those occasions I sneak one by.
Would you challenge?
(A) ‘stanged’
(B) ‘newtons’
(C) ‘godivas’
(D) ‘lamppole’
(E) ‘lamppost
Last Thursday at the Club #350 Club Championship, I was competing in a pivotal game. It was near the end of the game and there was only one place left where a bingo could easily fit. I would have to find a word that began with the letter ‘s’. I had plenty of time on my clock to think and try to find the word. My letters included: ‘a’ ‘e’ ‘i’ ‘r’ ‘s’ ‘u’ ‘blank’. Not the prettiest rack, with all those vowels. The seconds continued to click off my clock as I shuffled the tiles around. Anything less than a bingo and I would lose the game.
A, B, & E are the acceptable words above.
After several minutes of agonizing, there was nothing of which I was certain. I made up a word in my mind, ‘sauCiers’. Since there were no more tiles in the bag, I was out.
IT IS ALWAYS PROPER TO CHALLENGE THE OUT PLAY.
So my opponent challenged the play. The word judge thumbed through the dictionary and I readied myself to pick up my tiles from the board. The word judge said, “Acceptable.” I was more stunned than my opponent. I earned points for my bingo + the tiles on his rack + he lost 10 points because he was overtime and I won the game by 8 points.
I knew that there are many words that end with ‘iers’, so mine was an educated guess.
For a complete list of legal words that end with ‘iers’, CLICK HERE.
Watch for ‘tells’ to identify when people know that they are playing phonies. A blush often reveals their secret. (although in the scenario just reported, my tell would have been deceiving)