…with Gary Moss

BINGO – Has nothing at all to do with the game of ‘Bingo’. When playing Scrabble, a bingo is the action of playing all 7 (seven) tiles from your rack on a single turn, resulting in earning a 50 (fifty) point bonus score.

DOUBLE/DOUBLE – Is a word played on a single turn that covers two DWS (double word score) squares. The word played, need not use a specific number of tiles from your rack. The word played may incorporate tiles that were already on the board, between the two DWS spaces. The play earns 4 (four) times the face value of the double/double plus any additional words created with hooks. If 7 tiles were used from the players’ rack, a 50 point bonus is rewarded too.

TRIPLE/TRIPLE – Is a word played on a single turn that covers two TWS (triple word score) squares. The word played, need not use a specific number of tiles from your rack. The word played may incorporate tiles that were already on the board, between the two TWS spaces. The play earns 9 (nine) times the face value of the triple/triple plus any additional words created with hooks. If 7 tiles were used from the players’ rack, a 50 point bonus is rewarded too.

HOOK – A hook is a single letter, added to a word that already appears on the board. The most common hook played is usually the ‘S’. New players need to learn that every letter in the alphabet can be used as a hook with certain words. (The word ‘onetime’ is on the board. Does it take any hook? No, the word ‘onetimes’ is not a legal word. But, ‘zonetime’ is a legal word.) Some people refer to all additions as ‘hooks’. That is not precise. The addition of ‘re’ to ‘place’ forming ‘replace’ is not an example of hooking.

EXTENSIONS – Adding ‘re’ or ‘ing’ or ‘ed’ or ‘non’ is the act of adding an extension. Extensions are very valuable when used thoughtfully. When you think about extensions, they will influence where you place words on the board. (One player opens the game with the word ‘THINK’ and plays it horizontally with the ‘K’ on the center square, for 26 points. Another player puts it horizontally with the ‘T’ over the center star and the ‘K’ on a DLS (double-letter-score), earning 34 points. In the second scenario, the opponent adds the extension ‘ing’, making the word ‘THINKING’ and extending it to the TWS (triple-word-score), earning 48 points. Ooops!

All of these topics and MORE are taught in my online class, SCRABBLE 101 and featured in my full length DVD, SCRABBALUTION.

Become an even better player, starting today.