SCRABBLE: Sometimes I Sits; Sometimes I Thinks
Sometimes I sits and thinks. And sometimes I just have to exchange some tiles and miss a turn.
Some players make the mistake of falling in love with their tiles. Now, that’s a big mistake. The only time when I am hesitant of playing my tiles is when I almost have a stem/bingo and require a common letter that is still available, according to my tracking. (I have A-E-I-N-Q-S-T; I PLAY OFF OR EXCHANGE the ‘Q’; with a satine rack, I am highly likely to have a bingo on my next turn.)
Some players never want to part with a high scoring tile ( J; K; Q; X; Z ). Those tiles are worth more because they are more difficult to play. It may be okay to hold on to these tiles for a turn, but it is better to play them off than to constipate your rack.
One of the most common questions that I receive from Novice players is about when to trade tiles and what to keep. After stems and common prefixes and suffixes that lead to bingos and high scoring plays, it all comes down to word knowledge. The more we know, the luckier we are. A few weeks ago I had this rack: I-I-O-S-T-T-U; nothing at all pretty about this rack unless there is an open I on the board and you know the word ‘ouistiti’. I first learned that word when I was making 5-Vowel-8 WHIZ CARDS for a friend. I’ve been lucky to have played it twice over the years. Other times when I’ve had it, it wouldn’t play on the board. That’s a real bummer.
If you need some WHIZ CARDS to work on your game, CLICK HERE.