SCRABBLE: De Ja Vue
Many scrabble games are similar in that many of the same key words appear game after game after game. Four years ago on March 1, 2006, when the OWL2 was published, the newly added two letter words were FE, OI, KI, QI, and ZA. QI and ZA have change the game dramatically. The addition of QI virtually eliminate the dreaded ‘Q stick’ (a player being left with an unplayed Q on their rack at the end of the game).
For the last two years I have been tracking every bingo played in games at Club #350. The results show that certain bingos have been played multiple numbers of times. Those bingo, unsurprisingly, are the high probability bingos, found on the top 10 Stem Lists. For instance, ‘atonies’ has been played 17 times in 2009.
One observation that I’m made, as a frequent player, is that some words seem to cycle. I might learn a word like ‘ngwee’ and play it. It makes a noted impression on my opponent. He/she then keeps an eye on his rack with the intent of playing that same word in some other game. Over the course of a few weeks ‘ngwee’ is played 6 times at 6 different clubs. Words stick in memory better after you play the word (it becomes more familiar to you).
In the early 1990s I lived and played scrabble in south eastern Michigan and south western Ontario, Canada. Even though all the clubs in these areas used the NSA Official Word List, certain words played by Canadians were marked different from those played by the Michiganders. Ay. Who’d-a-thunk-it?
In the world of competitive scrabble, the most successful players, in my opinion, are the ones who are always playing the unfamiliar words. Click Here to see the bingos played at Club #350 in 2010. You can most likely guess which were played by the ‘experts’ (alastor, inutile, paletots, usufruct).
Studying words lists, especially high-probability sets, will help you experience de ja vue when playing scrabble. You’ll be sitting there, drawing your tiles, and recalling the words that you learned with that specific set of letters (or not). It is also valuable to recognize that you do not have a bingo on your rack. Novices have been known to waste 4, 5, 6 minutes or more trying to find the bingo in SATIRE+O (there isn’t any). I can here you screaming, “But Gary, it’s a SATIRE rack”. Yes, the following letter + SATIRE do no have bingos: J; K; O; Q; U; Y and Z.
Every other letter + SATIRE will form 1 or more bingos. Remember that.
To experience de ja vue on a regular basis you need to have and learn the Top 10 Stems. Here is a special offer you can’t pass up. CLICK NOW!