SCRABBLE: and HOLDING
What is the first thing you should do when your opponent plays a word that looks suspicious to you?
What remedy do you have when your opponent plays so quickly that you feel that you don’t have enough time to focus on their play before they have replenished the tiles on their rack?
Say, “HOLD”.
Don’t hesitate and think about it! Shout HOLD!
When a players says HOLD, their opponent is being told to ‘FREEZE’ or ‘PAUSE’; do not proceed, do not pass go, do not collect $200. The clock of the person issuing the ‘HOLD’ is running during the entire holding period. The holding period giver the person time to consider challenging, without a commitment to challenge the play. Some people who say HOLD take a long time to make their ultimate decision. If the ‘holder’ takes more than a minute to make a decision, the other player (after a minute) may draw tiles but MUST KEEP THEM SEPARATED ON THE RACK, just incase there is a challenge and they need to be returned to the tile bag.
Once a player completes their turn, records their score, and draws even a single tile out of the tile bag, it is too late to say HOLD or CHALLENGE.
Some players have been accused of ‘FAST BAGGING’. That is when a player purposefully plays fast to confuse their opponent or slip a phoney onto the board.
If you simply say HOLD quickly. you can put a stop to these tactics.
In the OFFICIAL RULES, Page. 12 (Ending The Game), Section III, B it states:
When making a play to go out, you must neutralize the clock, NOT start your opponent’s clock.. . . . . . . . . Once you neutralize the clock, your opponent has five seconds to voice “hold” or “challenge.” If he/she does not, the game ends.
Always say HOLD quickly. Unfortunately, the director is usually not there watching your game. Whether or not five seconds has elapsed is an argumentative issue between the two players. Always say HOLD quickly, to protect your interests.
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