Welcome new players! Most people who venture into a Scrabble® club have been playing against friends and family for years. People come to club for various reasons: maybe you're new in town and are looking for friends who share your interests, maybe English is your second (or ninth) language and you want to improve your vocabulary, maybe your Scrabble® game has improved to the point where you are finding it difficult to convince your friends to play with you. Whatever your reason, we're glad you're here. There are a few differences when playing in a club setting. Most club players take the game very seriously (some might say ridiculously seriously). This can be a little intimidating the first time at club. Despite our seriousness, however, we all love this game and want you to feel welcome and comfortable here. We are all learning and trying to improve our game. Quiet please There is not a lot of talking during club or tournament Scrabble® games. Place your tiles, designate the blank as needed, and announce the score. Any extraneous talk is known as "coffeehousing" and is contrary to the rules of tournament Scrabble®. The reason for this is that you could influence the game with superfluous chatter. Wondering aloud "is that how this word is spelled?" may be more likely to draw a challenge, for instance. You may say "hold" or "challenge" after any play, confirm the score (on your own turn), and respond to your opponent's request for score confirmation.After the game is a different story. Feel free to ask questions about words played or strategy. Please be considerate and don't distract people who may still be playing. PLEASE silence cell phones, Blackberrys, pagers, PDA's and other noisemaking electronic devices. If you're waiting for an important call, please put your phone on "vibrate" and step outside to converse. Children Players of all ages and abilities are welcome at club, but be aware that all players are expected
to keep score for themselves, play by the rules, and use a clock (game timer). Also, the official word list
is NOT abridged, so some words that may be "offensive" to you are acceptable for play
(see expurgated word list for words acceptable for club
& tournament play that are not listed in the OSPD4). Please use your own judgment to determine if your child is mature enough for this environment. Persons under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Children who are not playing must be non-intrusive. The Rules We follow the Official Tournament Rules of the National SCRABBLE® Association. These rules are an extension and refinement of the rules that come with the game. We encourage you to download and read the complete rules. The following is an abbreviated version to get you started:Order of Play (from the Official Tournament Rules, Section II.K.) 1. After your opponent's turn ends, record the cumulative score before beginning your play. 2. Position your tiles on the board. You may remove or reposition your tiles as you like to change your play during your turn. 3. Designate the blank, if applicable. 4. Declare the score. 5. Start your opponent's clock, ending your turn. 6. Record the cumulative score to that point in the game. You may NOT pre-record the cumulative score. 7. Draw tiles to replenish your rack. 8. Track tiles, if desired. Using the Clock Game clocks are used to allot 25 minutes of playing time to each player. While this may seem short to new players, it is usually more than enough time. Most players get used to the clock very quickly. Clock starts when first player looks at first tile. Neutralize clock to dispute score, call for director, during challenges, etc. Do not neutralize the clock during a “hold” or to compute your score. Your turn does not end until you hit your clock. Drawing Tiles Hold tile bag above eye level and avert eyes. Show empty palm before putting hand in bag. Draw tiles and place face down on table or directly on rack. If you remove too many tiles from bag you must notify opponent, neutralize clock and resolve (see below). Overdrawing If you have drawn too many tiles, notify your opponent and neutralize the clock. Place your tiles face down on the table. Your opponent chooses 2+ the number of tiles overdrawn and turns them face up, then puts his/her choice of overdrawn tiles back into the bag. It doesn’t matter if you have looked at the tiles or not. If you have mixed drawn tiles with your rack, then opponent chooses from all tiles, otherwise just from newly drawn tiles. Passing You can choose to skip a turn by announcing “Pass!” and hitting your clock (usually only done near end of game). Exchanging Note: You are allowed to exchange only if there are at least 7 tiles left in the bag (count first, to make sure!). 1. Place tiles to be exchanged face down on the table. 2. Announce “Exchange [# tiles]” and hit the clock. 3. Remove new tiles from bag (place tiles face down on the table, or directly onto your rack). 4. Put old tiles back in the bag. Challenge & Hold: You can challenge an opponent’s play (any or all words created) any time after s/he hits the clock and before s/he draws a tile out of the bag. Announce “Challenge!”, neutralize the clock, and use the “Software Self Lookup” computer. You and your opponent should both go to the computer, you type and your opponent presses the "Judge" button. If there is not a computer available, raise your hand and a Word Judge will help you. You can give yourself more time to decide by announcing “Hold!” This prevents your opponent from drawing while you decide whether to challenge the play or let it go (your clock still runs while you are holding). Strongly encouraged for all players. Scoring You must keep track of your score and that of your opponent. Score sheets are provided by the Club but you may use your own if you wish. Director: If you have any questions about rules or procedure during the game, call for a DIRECTOR! Winning If you are the Monarch of the Kitchen Table, you are probably used to winning most of your games. It is not uncommon for experienced kitchen Scrabble® players to lose all their games when they first start attending an organized Scrabble® club. Most of us have been there and can sympathize. The more formal setting, unfamiliar rules, timed games, and stronger level of competition take some getting used to. As you become more comfortable in this setting and start to appreciate the nuances of organized Scrabble® games, you will improve! Improving Your GameImproving your Scrabble game is a gradual process. However, doing so will increase your ability to be competitive against experienced players and ultimately result in your gaining greater satisfaction from the game. Although each player has his or her own methods of absorbing new information, we suggest the following to improve your game. Learn the “Four Foundations” (from Tucson Scrabble Club #545)
We suggest you start out with the following "Four Foundations" for improving your Scrabble game. During your first visit and until you have won at least one game, you may use "The Cheat Sheet".
Learn Some Basic StrategyFirst rule of defense: Avoid playing a vowel next to a colored bonus square. The big points are on the consonants. If a vowel is next to a colored bonus square, it makes it easier for your opponent to play a consonant two ways on a bonus square. Note the odd plays: If your opponent plays an obscure word with which you are unfamiliar (YEUKY, for example), it is in your best interest to know whether it is good or not. Of course, the fastest way to find out is by challenging the word, but depending on the skill level of your opponent this might quickly backfire. At the very least, make note of odd plays and look them up after the game. Don't waste your blanks: As a rule of thumb, don't play the
blank unless you score at least 30 points more than your next best score.
Most Scrabble experts rarely play a blank without making a 7 or 8 letter
bingo play or a "bingo equivalent" of at least 50 points. Don't waste your S's: As a rule of thumb, don't play an S unless you score at least 12 more than your next best play. If you have 2 S's then the value should be placed at about 8 points. Look for 7 letter bonus words, or "Bingos.": Start off by separating common prefixes and suffixes from the rest of the letters in your rack — i.e., -ED, -ING, -IEST, -IER, OUT-, UN-, etc. You'll be amazed at how often you'll be able to find those high scoring words. Watch what you DON'T play: What you leave on your rack is almost as important as what you play. Play off those inflexible tiles quickly in hopes of getting a bingo next turn. It is very hard to bingo when you have a Z and K on your rack at the same time (there are only 30 playable 7-letter words containing both Z and K, in fact). Leaving 2 or 3 of the same tile on your rack invites the tile gods to leave you with 4 or 5 next turn. It also cuts down on the flexibility of your rack. Break up those doublets and triplets. Play more tiles: You CAN influence luck. The more tiles you "turn over," the more chances you'll have at drawing great replacements. Playing just 55 of the 100 tiles yields you a 10% advantage over your opponent in the search for the blanks and powerful S, X, Z, Q, and J tiles. There is a Fishing limit! Play each turn as if it were a riddle
to be solved, looking for the best possible play on your rack. While it sometimes pays to play off 1 or 2 tiles in the hopes of getting what you need to fill in a bingo, don't lose sight of the fact that you should be making points with every play. Many expert players advise that you should never fish. Every turn you waste puts you farther behind. My opinion is that there are times when it makes sense to fish, just as there are times it makes sense to exchange tiles. Board management counts: When you are losing, don't close down bingo lines. You'll never catch up. This is sometimes scary if you are playing against someone you think is a lot better than you are but you have to do it if you want to win. Likewise, when you are winning, don't make bold openings that can let your opponent make that big comeback play. Stems, Fours, Fives, and So OnWhile the "Four Foundations" are of extreme importance, other courses of study include moving past the two and three letter words and into the four-letter and five-letter words. Additionally, being able to identify word stems is of great value. A stem is a group of letters that have the high probability of being a part of a bingo. The most common stems are prefixes such as RE-, PRE-, PRO-, etc., and suffixes such as -ERS, -ING, -IZE, and so on. Beyond that are stems that are entire words to which letters can be added to create other words. For example, one of the best stems to have on one's rack is the 6 letter word SATIRE. There are 69 different seven- letter words that can be formed by adding one letter to SATIRE. Each of those 69 words would give you the 50-point bonus should you be able to place it on the board. Tile TrackingTracking is the act of keeping track of tiles that have been played during the course of a game — usually by crossing them off of a preprinted score sheet. Most competitive Scrabble players Tile Track, and doing so is acceptable for organized Scrabble play. The benefits of tracking include knowing what is (and sometimes what isn't) remaining in the tile bag. Tracking usually pays off more towards the end of the game but can help out at any point in the game. For example, consider that towards the end of a game, you have a Q on your rack. There are only eight letters remaining in the tile bag. Should you exchange tiles and get rid of the Q or hang in there and hope to draw a U or an I or a Blank? By tracking you would know whether all the I's, U's and Blanks had been played. If they had, exchanging tiles might not be such a bad idea. Moreover, towards the end of a game that has been tracked correctly, you will know exactly what is on your opponent's rack. Tile Tracking is an easy concept, but it is not as easy as it looks. Organized Scrabble has a lot of other elements to get used to — playing on a clock, keeping accurate score, the varied rules — and you should only start tile tracking once you are comfortable with organized play. You might want to start off slow by tracking just the power tiles (J, K, Q, X, and Z), four S tiles, and two Blanks. After you are comfortable with that, move up to tracking all tiles. The only rule of thumb in regards to tile tracking is this:
Tile track while your opponent's clock is
running, tracking as many plays as you have time for and noting you
have tracked them by putting some type of notation next to them (a dot,
a check mark, etc.).While your clock is running, you should be using that time to look for
your best possible play. You'll develop your own style of tile tracking, but one of the more common ways of tile tracking is to write down the words played with the tiles that were actually played in capital letters and the previously-played tiles in lower case. For example consider that you play ANODE, your opponent plays through the O with the word DoOMED, you then play a parallel play of AX, and your opponent counters by playing dEFAMES off the D. When you track these tiles, you'll know to cross off only the tiles in upper case (ANODE, DOMED, AX, EFAMES) and not the ones in lower case (the "o" and the "d"). Scrabble TermsLike any other sport, organized Scrabble has its own unique terms that are not common outside the game. Tuscon Scrabble Club defines many of them in a Scrabble Glossary. Learning the lingo will help you achieve a better understanding of the game. Join the NSAAt some point you should consider joining the National Scrabble Association. Joining the NSA won't make you a better player and is not necessary to play in an organized Scrabble club, but the benefits are many. The cost for joining the NSA is $20 per year and includes eight editions of their publication, The SCRABBLE News. Moreover you will receive other information such as word lists and updates about the world of organized Scrabble. Moreover, although you may play in one NSA-sanctioned tournament before joining the NSA, you must be a current NSA member to play in any subsequent NSA-sanctioned tournaments. Click here for more information on joining the NSA. What's NextPlay in TournamentsAfter you are comfortable with the basics of organized Scrabble, the sky is the limit. Once you have become used to organized Scrabble in a club setting, consider playing in tournaments. Tournaments are held all over the country, some over a single day and others over the course of several days. In them, you will be placed in a division with similarly-rated players. Playing in tournaments provides the opportunity for prizes, to be nationally ranked, and (most importantly) fun. We will advertise some tournaments in Arizona on the TucsonScrabble site, and the National Scrabble Association maintains a list of all upcoming tournaments. Learn Other Methods of StudyAs your games start to improve, you will probably work out your own method of absorbing new words. However, several books that outline Scrabble study systems are available as well. Check the links section of the site for a list of them.
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