Scrabulous

I'm in six matches already!

I have seven open but nobody's playing right now. :(

i have a bingo but nowhere to play it ;_;

x-post -- Then start a game.

What is a bingo?

I'm too scared to start shit like this on FB or I'll get even less work done than I already am.

I play on Internet Scrabble Club, where you can watch the best players in the world on any given day.

I keep losing to British Scrabble-sharks. ;_;

I'm too scared to start shit like this on FB or I'll get even less work done than I already am.

Haha, yes. But the last couple of days it's definitely been more interesting than ILx.

a bingo is when you play a 7 letter word. super-bingos occur when you add your seven letters to a word already on the board (possibly creating other additional words in the process).

my only 2 so far have both been from my first move.

damn.

I pretty much suck at scrabble.

Two nonintuitive things to remember if you want to be good at scrabble:

1. Scrabble is not a word game, its a probability game.
2. What you leave on your rack any given move is just as important as what you play.

The most used words are crap like qi and za and vowel dumps like anoa and toea and other nonsense that are only English in the most expansive sense. Any good player memorizes these. Having a good English vocabulary is not the same as knowing the words that are useful in scrabble.

On the other hand, knowing how to multiply the value of the tiles on your rack; how to use esses and blanks, and when not to use them; and which letters are not worth holding and which are, are fundamental scrabble skills. This is especially true because games are often won on the basis of who gets more bingos -- there's nothing like that 50 point bonus, so a game that ends with the score 350 - 300 may really be a game where the score was 1-0, one bingo to none.

The way you maximize the chance of pulling a bingo is: dump worthless letters ASAP (v and u are the worst, but don't be holding those z's or k's either), leave easy to use letters on your rack (e, a, n, t, etc.), NEVER use an s unless it's adding eight points to what you can do without it or a blank unless it's adding twenty points to what you can do without it, and keep those racks balanced: you always want four consonents and three vowels, so try to leave 3/2, 2/2 or 2/1.

(After you've mastered all that, it's time to memorize word lists. Or, more sanely, it's time to acknowledge that your rating is going to be 1400 forever (expert is 1700+) because you refuse to memorize word lists.)

sounds like a hoot

wow. I have my work cut out for me.

Bring it on suckas!

Kenny OTM (though I describe Scrabble as a "math" game, since there is other math involved besides probability).

Quite -- and the calculations can be fiendish but fun (sometimes as simple as whether to go for a double letter over a double word score, for instance, depending on the letter). Anyway I'm off to get dinner so all my games are in pause...

I'm off to bed. finish with you when we can Ned.

it's time to acknowledge that your rating is going to be 1400 forever (expert is 1700+) because you refuse to memorize word lists.

my rating is a bit over 2000 and i've never worked to memorize word lists. i have no interest in studying for a game--i learn by playing.

it really is an addictive site for the scrabble-inclined.

I am on this now, but I have not played scrabble in a long time, and I am by no means a scrabble-master

Kenny OTM about it not really being a word game, except his post sounds a bit hostile to people who just, yannow, like to play games. "If you don't study, you can never beat ME!" Oh, hush.

If you study to play games, I'm sorry, you're a loser.

You lose.

don't you mean "winner"?

No.

oh, I get it. Yes. "Winner."

Confession: all of you can kick my ass to hell and back at scrabble.

Kenny, apologize to kenan for seeming hostile in your post.

Kenny, come here. I need you to freshen this drink. Then tidy up a bit, will you? That's a good lad.

I'm fairly good at this. Anyone want fight? (Not now, as I'm going to bed soon, but at some point...)

i want a fight! later, because i'm way too fucking sleepy.

Julia will crush 90% of you.

I Scrabble vicariously through her.

EdO should get on this, he'd trounce everyone.

right, fuck sleep, who wants fight

God, I sound awful! Like I'm putting a fighting dog out there. "Good musculature, aggressive personality, and amazing Scrabble proficiency. I'll put $2000 on her."

She is good, though.

ha. now i can't sleep because i'm too damn nervous about moving in two days. what's your username?

i tend to be in the robot room, hard difficulty level. julesb74.

c'mon, play me while i'm on sleep drugs.

I haven't played online since Rock Hardy and Dom Passantino waxed my clock in a few matches of Literati.

ooo, rock hardy should play. he's good. eazy too.

The amazing thing is that I thought I made it clear that I don't memorize word lists, and therefore I don't win against really good players at Scrabble. I referred to that as "sane". You never know . . .

aw shit, you missed a chance to play my drug-addled self. but now i think i need to pass out, really this time.

xp

yeah, sane is the way to go. you made yourself sound like a word-list-memorizing fanatic though, tbh. i don't so mcuh agree with that attitude--best to pick up on all of it thorugh playing obsessively, fuck studying. though maybe obsession isn't sane either...

ez and rock hardy can kick my ass, but they're fun to play. lots of really good people are a bore, hence my frequent play with robots.

kenny, you were talking so specifically about strategy that i figured you were hardcore. others seemed to as well. i really like internet scrabble club, which you mentioned earlier (there are def more strong players than on scrabulous), but the super-high-rated people are kind of on another planet. i guess ih ave no inclination to work to get better--i just want an enjoyable diversion that might make me feel smart. if you take it soooo seriously is it any fun anymore?

i should really just go to bed. really really.

Finger me on ISC -- handle emergency -- if you really want to know what i think about memorization . . . (and yes I'm on playing right now, as I usually am after the kid goes to sleep and I want to listen to music and wind down)

Someday I'll resurrect my anti-Scrabble rant, which is probably the same as Kenny's. In the meantime I'm playing whoever wants on facebook (once I wake up).

Julia has kicked my ass in person though.

I am absolutely, hopelessly addicted. And that's with people who keep beating me (Starry Sarah managed to completely kick my arse with like a 450pt game this week).

I AM BEATING SARAH (due to two flukey bingos). i fully expect facebook to be taken down should i actually win the game, thus leaving me with no proof...

I am so not playing scrab against any of you, you would all roundly kick my arse :(

No, it's changed now to show you winning. bah :-)

my record in a Scramble round is 188.

sup.

it's back, you guys!

'Results 1 - 3 of 3 for "what the recording industry did when kids were posting music".'

hoping to see this number skyrocket...

i'm up for some SCRAMBLE you guyzzz! HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME

Pleased to see it back, though I'm now wary of it disappearing again, so perhaps every game will have an added desperation to it.

i guess it stops folks mulling over a move for 3 days now (or maybe it encourages it when one is losing)

Oh, hello.

I'll seed a proper scrabble board for anyone who asks.

Why is JIHADIST not a word? That could've been a 135-point play for me.

Totally is a word! Scrabulous would not take my JAIN or KORAN. Religious bias!

Koran and Jain are both proper nouns.

Dom's right. Jihadist, however, is not proper. I did JIHADS for a mere 54 points instead.

HADJIS is also good.

zomg i totally pwn3d Mark H!!!!111

I think I also won from Mark. It felt... weird. Like I was on a parallel planet. ;-)

I totally suck at Scramble. :-( I judt don't understand it AT ALL. :-(((((

It's gone again.

I was in the middle of the best game!

Really annoying, I was winning against a friend who just beat me six times in a row.

Wordscraper is somehow completely ass.

i just tried playing the big grid in scramble for the first time. i like it a lot.

I don't mind Wordscraper. A friend challenged me to a Wordscraper game with a "random" board, and at first I bristled, but I've come to enjoy the shift in strategy that it entails. Of course, it's also a lot harder to make the game competitive when one person happens to play over two quadruple-word squares in one turn.

Fun statistics question: If I know that there are 2 Ns among the 18 tiles that are either still in the bag or on my opponent's rack, what are the odds of me getting at least one N after a play in which I use three tiles? How much would my odds increase were I to instead use five tiles (this would probably be a swap)?

I wish Wordscraper had blanks in the letter options, but it's okay. I'm playing a standard Scrabble board based game and a random one at the moment - the random one will end up with scores in the 700 range, from the looks of it, so many 4Ws with 3Ls right up against them.

There's only one N now. I have no idea where it is. If I get it, I can turn VEX into CONVEX and get 76 points.

DO YOU FEEL LUCKY, PUNK?

http://www.lexulous.com/#

they changed their name

Is anyone else playing the new Lexulous? Same as Scrabulous, though the point values of some letters are different, and you get eight letters in your rack instead of seven.

I made the craziest bingo in my lifetime with 8 letters: ZINGIEST, hitting both triple-word scores, for a total of 265.

I'm playing! :-D

Hit me up, people. Though possibly not for the rest of today, as I have plans that don't involve playing Lexulous.

i'm playing too. add me as your friends, guys.

I repeat: I still loving losing people!

Yeah I'm back on lexo now, anyone wanna fling a game at me go for it, because I GARONTEE you will win ;_;

Is it poor etiquette to play a bingo on your opening turn, before your opponent even knows that you've started a game with them?

No. Your letters may go stone cold later and you'll need those points.

it is, however, poor etiquette to start games UNTIL you get a bingo on yer opening hand.

Games can be cancelled before the first few moves, so if you're playing a stranger it might be wise to hold off.

It's a friend of mine, but I've never played her in Scrabble before, so I don't want her to get discouraged.

So, what's the most popular option on facebook now for scrabble playing?

I've seen a few of my friends playing "Scrabble Worldwide (Excluding U.S. and Canada)" so I'm just giving that a go.

Need some new challengers, so bring it on, people, on any scrabble app you like (might ignore you because I'm scarily addicted to Bejeweled Blit)

Blitz, even

ailsa, i am always looking for new players of Scrabble (US) or Lexulous but i dunno how to find you on teh facebooks.

if you wanna win, find me on lexulous :-)

ian, I don't like US dictionaries on Scrabble and am UK-based anyway so probably bound to the non-US and Canada version, but will give you a game if you can find me. If you are friends with any ILXors and they have an ailsa in their friend list with a grainy black and white photo, that's me.

Ailsa, I've started a game up with you on Scrabble Worldwide on facebook. Come along and beat my arse. Wordily, of course.

Yay, cheers (also cheers to my new friend ian)

yay friendship!

Looks like my game with ailsa is going to be hard fought.

I just started a game with Michael Jones in which we both opened with two bingos each. It's gone a bit downhill since then, but it had the potential to be the best game ever.

wau.