Scrabble, Still the Best Game

There are two types of Scrabble players out there: game night family fun Scrabble players, and tournament players. Think you're smart? Obsessive compulsive? Anal retentive? Like words? Well, you might be ready for tournament Scrabble, but let's differentiate between the two types.

FAMILY SCRABBLE PLAYERS: If you can say true to all these questions, you are a family Scrabble player and have quite a bit of work to do:

1. I have never memorized the spelling of any the two letter or three letter words without thought of their definitions, and I have no desire to.

2. I like to take my time on my turns. Most games I play last one hour to two hours.

3. I believe Scrabble is all about what tiles you get. It's a game of luck.

4. Scrabble is a social game; I like to carry on a friendly conversation while I'm thinking about my turn.

5. I have never read the rules inside of the box.

6. I prefer to play with a group (more than two players).

There is nothing wrong with being a family Scrabble player. It doesn't mean you're stupid. Or lazy. But don't expect to be able to consistently beat a tournament player unless it is a beginner/unrated player. If you were willing to put in a little time toward memorizing the list of two letter and three letter words, you could hold up your head at the Scrabble clubs around the metroplex. You can also improve your game by playing on the computer with a Scrabble CD.

But it doesn't take much to improve to the point that your family will not play with you anymore. Your friends will probably think you are cheating. I started my own little Scrabble club (a singles group) in Lewisville, and it was a total flop. Real junkies are not focused on anything but the game. The people who showed up to meet some pretty person over a quick Scrabble game got nowhere (who wants to date someone who doesn't know proper nouns are ineligible?? Good grief! All they wanted to do was flirt!) Believe me, when little miss Smarty Smarty challenges your every word or demands you "Hit the clock!" you don't come back.

TOURNAMENT SCRABBLE:

Tournament Scrabble bares little resemblance to what you play with your siblings at Christmas. The clubs and tournaments I went to had people of all ages and one obsession. Here's the rules the differences:

1. Club or tournament scrabble is played with a chess clock. Each player gets 25 minutes to make all his/her plays, so each game lasts approximately 50 minutes. This dramatically changes the nature of the game. I had a running buddy in my heyday and to make things even more interesting we would reduce our time to 15 minutes each. Once you have finished your turn you hit the clock and the time starts for your opponent. If you want to stop for a challenge (looking up a word) you can stop both timers. Once you go chess clock, you never go back.

2. I was single and looking in my heyday, and I thought Scrabble clubs and tournaments would offer some rather smart men who liked to play a bit of Scrabble. And I can work with the socially handicapped, the never-been-involved, and the mildly obese. But I certainly didn't expect to be completely ignored by these types. And I don't think it was my inability to memorize the complete list of three and four letter words they found so revolting. I just don't think they saw that I was in the room at all, their focus was so entirely on the board. As I used to say, "These men look datable, but they're not." If I tried to strike up a conversation with a true junkie, it was as though I were talking to a wall. And I almost never won at the club level. I just couldn't fit the four or five hours a week of club play into my schedule.

3. Scrabble tournaments are cut throat like any other tournament. I've seen nasty little tricks to trip up an opponent. The worst was conducting business on the cell phone while playing in a tournament. Some people get downright hostile over the other person's plays or challenges. There is etiquette to be followed and going to clubs will give you some experience with that. One thing that are perfectly acceptable is playing a "phony" and hoping that the opponent doesn't challenge it. You can even make up a definition and try to sell him on it. If he falls for it and doesn't challenge on it, oh well. You don't get points for your correct words, you get points for what you get away with. And if you can talk someone into challenging a correct word, they lose their next turn! So you might act like you're throwing out a wild ass guess to get them to challenge (knowing it's in the bag.)

4. I memorized same as I memorize everything: flash cards. I carried them around to the doctor's office, stuck them up on my cubicle wall, and flipped through them every chance I got. I learned how to construct words by starting with the prefix or suffix and then trying to build a root over what was left.

5. To practice, I played by myself. This is what you see me doing in the picture (with a respectable score of 243 on my second game!) If you're convined at this point that I'm a hopeless nerd (it's possible) just remember, you do crosswords by yourself. You read books by yourself. There's nothing about Scrabble that screams social activity. Things might have changed dramatically since I last played online, but when I was playing there was no chess clock and people sat there with a dictionary looking up the words they were going to play (how would you know??) It would literally take all day to play a game. I'm sure things are improved time-wise, but there's nothing that prevents them from looking up words (which is a no no when you're playing for real.) The drawback of a CD is that the computer has instant answers for its own turn and, oh yeah, it almost never loses. This will get you better fast, but it will not give you any club-like Scrabble experience with a chess clock in order to get used to it. Therefore, play by yourself for practice when you can't get to a club. Clocks are cheap. About $30.

This afternoon I played for two hours and had a ball. By the second game, I was scoring well and readdicted. If you want to play a game with me, I will happily bring my board and clock and even my list of two and three letter words which you can use!

QUICK UPDATE ON WATERCOLOR: I entered a contest at the Dallas Public Library, Oaklawn Branch. I came in second with the Ship at Sea which you can find on the watercolor post.