Here's the scenario. Your opponent has just opened the game with ZONES, scoring 48 points with the Z on the DLS. Ouch, you might say. You look at your rack and it doesn't look too promising: ABCLUSV.
But then something brings you back to your favorite Italian eatery and you lay down the CAL on the TWS to form CALZONES for 57.
Thanks to Allan White's page, AKA the Scrabble Raider, for this neat, short list of Z words, 5s to make 8s.
So using the list and returning to the opening scenario, you might see that you have another option.
SUBZONES for 57.
Once I figure out an easy way to get Lexpert to generate a list like this, I might post some more lists of 5s to make 8s.
Here are some interesting things I've noticed while going over all the 3 letter words.
1) BaFFled by a rack with two Fs? We all know the word OFF. But did you know that AFF, EFF, and IFF are also good? That means all the vowels except U take the FF. If one of the Fs land on a TLS, then that's at least a 16 points for dumping your two Fs. Even better though is hooking the F on either an EF, IF, and, of course, OF.
2) When learning the A 3 letter words, one runs into the symetrically interesting words, AVA and AWA. During this year's televised Scrabble championship after Trey Wright put down AWA on a TWS, the commentator, Stefan Fatsis, noted that AWA was a very important word in Scrabble. I'll take his word for it.
Not only are AVA and AWA are good but if you flip-flop the letters, you get two more good three letter words: VAV and WAW. Those are especially good for dumping bad letters off your rack.
3) I've already mentioned a memory device that I use to remember the front hooks for AE: MIKE WAUGH STINKS (all the consonants go in front of AE to form valid words). Furthermore, I learned from Everything Scrabble that all of these words that start with single point letters (SAE, TAE, and NAE) do not take an S at the end, while all of the others do (MAES, KAES, WAES, GAES, and HAES).
An opponent played this wonderful bird bingo against me just a few moments ago.
And then, to prove that FINCHES often travel in groups, I later added my own FINCH to the board, which was actually a good play according to the computer. At this point, the board kind of looks like a bush full of finches.
An interesting sidenote: we played this game to a 336-336 tie. It was my first tie on the ISC.
I figured that my opponent probably missed up a bingo opportunity when ALIENS was played, because I know its a common bingo stem. Sure enough, the opponent had a E along with ALIENS, which does not form a 7 letter bingo. But it from this position, there were 2 bingoes available. The computer says G4 ALIENEES could have been played, as well as 7H DELAINES.
As the eldest of two brothers, I think it is incumbent upon me to point out the flaws in everything my younger brother does. Thus, I present an extensive analysis of an ISC game we played last weekend, in which I kicked his bah-hoot-tay all over his sorry excuse for a swing state.
Brother vs. Brother: Game I
Blue tiles=Mike Waugh the Elder aka fuzzgig
Red tiles=Robert Waugh the Younger aka superflea (a self-professed Scrabble dabbler)
1) Mike: ADEORS?
8B ROADEoS 66 points
I drew some lucky tiles. (I hear that one out of every ten opening racks should be a bingo). ROADEOS was the first thing I saw. Some other words, like FEDORAS, SARODES, TORSADE, and ADORERS would have scored 2 more points by getting the D on a DLS. But who cares, ROADEO is a funny word.
Robert: DGIIQYZ
H5 DIGS 6 points
Not a very good looking rack. One should be looking to get rid of either the Q or the Z, since they don't go together to well. Perhaps, Robert was fishing for a QUETZAL. I would have played QAID at D7 for only 14 points, but at least the Q is off the rack, and the Z would be ready for something good next turn. Probably better are the computer suggestions: C7 DOZY (29) scores the most points while C5 ZYGOID (23) uses the most letters. ZYGOID is probably best, since then there's a better chance of drawing the U. But who's heard of ZYGOID? E5 GIDDY (22) is the best common word play.
2) Mike: BEIJRTY
E4 JIBED 30 points
Before DIGS blocked it, I was hoping for 7G JIBER (43). Best would have been B6 JERRY (39) which scores more and has a better leave (BIT).
Robert: AIOQTYZ
B5 TZAR 33 points
Not bad. More points is 5H DITZY (36) but the computer likes 5H DOZY (34) better because of the AIQT left on the rack. It's a toss up, since DITZY will draw an extra tile, and we're still looking for a U.
3)Mike: BEIRTTY
5H DERBY 22 points
The computer doesn't like this one at all, probably because of the bad leave (ITT). F5 TYRE (34) scores the most, but I never heard of that one. A1 TRIBE (32) is a possibility as well as D7 BATTERY (28).
By this point, it's 118 to 39.
Robert: INOQSVY
I3 VIE 10 points
Another bad rack, but there is a host of options. F3 NOSY (43) leaves both the Q and V, but the points might make up for it. F5 SYNE (34) has a similar idea. It's always a good idea to survey the TLS squares to see if something like a Y can hook on them. F8 ENVOY (19) and F8 ENVY (18) aren't bad. J2 IVORY (21) gives 4 chancs for a U. Hell, even L3 IVY scores 18 points.
4) Mike: AIRSTTV
A1 VISTA 29 points
A1 VITTA (29) is better because it saves the S, but again, I hadn't come across that word before. Thanks to VASTIER (SATIRE+V), I know about VASTY, which I could have played on L1 for 30 points. But VISTA and VITTA are better defensively.
Robert: INOQSWY
C7 WON 20 points
There's no where to play the Q once again. There's still F3 NOSY (41) and F5 SYNE (34). 7A WAY or YAW (22) play off both the W and Y while saving the vowels. Some nice parallel plays are F5 SINEWY (32) and 7A SAWNEY (32) which play off a lot of letters.
5) Mike: EEFGNRT
L3 FEY 18 points
I'm so close to a bingo, I can smell it. I play off the funky letter and the duplicate and pray for at least one more vowel. But there were some better plays: L1 FERNY (30), F5 FETE or FERE (22), and 10A EFT (21).
Robert: HIOQSY?
F3 HO 14 points
All those years of listening to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are paying off for Robert. HO is actually one of his better plays. He finally gets a blank, but it would be pointless to play it in this position. 3A SHY (18) scores the most, but uses the S. 3L FOH or FOY both score 18.
The score is now 165 to 83.
Look at the rack (AEEGNRT) and the board and try to guess the best play.
6) Mike: AEEGNRT
F7 TEENAGER 65 points
I'm suprised to learn that this is the only bingo. I was hoping for an A to get to play the bird word: 10C TANAGER.
Robert: DIQSSY?
15F SQuID 52 points
Finally, the Q comes off the rack after 6 rounds. A nice play. 15A SQuIDS scores 58 points, but at the cost of the other S.
7) Mike: ACFOTUW
M2 FAT 24 points
Not among the best plays. Any variation where the W hooks HO at F2 would have been better. Among those, 2D COW (33) may be best.
Robert: EHNOSTY
10C THEN 14 points
I don't know if Robert puts his tiles in alphagram order, but in this case, the bingo is pretty hard to miss when you do. 14I HONESTY (90) or N4 HONESTY (79) are honestly the best plays. HONEY, HONEYS, or THEY can be played in various places to score 30+ points.
8) Mike CLOORUW
G2 COW 28 points
How ridiculous that I played the right word, just a few spaces away from the wrong spot. 2D COW scores 33. 2C CROW (34) has a worse leave (LOU vs. LOUR for COW) but draws another tile.
Robert: ENKOSUY
1G SKY 39 points
Not bad. I didn't know the S hook for COW (SCOW). Actually, in this pile of crappy letters is a bingo. K9 UNYOKES scores a whopping 93 points. Like when Robert played SQUID, he was "unyoked" from the Q. Outside of the bingo 1D YOUSE (45) scores the most, along with 1E ENSKY (45).
I hope to do more analysis on this game, but now i'm realizing how much time it takes. I've spent almost 4 hours on it so far, and its only on the 8th round.
The Baton Rouge Scrabble tournament is less than a month away. My study goal is to have the following word lists 90% learned.
1) All the 3s.
2) 4 and 5 letter vowel dumps.
3) 4 and 5 letter JQXZ words.
3) The 350 most probable 7 letter singletons (a singleton is a word with only one anagram).
4) 14 "useful" 6 to make 7 letter stems.
5) 10 useful 7 to make 8 stems.
I've been working on the singletons lately, and I've already had a couple pop up in play. I think they are slightly more useful to know than the stems because usually the words are obscure, whereas with the common stems at least one of the words is common enough to figure it out on your rack.
It feels pretty good to play ANEROID, ALEURON, or URINOSE, because I know that there was no way I would have played them before I learned them, and they make a big 50 point difference. Although I recognize the benefits of knowing the 9 anagrams of AEINSTR, I know that I would have figured out at least one of them on my rack, if not more. I mean, how many times will I play ANESTRI in lieu of RETAINS? (Actually, once so far).
I'm just saying that when it comes to probabilities, it's more useful to know 9 singletons than 9 anagrams.
My goal at the tournament is to play well enough to move out of the bottom division. For this to happen, I would have to place at least in the top three.