1. Be on the lookout for prefixes and suffixes.
Simply moving tiles around, even a few times, can be useful to anyone, including the best Scrabble players. Set RE or UN at the top of your rack. Move ING or ED to the bottom. It might not seem as much, but keeping track of 5 tiles takes up less mental real estate than keeping track of 7. Not to mention that this is the best way to find most bingos.
2. Make bingos a priority.
Would you pass up 50pts? No? That would be crazy?
Well, that’s exactly what you get when you play a bingo (i.e., playing all of your tiles at once). As you advance in skill level and face more elite players, your games will often come down to who has the most bingos. So what tiles are best suited for getting them? The list is as follows… The blank tile. The E tile. The S tile. As far as you’re concerned, these three tiles are your holy trinity. It’s when you’re utilizing your tiles for a bingo that the mathematical element comes into play–mainly because you have to make sure to think one step ahead. When you make a play, you have to both be aware of what you’re playing and whether it’s the best move, in ADDITION TO how many tiles you have left behind.
3. Go on the offense.
Remember that amazing opening you saw? One that would have been perfect for a triple word score? Chances are you remembered what happened next–how you couldn’t think of a word that fits. It’s impossible not to get territorial when this happens. Meaning, if you can’t take advantage of the opening, then no one will. This often inspires a poorly thought-out, hasty move made for the sole purpose of blocking your opponent from playing the opening. All this does is hurt you more than them. When all you’re doing is playing goalie–defensively–then the entirety of your strategy is reactionary. This mindset keeps you from thinking ahead and playing your adversary into a corner instead of inadvertently backing yourself into one. In short, keep an eye out for the best openings for what you have on the board. You doing what’s best for you is, by definition, the worst thing that can happen to your opponent.
4. Know your 2-letter words.
This is by far the most important tip that any elite Scrabble player will ever give you: knowing your twos can increase your average score by 50 points while giving you an edge over other players who don’t. Having these weapons in your arsenal makes it possible to make parallel plays–where one word runs alongside another to form other words. This is the quickest way to make decisive, devastating wins.
Here’s a list of the Accepted 127 Two-Letter Scrabble Words, twenty of which are unique to the UK English dictionary.
