Did you know pro Scrabble players scout their competition and use that information to win more games? Get to know the different types of Scrabble players and see if you recognize yourself or your opponents! 

The Defensive Mastermind Scrabble Player

You’re a Scrabble player who loves controlling the board and making your opponent play your game. 

Placing Cs and Vs in just the proper position to shut down scoring lanes. 

You know which words take an S on the end and which ones don’t. 

When you’re ahead late in the game, your opponent feels the squeeze as all the best spots are gone.  

Your strategy works best when:

You are nursing a lead and staying one step ahead of your opponent. 

Your strategy struggles when:

Your opponent gets off to a quick start, and you need to catch up. You’ll need to ‘open the board,’ creating new places to score, and hope for the best!

The Bingo Barbarian Scrabble Player

You are the type of Scrabble player who believes scoring hasn’t started until someone lays down a bingo. 

Your life goal is clearing your rack and setting the table for bingo number two. 

You know which tiles combine the best to make long words (and are always on the lookout for prefixes and suffixes like RE-, DIS-, MIS-, and -ING, -ED, -ERS). 

Your strategy works best when:

The board is open with lanes for your seven letter beauties or letters to play through for your eight-letter.  

Your strategy struggles when:

When you don’t get tile synergy (one turn, it’s all vowels, the next turn it’s all consonants), and the bingos just aren’t there. 

Make sure not to settle for too many low-scoring plays while you wait for that next bingo to arrive!  

The Speed Runner Scrabble Player

You see words quickly and play them just as fast, which helps you control the game’s pace. 

Playing by your killer instinct and ‘feel’ it when a play is just right. 

You hit the board hard, scoring points fast, which can intimidate your opponent. 

You can’t get enough games, and always find time for one more. 

Your strategy works best when:

You’re getting a good mix of vowels and high-scoring consonants, and your opponent doesn’t take forever to make their move. 

Your strategy struggles when:

Playing fast makes you miss plays, especially bingos. If you’re trailing in points, don’t take the first play you see – give the board a second look and see if there’s a better play!

The Hotspot Hotshot Scrabble Player

You’re a Scrabble player who loves setting up and cashing in big scores with the J, Q, X, and Z. 

What others do with a bingo; you can do with a Z and a triple letter score. 

You jealously guard your multipoint tiles and slowly, methodically, lay them on the board turn after turn for devastating scores. 

Your favorite wins are in games where opponents play more bingos than you do.  

Your strategy works best when:

You get the big tiles. You don’t need all of them, as long as you get the K and a few H’s, F’s, and Y’s. 

Your strategy struggles when:

Opponents play the same strategy, taking premium squares before you do, causing you to play off low point tiles in the hope of pulling an X or a Z out of the bag. 

Do this too often, and you’ll fall behind – try to maximize points even when you don’t have the tiles you want.   

The Word Nerd Scrabble Player

You love words, and your word-a-day desk calendar proves it. The more obscure the word, the more you love it. 

You’ll sacrifice some points to hear your opponent gasp when you play a word they’ve never seen before. 

Your favorite part of the match is the post-game analysis, where you and your opponent complement each other on playing some awesome words!

Your strategy works best when:

You are playing games with a challenge penalty. 

You’ll toss the opposition’s words off the board and hope to get a free turn by stumping challengers and drawing a challenge on a word you know is perfectly good. 

Your strategy struggles when:

Playing on a closed board, limiting your options to show off an impressive vocabulary, or in games where you draw tons of duplicate letters or all the I’s. 

Consider exchanging tiles rather than trying to slog through difficult rack after difficult rack. 

Did you recognize yourself or your opponents?

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