Alright, so your mother-in-law, a PhD in English Literature, has challenged you, a lowly salesclerk at the local bookstore, to a “friendly” game of Scrabble. Sound like a hopeless case? Certainly not! More than just a rivalry of vocabularies, Scrabble is a game of strategy. Equipped with the right tricks, even a child could give your mother-in-law a run for her money!

This article will give you five proven tips guaranteed to transform your Scrabble game. Whether you are a novice to the game, or looking to increase your skill in order to compete in clubs or tournaments, a little practice with these techniques will bring instant results!

Tip #1: Two-by-Twos

Experienced Scrabble players agree that the first key to success is memorizing the list of acceptable two-letter word combinations. This sounds harder than it really is. There are only 96 two letter words, and you undoubtedly know 23 of them. (Some lists include 120 two-letter words, depending on which dictionary you refer to. The 1998 Chambers Dictionary, as well as the Chambers Official Scrabble Words qualifies 120 words, while the Merriam Webster Official Scrabble Players Dictionary includes only 96. A good word of thumb would be to decide at the outset of a game which dictionary you will be using. I’d focus on the list of 96 words, as they are universally accepted in almost all dictionaries.)

Why is this word list so valuable, considering you only use two tiles? Knowing the two letter words helps you to build parallel words, enabling you to count your letters twice for each word you form. This dramatically increases your score! This skill is absolutely essential when the board is “closed,” (meaning that there are no wide open spaces to build new words in), as well as at the end of the game, when you must empty out your rack.

Memorizing this list only takes minutes if you associate each letter with the number of words it forms, (for example, there are 16 “A” words, 5 “B” words, etc.). Going through the lists and becoming familiar with the lesser known words is usually all it takes to commit the list to memory. It’s nice to know there are a few words that don’t require vowels!

The 96 words are: aa, ab, ad, ae, ag, ah, ai, al, am, an, ar, as, at, aw, ax, ay, ba, be, bi, bo, by, de, do, ed, ef, eh, el, em, en, er, es, et, ex, fa, go, ha, he hi, ho, id, if, in, is, it, jo, ka, la, li, lo, ma, me, mi, mm, mo, mu, my, na, ne, no, nu, od, oe, of, oh, om, on, op, or, os, ow, ox, oy, pa, pe, pi, re, sh, si, so, ta, ti, to, uh, um, un, up, us, ut, we, wo, xi, xu, ya, ye, yo.

Tip #2: “Racking” up Points by Anagramming

The difference between an average and an advanced Scrabble player has to do with the number of options a player can find in a given rack. Don’t just find one word and give upkeep moving those tiles around. There may very well be a better option than the one you find initially. Even if you end up using the same tiles, one word may score a higher value than another based on the location of the bonus squares. In addition, you may opt for one word over another because it is harder for your opponent to build on. For instance, if you have a hunch that your opponent has an S you should avoid laying down a noun, as this would allow him/her to “hook” on, scoring points for both words!

Tip #3: Keep it Hot

This hint may seem obvious at first, although there’s a bit more to it than first meets the eye. As you formulate your options on the board, focus on the “hot spots,” or the squares which award you double and triple the value of your tile and/or word. Use these squares to even better advantage by building parallel words, allowing you to use the bonus square two times (once for the horizontal word, and again for the vertical.) This is where that list of two-letter words comes in handy, particularly the words that contain high-scoring letters like J, Q, X, and Z. For example, the word “ex” used in a parallel position where the X lands on a triple would score at least 26 points.

The other side of this equation is that you must be careful not to make these hot spots available for your opponent! However, if you have a great word that opens up a triple, don’t throw it out the window. Weigh up your score against what your opponent may likely get. You may still come out ahead. Who knows? Your opponent may even pass up the triple, giving you a shot!

Tip #4: The Qboon or bane?

No doubt about it, the Q is one of the most difficult tiles to play; therefore, it demands attention. There are a few tricks that can help you turn the Q to your advantage.

First of all, it’s advisable to commit to memory a few Q words that don’t require a U. Yes, they exist, and they are worth a lot of points, besides! So, here is your second (and final, for now) list of words to memorize: qaid, qanat, qat, qindar, qintar, sheqel, tranq, qoph, qwerty, faqir.

The words “aid” and “at” are particularly helpful for those looking to dump a Q, and this goes for your opponent too! Take care not to lay down either word if you suspect your opponent of having the Q on his/her rack, particularly at the end of the game! (I know this from sad experience; this oversight cost me an important match!)

Whatever you do, don’t hold on to Qs for more than a turn or two, hoping to draw a U. (This also goes for holding onto Us in case of drawing a Q.) Try to get it off your rack as soon as possible, as you lessen your chance of playing a good move when you’re only using six of your tiles. And if the game is close to the end you may want to consider trading it if there aren’t any options on the board. You certainly DO NOT want to get stuck with an unplayed Q at the end of the game, as it automatically adds 20 points to your opponent’s score.

Tip #5: Plan for BINGOs

Our last tip can be quite satisfying once it is mastered. It has to do with creating BINGO words (words which use all seven tiles) and is remarkably easy, once you know how to do it. Start by sorting your rack according to common word endings and save these letter combinations. One of the most valuable sets is “ING.” This takes care of three of your letters, and it’s much easier to form a four or five letter verb that works with “ING.” Voila! You have a BINGO! Some other common endings you want to watch for are -ed, -er, -ier, -iest, and -ies. I’ve even used -ation to good advantage. Un- and re- are good letters to set aside for word beginnings. Laying down your first BINGO is almost a rite of passage in the Scrabble world.

Now you are prepared to take on that grandiloquent mother-in-law; put that palaverous brother in his place. With practice, you may soon be able to join the ranks of the real Scrabble champions.

Copyright 2006 Emma Snow

Emma Snow works a pragmatic puzzler at the Puzzle Place http://www.puzzle-place.net and Chess Strategies http://www.chess-strategies.net leading puzzle portals.

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A cheap and fun childrens party game. Ideal for children of all ages. Its a race against one anther to collect your Christmas jigsaw pieces and to complete your jigsaw.

Preparing the Game
A different Christmas card is needed for each player. Only the image on the fronts of the Christmas card is needed, the backs can be discarded.

The Christmas pictures need to be cut into four pieces. You may cut them into 4 equal parts, or into abstract shapes, or four traditional jigsaw shapes. Make sure that each card front is cut into four parts.

How to Play
Show each player their jigsaw in its made state, so that they know what their jigsaw should look like, and so they can familiarise themselves with the individual pieces within their jigsaw.

Send all the players out of the room whilst you hide all of the jigsaw pieces in various places within the room. Behind curtains, under tables, behind cushions etc.

Let the players back into the room. They must now find all of their own jigsaw pieces, discarding all of the others, and be the first to complete their jigsaw puzzle. The first player to complete their jigsaw correctly is the winner.

More Christmas ideas and games can be found at http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/

Suie write fun Christmas ideas for http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/ Keeping Christmas Magical

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For those of you who aren’t familiar, the walled garden is a term used to describe the situation where carriers control all content that goes to their device. Being able to sell directly to consumers is a very costly service that few can afford.

The walled garden is dealing some serious blows to the industry right now. Depending on what carrier you’re with, even if you buy a game from a site that sends you an SMS with an html link to get the game, some carriers will go as far as to block this SMS link or the download. This makes absolutely sure that the games can only be purchased through their deck. The fact that these small start up game developers aren’t able to sell directly to the consumer, means that they have an incredibly hard time getting their games out. This process is really stifling industry growth.

Let’s just say that you are one of the lucky publishers who gets their game onto a game deck. The only way to sell your game on that deck is to hope that somebody knows of your game and is looking for it specifically, or that they will select your game based on its catchy title. If the title is your only selling potential, then you better make sure that the game is called “Aabaa’s Adventure” because chances are that the customer won’t be searching through the entire game deck. Too bad for the developer who makes an amazing game but calls it “Zworf” (I don’t know why you would call it that anyways).

Okay, so you’ve got a good game and it has a catchy name at the beginning of the alphabet. What other problems will you incur? Firstly, the waiting times to get your game on a carrier’s deck are incredibly long compared to the time it takes to actually develop the game. It’s common for a game that took 3 months to develop to wait 8 months before their game is on the deck. This causes serious cash flow issues.

Speaking of long waiting times, let’s just say you accidentally shipped the game with a bug. We all know this would NEVER happen (wink), but just hypothetically what if? It would take a relatively long time to get your game updated because you have to go through the bureaucracy of the carrier system. Not only that, but everyone who has the unupdated games will have to repurchase the software because their carriers will demand they buy the game again.

It’s obvious why carriers are so reluctant to give up the market to more direct to consumer publishers. Although the revenue they make from game sales is relatively minor to their other competencies; carriers still receive huge revenues from controlling all content that moves through their phone. It is very hard to convince them to give up these profits in exchange for better gaming. This is not to say that it will never happen. Developers such as Gameloft have negotiated with carriers to be allowed the right to offer direct to consumer sales off their website in exchange for a limited time of exclusivity on the carrier’s game deck. These developers have demonstrated that negotiating direct to consumer sales can be a very successful part of a developer’s business strategy. We will never see the end of the walled garden in North America until the mobile game industry bands together and forces carriers to open their decks. Europe and Asia have pioneered this movement and America can benefit from similar action.

QuicklyBored is a blog that reviews mobile games as well as reports on the mobile games industry. Visit us at http://www.quicklybored.com

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