Scrabble is an easy game to learn and understand but it is a difficult game to master because there are so many things involved that can make you a master of the game. New players want to get better at the game but while doing so, they make certain mistakes that are too obvious but they don’t notice those mistakes. Let’s discuss some of the biggest mistakes that new Scrabble players make and why you should avoid them:
1. They Play The First Word They See
A reason why new Scrabble players aren’t good at Scrabble and are easily beaten is that they settle for the first word that they see. This is a thing that you should write in your mind, never settle for the first word that you see no matter how many points it may score for you. This is an inexperienced and newbie move.
Instead, you should take a moment, look on the board to see if you can find any common prefixes or suffixes that you can use with your word to make the word longer. Always survey the Scrabble board and see if there is any move available on the board from where you can take advantage. It might take some time and think but it could lead you to many high-scoring opportunities.
2. They Don’t Think Before Making A Move
There is always this difference between newbies & amateurs and professionals, newbies think that the best play is the one that can score the most points for them but strategically, that is not the case. There is a difference between a high-scoring move and a good movie.
A high-scoring move can no doubt give you a lot of points but it has got drawbacks such as it can deprive you of consonants and leave you with vowels only or deprive you of vowels and leave you with consonants only which will lead to you missing the next move.
Alternatively, it can give you a high score but it can open up an even higher scoring spot on the board for your opponents that he can use to counter your move. If you got 36 points from a move then he can re-use the word that you placed on the table to get 45 points.
3. They Waste The Valuables Tiles
Two of the most valuable tiles in the game of Scrabble are S and the ‘blank’ tiles that can be used with almost any word. The blank tile can be used as any letter you want to and whenever you are missing any letter, you can use the blank tile to fill in the position of the blank letter.
While the letter S has got its value because you can place it at the end of most of the nouns and verbs to get their plural form. You can also use it at the end of an existing word on the board and turn that into a high-scoring move, just by using one of your letter tiles.
4. They Rely On Different Tools
Another mistake that some people make is that they rely on different tools that can, although make the game easy for them, are not allowed in official Scrabble tournaments. Such tools include Scrabble Word Finder that can help you find all the possible combinations from the tiles that you have at the rack and Word Unscrambler that can unscramble words for you.
Such tools are made for practice purposes only and they cannot help you get better at the game if you rely on such tools. Relying on such tools won’t make you a good player, instead, practicing and playing Scrabble regularly will help you to become better at it.
5. They Are Afraid To Exchange Their Tiles
There is a rule in Scrabble that allows the players to exchange some or all of their tiles for new ones in exchange for their turn. They lose their current turn and in return, they are able to exchange some or all of their letter tiles.
Most of the players are afraid to try out because in their mind, it is a waste since it doesn’t score any point but expert players use this move in different situations when this is the right thing to do.
There can be different situations when exchanging your tiles is the right thing to do. For instance, if you have got a rack full of vowels then you can only play a handful of words for minimal points and in such situations, exchanging your letter tiles is the right thing to do. In Scrabble, thinking ahead is always important and that is what most of the professionals and experts do that makes them better than the rest.
