WORD UP: a scrabble blog and podcast.

Just a quick note..

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:19:22 PST

To let anyone who's paying attention know that I'll be switching all the podcasts on iTunes from one host to another, so there may be some random interruptions with the listings there.

You also may have noticed that I'm still not posting on here as much- your best bet is to follow my twitter account (@scrabblepodcast) or follow the Facebook page. Chances are between the three places, I'll have posted something recently.

Things I learned from club this week

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:14:03 PDT

1. Missed ACMOTTU to an H. Also forgot MAUT.
2. RURBAN is a cool word.
3. EINRRY? plays through an A.
4. CEEKNT? has one anagram.
5. OK, here's the big lesson: I lost the second game three times. Here's how:
a) I had AEGNORS and thought S(MUTCH) was good but didn't know for sure.
b) I didn't take long enough to find the one spot my opponent could play his Q for a bunch of points.
c) I didn't find BREN as an outplay, the only one that would've won.
Had I done a, b, or c I would've won the game. Here's the question I have for you more experienced players:
So I held MUTCH when it was played, but luckily let it stay. Here's the board. So what should I have done? I had a slight suspicion that SMUTCH was good. But if I play my bingo and I'm wrong, I likely lose. I obviously end up blowing the game anyways, but can anyone come up with a strategic way to decide whether not to make the play?

Things I learned from club tonight...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:11:22 PDT

1. ACHILRS has two anagrams. I could've played the second through an L on the board as a 2x2.

2. CEINPRT plays through only one consonant for an 8. Unfortunately, that consonant was on the board and I missed it.

3. DEKNRS? plays through a C two different ways, and through a D one way. Would've scored a lot more than DUNKERS.

4. I had both V's and both Y's on my rack at one point, which made me think of the word ZYZZYVA- interesting fact: there is only one other seven that contains a V and two Y's. (There are no words with all four.) I got to play NAVVY.

5. Missed YINCE and OOCYTE as plays again. I need to learn these words.

Things I learned from club last night...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:21:08 PDT

Game one:

1. GOWD is good, I've reviewed it perhaps once, but didn't see it.

2. GORRA* isn't good, and I have no idea why I thought it might be. Just BEGORRA(H).

3. If you have a Z,G, and S, and there's an A to play through, you should play ZAG, not ZAS. Yep, I did that.

4. JAUP is the anagram of PUJA. Wasn't 100% on it.

5. Other than those mistakes, I made decent plays during the game- but lost 288-408. Sometimes things just don't go your way.

Game two:

1. BEEILNY plays through an R.

2. ISOPODAN is good. Though I played SADI(R)ONS instead of IS(OP)ODANS.

3. Sometimes when you have a really unlucky game, you get really lucky in the next game.

TWITTERY

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:24:01 PDT

Uh, yeah, I'm on twitter.

Not sure if I'll do much with it, but you can follow @scrabblepodcast if you'd like to find out.

Interestingly, 'TWITTERY' is defined as 'nervously agitated' on Zyzzyva.

1-0 Club night

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:24:29 PDT

I know, it's kind of lame that I only play one game at my local club, but until my bosses figure out how to let me work less than twelve hours on a Monday, one game is all that's happening. And unfortunately, it's a rushed game, because I'm doing it on a late evening 'lunch break'.
Here are the things I missed that I should still have spotted if I was in a rush:
1. from a rack of AEILNRZ, playing things like ZEIN or ZE(B)RA for 50+ points, rather than L(E)Z for 32.
2. remembering the anagrams of RATANIES that have the R near the end. I rattled them off once I was home, but blanked during the game.
3. NOVENaE is good, NONEVEn* isn't. And if you aren't 100% sure, you should just play something for less points that's enough to still win the game.
I did luck out though, in that my opponent didn't see their out play, plus they tried to put an S on SIERRAN, which I challenged off. Though I deserved to lose the game given my ending phony bingo play.

0-1 Club tonight

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:24:54 PDT

Played a pretty horrible game at club tonight- follow along here.
I tried to figure out what my worst mistakes were, but will gladly take any of your input- for example, does anyone have a 'don't fish more than x number of times' rule? It's tough when you have almost-good racks that don't score.
If you don't want to trudge through it, skip to this turn for a fun 'find the possible bingo' quiz. I'll leave what I think are the answers later.
I also didn't mention in the notes that I learned that RUDERY takes a front hook. (as does RUDERIES)

Less posts...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:25:14 PDT

Hey there readers, you may have noticed that I've been posting less here on the blog. Well, that's because often I don't have the time to sit down and type out a well-thought-out, provocative post, like this one. Well, fear not! I've been posting much more often (in a still just slightly less-thought-out, provocative manner) on the

Facebook Fan page.

Sign up today!

-STONE extensions?

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 08:24:11 PDT

Saw this ad at the top of my gmail window, and wondered if any of these were good (in TWL):

Nope, they're not.

There are 78 front extensions, though- here's a few of the coolest:

AMAZONSTONE

BUHRSTONE/ BURRSTONE/ BURSTONE

COPINGSTONE

FLOWSTONE

HOLYSTONE

JACKSTONE

MIFEPRISTONE

ROTTENSTONE

THUNDERSTONE

VEINSTONE

...I haven't really done too many blog entries- I mostly do shorter iPhone-friendly entries these days on my Facebook page if you're interested.

9 Things learned from club last night

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:16:11 PDT

1. I make a lot of bad plays when I'm tired. (When I'm not tired, too, but more so when I've worked 11 hours.)

2. MUNCHY* still isn't good; can't believe I played it again (stayed on). HUBBED* isn't good, glad I challenged it off. HAJEE* isn't good, though I was pretty sure of that (challenged off). KHAN is good, haven't seen the HANK/ANKH card in a while. TOLENES* isn't good, I don't know why I even tried it (challenged off). And these were all in one game!

3. Chickened out on (UP)WAFT for 54. Darn.

4. Uh, NI isn't a word. Yeah, I let that one get by me.

5. ADINV?? plays to an M.

6. ECHE is good, haven't seen it enough to know it. (Had four E's and played ACHE, so it would have been useful.)

7. AAANRSU plays with a G on the board.

8. ACIMNRSU has two anagrams.

9. SANDELS* and SANDLES* are not the correct way to spell SANDALS. (there is a good word in there, though- are you reading, Saloma?)

Find the play...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:25:38 PDT

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9034#3Playing Words With Friends with Jsj1999 (sorry, I forget who is who according to their handle), and they spotted this amazing play:

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=9035#3
Note: the board in this is actually set up as a scrabble board, not a WWF board, but the principle is the same...

6 Things I learned/ was reminded of from club tonight

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:13:37 PDT

1. SOU takes an S, SAU doesn't (one's a former French coin, the other is a Vietnamese coin. I knew SAU didn't take an S but was thinking of it when I thought of SOU... so I didn't put down EFIORST! Crud!) SOUS takes an E.
2. BECAP is good- add it to a ton of other BE- verbs that are weird. (I sense a podcast feature here...)
3. REVET is good, and takes two different front hooks- T and B.
4. Somehow I knew BREGMATA, but not BREGMA. (BREGMATE is also good, and BREGMA doesn't take an S.)
5. REPEG is good.. Hm, I'm sensing a theme here: five letter words.
6. There is a bingo in GHIINVY with a C on the board!
You can check out a game I played vs. Mike F, our club's best (I think) player, in which I luck out and win. (I originally simmed this to show Mike, hence the comment directed to him early on.)

Ten (more) Fours

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:39:56 PDT

...that I didn't know

LOUP to leap (takes an E too, don't think I knew this was good.)
AMYL a univalent radical (gotta love those univalent radicals. Also ACYL, ARYL. I smell a 'univalent radical of the month' feature.)
BRIN a rib of a fan (back hooks EGKSY. I always think this is BIRN*)
AMUS a unit of mass, plural (I knew this, but it takes an R or W in front, and don't forget the back E!)
MUMP to beg (I didn't know this was a verb, and would've possibly challenged thinking it could only be plural)
SOLI plural of SOLO (I think I prefer SOLOS)
RAGG a wool fiber (add to the 'words you didn't know could have a doubled ending consonant' list)
ODIC pertaining to an ode (did I know this at some point? probably. I definitely know OTIC and ETIC. But I definitely didn't know IODIC and SODIC.)
PIMA a strong, high-grade cotton (apparently I'm ignorant of fabric-related words.)

Ten Fours

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:43:35 PDT

Still slowly going through the fours- here are the first ten that popped up that I either didn't know at all, or wasn't sure of:

PISO the Philippine peso (also POIS)

MUGG to make funny faces (knew MIGG, not this one)

UNDE wavy (an adjective, doesn't take an S- also DUNE, NUDE)

DORP a village (DROP, PROD. this one doesn't even look familiar)

BUTE a drug for treating arthritis (back hook of O, also TUBE)

SIDH a hill inhabited by supernatural beings in Irish folklore (sounds like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. takes an E, not an S, also DISH)

SKAT a card game (can't believe I didn't know KAT took a front S hook. also- KATS, TASK)

POME a fleshy fruit with a core (what, an abbreviation for pomegranate? ok. also, MOPE, POEM)

CYME a flower cluster (think I knew this but haven't seen it in a long time)

MONY many (adjective, no S)

5 things I learned from club last night

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:21:44 PDT

1. If your opponent opens with exchange 4 and your rack is AAAILOR, playing RAIA for 8 is a bad idea. Sure you keep them from cashing in on the double word score, but a) you don't cash in on it, b) ALO isn't that great of a leave, and c) your opponent will play ZA for 40 something points as a reward for your stupidity. (which is what happened.)

2. Fun hooks: I got to play CENTAUr/C(OVERALLS). Missed the OVERALL hook with the first C, but was lucky enough to get the 2nd one and remember. What I didn't know is that CENTAUR takes a Y!

3. Sometimes you just can't draw to save your life. In my second game, I had three 6-vowel racks. One was a post-bingo rack, and the other two were after playing off 5 and 6 tiles, so it wasn't as though I was asking for it. And later I played off JO from AEIJORS (with 25 unseen and an open L on the board) and drew UU. I was able to bingo twice, but still lost by 30- but I was happy with even that.

4. READMIT also plays through an O. (and has a front hook that I didn't get to play.)

5. AINSSU? plays to an L ( I played SUNdIA(L)S.)

Found word of the day: CINOOOTZ

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:07:30 PDT

Though it actually doesn't take an S, yet. Maybe in the next dictionary...

comes from ZOONOSIS, a disease that can be transmitted from animals to man. (or perhaps, according to this, it's a set of diseases?)

3 things I learned from club this week

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:41:00 PDT

Played one quick game at club- we both had 15 left on our clocks. I drew both blanks and all 4 S's, so it was an easy win, 464-300. If I had known #2, I would've had the distinction of playing all the S's in two plays.

1. AEEINV? has two anagrams; one scores more as an opening play. (I played NAIVEtE, that's not it.)

2. BIASED can be spelled with two S's! Didn't even occur to me as a possibility; It would have been a 100 point play rather than 28!

3. LNOSRT? plays to an E.

How to lose a four game LCT, by me:

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:48:16 PDT

(LCT = local club tournament, it's a short four game round played on the night of scrabble club)

1. Go 2-1 +197, taking the lead (2 out of the 3 others were also 2-1)

2. Play the better of the 2 other players in the final round, and lose, thereby going from 1st to 3rd place.

Here's the final game if you'd like to give me some advice (other than 'learn AEGOSTW')

Found Extension of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:47:49 PDT

True story: I'm currently on vacation in Virginia, so of course I ordered a soft shell crab sandwich for lunch today. (It didn't come with the bite taken out of it; I just forgot to snap a shot first.) Later today, while waiting for my wife to run into a store for something, I whip out a scrabble game I'm playing on my cell phone vs. the bot. I had opened with BEATERS at the usual position, earlier in the week. Guess what three letter extension the bot played against me? It's not EGGBEATERS.

Not sure how I managed this, but...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:09:21 PDT

I just scored 671 points (686 with tourney rules) in a Facebook game, without a triple-triple.

I know, it doesn't really count since it was played online, over a number of weeks, but still pretty cool.

Not shown in the screen grab are YAUPERS for 110 and SPARiNG for 83.

Ironically I almost tried MITTING* before realizing there was an O left sitting on my rack...

on Facebook!

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:15:30 PDT

Since I haven't mentioned on here, in a while: you can always find WORD UP on Facebook, where I post a bit more frequently- for example, today's 'flashcard of the day', shown here.

8 Things I learned from club this week

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Tue, 17 May 2011 09:49:45 PDT

1. DEINRSS thru a U: two bingos.

2. It sucks when you play what, strategically, is the right move:O(G)EE, to balance your rack- and your opponent holds CDKNORU, looking for an E.

3. BOUGHT takes a front hook of A. (duh, past tense of ABY! maybe if it were spelled ABUY* I'd remember?) It also extends to BOUGHTEN.

4. Balked on REGAVE. I figured you couldn't give something again once you've given it, but hey, what do I know? Well, I now know that GREAVE is also good, and it takes a D or S.

5. MUNCHY* isn't good. Neither is MUNCHIE*, for that matter- only MUNCHIES. I hooked MUNCH with PROGENY- it was either that, or PYROGENE*, which I thought I was totally making up, but the anagram of PROGENY is PYROGEN- no E hook on that one, though. Thankfully it stayed on.

6. There are three 8's you can make from AEEIQSU?, but the one I didn't know was through the T on the board.

7. SPERMS takes OO as a front extension, which then in turn takes a Z front hook.

8. ENTANGLE takes a D,P,R, and S. Oh, well one is a front hook, the others are back.

Found word of the day: AAMNSP

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:05:41 PDT

SAMPAN a flat-bottomed Chinese skiff

Reading a kid's encyclopedia with my son at bedtime. See, even I learned something.

Bonus quiz: SAMPAN + A, L, and T

X words train of thought, because I'm bored.

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Sat, 14 May 2011 16:28:57 PDT

OXO containing oxygen; doesn't take any hooks.
OXY same definition, takes a B,D,F, and P in front only.

DOXY a doctrine, plural is DOXIES. DOXIE is also good.
DEXY another way to spell DEXIE, a tablet of dex. DEXIES is also good.

REDOX a type of chemical reaction. plural: REDOXES.
REDUX adjective meaning brought back. REDUXES* isn't good.

Bummer...

noreply@blogger.com (scrabblepodcast) — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:13:47 PDT

Opponent opens with 8G ZEE.

I play the only playable bingo with AACEIV?, which puts an E in the triple lane.

Opponent triple-triples thru E with DEOPSTU.

Adding insult to injury, there is now a U on the board and my rack is EKMNOSX!

Pretty sure this is as close as I'll ever get to playing this 8 as a natural.