# Could I enter a Scrabble tourney without embarrassing myself? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 29, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974 "2018-06-29T04:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/1 "2018-06-29T04:05:50Z")
I’ve been playing for decades as well as playing online for a few years. FWIW, I have an Elo rank of 1400 but I now play about 85% of my games against the Hasbro CPU. Online strangers are either too slow, disappear, are obviously cheating (or any combo of the three). I average 350-375 points per online game against the CPU. My friends don’t like playing meatbag space Scrabble with me for several reasons and I’m getting bored playing solo. 😃 How seriously might I embarrass myself as a beginner entrant in an in-person tournament? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/2 "2018-06-29T08:13:58Z")
Sounds to me like you’re ready to go. I’d say ‘do it’. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/3 "2018-06-29T09:26:48Z")
I can think of one way that you can find out how you would go that will provide 100% accurate feedback. Play in one. What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, and [Nice Rack: How To Enter The Professional Scrabble Scene](https://hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/nice-rack-how-to-enter-the-professional-scrabble-scene/) ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/4 "2018-06-29T14:26:06Z")
I thought I was good at Scrabble until I played someone who was actually good at Scrabble. Turns out having a good vocabulary isn’t all that important; it’s more useful to memorize weird two- and three-letter words that can be used to optimize placement to create multiple words. This is probably obvious to anyone who plays Scrabble competitively but it was a bit of an eye-opener for me 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/5 "2018-06-29T14:47:16Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > I thought I was good at Scrabble until I played someone who was actually good at Scrabble. Turns out having a good vocabulary isn’t all that important; it’s more useful to memorize weird two- and three-letter words that can be used to optimize placement to create multiple words. > > This is probably obvious to anyone who plays Scrabble competitively but it was a bit of an eye-opener for me 🙂 I don’t play Scrabble competitively, but this is pretty much right, from what I can tell. Read _Word Freak_. Fascinating introduction to competitive Scrabble. I suspect if the OP is averaging 350-375 and they have friends who won’t play the game with them IRL, that they’ve probably figured this much out and have the 2- and 3-letter word lists figured out and probably a good number of the bingo racks. I’d say just do it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/6 "2018-06-29T15:49:39Z")
The stiff competition will improve the OP’s game. At first, it may be a little hard on the ego. But that’s the only way to improve. You’ll never improve playing people you can easily beat. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/7 "2018-06-29T17:38:20Z")
[just my take on things, and probably not what the OP is interested in:] Maybe ask yourself why you want to play Scrabble. Me, I play Scrabble for fun. But I’ve noticed that competitive tournament players never seem to be having much fun. Make sure you know the entire lists of two-and three-letter words. (the twos are easy, and kinda fun. There are only a few dozen words, and it’s fun to remember their meanings). But the list of three-letter words is (to me) just a vast jumble of meaningless combinations of letters. No fun at all…It’s like memorizing random 3-digit numbers. (imagine memorizing that, say, 584 is a legal move, but 843 is not. Repeat hundreds of times) As you can guess, I don’t play tournaments. 🙂 Be prepared to work hard, and find your satisfaction from within yourself, not because anybody else will be applauding you. And best wishes! ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/8 "2018-06-29T18:03:21Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Make sure you know the entire lists of two-and three-letter words. (the twos are easy, and kinda fun. There are only a few dozen words, and it’s fun to remember their meanings). I seem to recall that one of the Scrabble world champions was able to enter (and win) a competition in a language _that he didn’t speak_ by memorizing the valid Scrabble words in that language. He claimed he was actually at an advantage by simply doing pattern matching without word meanings cluttering up his thinking. ETA: [Link to story.](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/21/424980378/winner-of-french-scrabble-title-does-not-speak-french) ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/9 "2018-06-29T18:13:17Z")
There’s a documentary about Scrabble tournaments called “Word Wars” that’s pretty interesting. [Word Wars - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_Wars) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/10 "2018-06-29T18:56:16Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > How seriously might I embarrass myself as a beginner entrant in an in-person tournament? You won’t. They’ll welcome you with open arms. One of my Bridge partners is Neil Scott, a world-class Scrabble player - he placed 20-something in the world championships in Australia a few years back and won the 2018 Scottish Masters - and they love new players. The way it works over here is that you get triaged so that people of similar skill levels play each other. More information at the [Scottish Scrabble Association](https://eiznek.wixsite.com/scottishscrabble) and the [Association of British Scrabble Players](http://www.absp.org.uk/index.shtml). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/11 "2018-06-30T00:24:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > …Read _Word Freak_. Fascinating introduction to competitive Scrabble… Seconded. A very interesting, funny look at the quirky subculture of competitive Scrabble. What surprised me is that those players are getting “bingos” (using up all their tiles in a single turn) _all the time_, many times in a single game. If I get a bingo every three games, it’s a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/12 "2018-06-30T00:31:57Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > What’s the worst that can happen? I dunno. Kwyjibo attack? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/13 "2018-06-30T03:46:33Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Seconded. A very interesting, funny look at the quirky subculture of competitive Scrabble. What surprised me is that those players are getting “bingos” (using up all their tiles in a single turn) _all the time_, many times in a single game. If I get a bingo every three games, it’s a big deal. Yeah, I think for experts it’s like 2-3 times a game on average. I average probably about one a game. It’s just a matter of holding on to high-percentage racks with a lot of flexibility. I don’t have anywhere near the words memorized, but I know (or I should say knew, as I haven’t played Scrabble in about 20 years) a good number of the [bingo stems](http://scrabble.merriam.com/bingo-stems). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/14 "2018-06-30T13:08:45Z")
[Moderating] Moved from CS to the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/15 "2018-07-01T20:05:23Z")
This was just on my TNY page-a-day calendar: [http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/96/9683/NSTC500Z/posters/david-borchart-you-re-going-to-hate-yourself-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg](http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/96/9683/NSTC500Z/posters/david-borchart-you-re-going-to-hate-yourself-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-enter-a-scrabble-tourney-without-embarrassing-myself/816974/16 "2018-07-02T02:19:35Z")
Triple-word-scoreth the raven.