Secrets to Winning Scrabble

You never shy away from a good game of scrabble but end up losing more than you would like to admit? The good news is, there are a few tricks that can help you win every scrabble game.

Some secret tricks or hacks can help win every scrabble game you play. From 2 and 3 letter words to all vowels, you can use these simple words to get away by scoring valuable points. Prefixes and suffixes are another great way to form words when you cannot come with any conventional word with the tiles you have in hand.  A hook can help you create a completely new word by adding it to the word already on the board.

Scrabble is a game that offers a combination of strategy, language, and board game experience. However, scoring your best and winning every game is not for a player with mediocre skills. That said, you can definitely follow certain actions to help work your way to the possible wins. These hacks are the best-kept secret in the scrabble-players community and come in handy when you face limited options with letters on tiles on your rack.

Hacks to Win Scrabble Every Time

If you want to show off your skills with words in front of family and friends, these secret hacks will help you win every scrabble game. However, never reveal these to anyone, or you will most likely end up giving away your advantage. So let us explore how you can use these tips to win every scrabble game.

Creating Two Words at Once

One of the simplest tricks is to create two words by using the alphabet “s.” Try to learn words where adding an “s” to them will help create another word to gain more points. Each game only contains 4 “s” tiles, and each move should earn you a minimum of 10 points.

Learning the 2 Letter Words

If you know your way around the scrabble board, the 2-letter words can help boost your scores by approximately 50 points per game. Without knowledge of these words, you may end up losing the game. If you are facing a jam, these small words can help you get out of the pickle and rid yourself of excess vowels.

So, if you are a real scrabble aficionado and want to win every game you play, remembering the 101 words will be a great addition to your arsenal.

The 3-Letter Helpers

Learning a wide range of three-letter words will help you escape any jams just as much as any two-letter word will. The best part is that there are 10x more three-letter words than 2-letter words. That said, you can forget about memorizing all of them unless you really are a genius.

Knowing some of the key ones will make a big difference in your gameplay and throw your competitor off balance.

Suffixes

If you are aiming to get the 50-point bonus, you must learn to manage your rack. In this case, you must learn as many words that end with S, ED, ER, ING, LY, ENT, FUL, IEST, CY, ITY, NESS, ITE, and TION. When you look at the rack, this is what you must be looking for. If you see these, push to your rack’s right side and search for the remaining letters.

Prefixes

Just life suffixes, prefixes can also help you gain some valuable points during a game of scrabble. You must look for the most common prefixes and push them to your rack’s left side. Some of the prefixes you can easily find are RE, IN, UN that you can use to your advantage and increase your chances of winning a game.

However, these three prefixes are just a starter, so do not just stick to these. You must ensure not to limit yourself and explore more prefixes to use during a game. These include TRI, EX, NON--, PRE, and MIS.

Tiles to Create Common Beginnings and Endings

You can place tiles to create common beginnings and endings on your rack’s appropriate sides. There are many words that end in “ed,” “er,” and/or “ing,” so putting them on your rack’s right side will help visualize your future options.

If you already have words on the boards, look for options where you can add “ed,” “er,” or “ing” to create a new word. The same formula applies to other words such as “in,” “un,” or “re.” The only difference is that you will have to place these on your rack’s left side.

Looking out for the Hooks

A hook is a single letter that can help you get out of tricky and limiting situations. You can use a single letter to an existing word on the scrabble board to create an entirely new word. For example, the word lush is already on the board. You can add a “B” or “F to create blush or flush. Similarly, hose can become “chose,” row can become “Crow,” pip can become “pipe” – well, you get the idea right.

 Another helpful tip is to remember and look out for words that can possibly end with “d,” “e,” “r,” and “y” at the end. Some examples include handy, tamer, tamed, shared, plane, stoner, storey, famed, shamed, etc.

Heading for the Hot Spots

Do not think of these winning strategies in the middle of the game. In fact, you should plan your game strategy right from the start. As soon as the game begins, you should start moving towards those hot spots, also known as the bonus squares on the scrabble board. If you do it well enough with precise execution, a triple-worded square can propel your scores into three digits figures.

Saving Some of Your Letter Combinations (AEILNRST)

In a game of scrabble, you can only have seven letters at a time on your rack. In this case, some of the combinations using AEILNRST will give you an opportunity to play your best game. For example, Starline is one word. Can you come up with anymore?

If you are unable to pick all of the above-mentioned letters, you must try to save seven letters that are vowels and one more consonant.

Learning Q without U Words

If you are new to scrabble then this one is the most valuable secret, you will ever learn. The letter “Q” is one of the highest-scoring tiles on a Scrabble board, and the same goes for the letter “Z.” However, the words beginning with “Q” mostly precedes a “U.”

Each scrabble can only contain four “U” tiles that you may have already used, in other words. So learning words starting with “Q” without a “U” in the spelling will definitely help gain an advantage over your competitor.

Some examples are qadi, qabala, qabalah, qoph, faqir, qanat, qintar, qwerty, qindarka, qindar, tranq, mbaqanga, qi, qaid, qat, qadi, sheqel, and sheqalm. Surely, you can make an effort and memorize these words once, and never lose a scrabble game using these words strategically.

Bolstering Your Vocab with Words Starting with J, X, and Z

These are not common words, and that is why words starting with J and X can land you a score of 8, whereas a word with Z can earn you a score as high as 10 points. There are so many words, but try to remember a decent number of words to improve your chances of winning.

All of the above-mentioned tricks come from the best scrabble players in the world. However, they are not as easy as they sound. You will have to invest time and effort into learning and memorizing as many words as you can. Like anything in life, you will start small but will get better with practice.