Category: Gaming

I played a few games of Scrabble last night, and in one of them I drew both Cs and both Vs. I really don’t like drawing C or V.

Welcome to the next installment of my Scrabble series. Search for the “Gaming” category to read through the other posts. I am offering my tips and tricks for playing the game of Scrabble, a game I enjoy quite a bit.

The trouble with C and V is that there are no two letter words in the Official Scrabble Dictionary (in the entire English language?) that involve either C or V. Since in the game of Scrabble one must connect each new play to a previous word played, this is most easily achieved by way of a two letter word. When C or V are involved, this is impossible.

Perhaps this is why C and V carry a higher point value, with C carrying 3 points and V worth 4. However, that value seems like it should be higher considering the difficulty in playing these letters. Consider X and Q, or J for instance. Q is 10 points; X is 8; and J is 8. Even K is 5. And all four of those letters connect easily to at last one vowel, some more than one, to form two letter words, and yet X Q K J are all worth more than the pesky V and C. I wonder why that is?

As the “big” letters (and we will throw in Zed here) Z Q X J K have surfaced, let’s take a moment to consider them. Not only are they the highest point-value letters, but they, in contrast, play very well with two letters: Za, Qi, Xi/Xu/oX/aX/eX, Jo, oK/Ka. In fact, these letters are a dream to play! Perhaps their high point value comes not from the fact that they are difficult to utilize, but that there are only one of each of them. That certainly is plausible, but also a bit of an unfair advantage, given their ease of play over C and V. Were I to design Scrabble, I might rank K and J a little lower in point value and C and V a little higher. I don’t know. Given that Scrabble has been around a long time, and stands the test of that time, maybe it is fairly well balanced after all.

What do I do, then, when I draw C or V? I stop all other strategies and try to play them as quickly as possible, in any way possible. Rarely do I exchange a rack of letters to avoid V or C (after all, they could easily come back next draw!). They are playable and do yield a few points, so what I tend to do overall is to take a hit in points and play a simple 3- (but often 4-) letter word to get rid of the offending C or V in a productive way, even if a small one.

When I can manage it, “vice” is a great way to play both letters at once and be done with them. The word “cove” is a bit better as it can become “coven” but “vocation” is almost impossible to play (due to the 8 letters required). Best to stick with shorter words and move on to better letters that yield higher points and easier plays.

Maybe you’ve got a few sneaky C or V words you can share that I haven’t come across that are great for scoring more points, or playing both letters at once. I’d love to hear about them! Drop a comment and let me know. For myself, I breathe easier when I don’t draw V or C, and can move right to clever plays and scoring higher points.

Last month, I wrote about my love of the board game Scrabble. You can click this link to read all about it. I believe Scrabble to be a fun, challenging, and mentally rewarding game to play. I am endeavoring to share tips that I have learned along a 30+ year career of playing Scrabble. If you don’t play that often, I would encourage you to play, even against an AI, to keep your brain engaged, which is always a good thing.

The game of Scrabble begins with blind-drawing seven letters, usually from a bag, though some people like to lay them out face down in the box lid and choose from there. However you draw, you shouldn’t see the letters, and should draw as randomly as possible. If playing an AI, the game will draw for you. Ideally, there is nothing you should be able to do to influence the letters that you draw at the beginning or throughout the game. For me, this is part of the excitement (simultaneously also the frustration) of playing. I never know what I am going to get, and that both gives and takes away.

What makes a good set of 7 letters or a bad one? Usually a bad draw includes low point value letters, repeated letters, or letters that are difficult to utilize (“C” and “V” and “I” come to mind right away, even though “C” and “V” are worth 3 and 4 points, respectively, they don’t form two letter words and thus are slightly harder to play. More on that later). A good draw has more frequently used vowels (“A” and “E”) and a good mix of other letters, and hopefully a few higher point letters.

Fortunately, a game mechanism exists for replacing a terrible draw: the exchange. Players can, on any turn, choose letters they have previously drawn (up to the entire 7) and exchange them with blind letters from the pool of undrawn letter tiles. This allows you to, potentially, improve a hand (though plenty of times I have drawn differently yet equally frustrating letters). I have a few rules of thumb for when to exchange letters. First, I do it rarely as it costs a turn to do so; the player who exchanges letters does not get to actually play a word when they exchange. Depending on how advanced your opponents or the AI, this could result in a deficit of points that will need to be surmounted throughout the rest of the game.

Second, I usually do not exchange an “E” or an “S” tile, as these are very versatile and useful letters, but I am ruthless about the rest of the letters I exchange. Even if I have a 3-point or higher letter, if I haven’t or can’t make a word with it, it needs to go. Generally I find that the more letters I exchange at a go, the better chance I have of drawing a few useful letters that I can play on my next turn. I usually always will exchange a blank tile, even though that can be any letter, because it also doesn’t gain any points. Again, it goes back to the number of tiles I am exchanging, and as there are only two blanks, my chances of acquiring a letter tile with a point value is high. By the way, if I have multiple “E” tiles, I will only keep one, and exchange the rest.

I usually only wait through one turn of suffering with a less than ideal 7 letters before exchanging. The longer I go trying to make shorter words for (usually) less points in hopes of drawing one or two good letters, the more damaging it is to exchange letters. It compounds the problem: with terrible letters, one cannot make good, high-point words, and losing a turn to exchange letters after a few turns of no good words played usually ends in a point deficit that could have been avoided by losing a turn right away and coming back strong with better letters.

Beyond that, sometimes the best you can do is play the letters you have. They may not be what you want, or be the coveted high point letters, but if you can make words and keep the points accumulating, do so. Don’t exchange just hoping to find the “J”, “Q”, or “Z”, in other words. Play words as often as you have them to play, and let the luck of the draw of new letters come to you as you play through. I have found that Scrabble is a game of ups and downs, and that playing with serviceable, though perhaps less than ideal, letters is better than constantly trying to draw the perfect letters.

In summary, exchange letters rarely, and when you do, exchange as many letters as possible, keeping only a single “E” or “S” if already acquired. I’ve found that this yields the best possible replacement set of letters for getting right back into the criss-crosswords action of Scrabble.