oBviated - Wordsmith.org

Wordsmith.org

I'm 45 years old. I have been playing scrabble for some while, having been taught by my grandmother when I was about 5. Today, for the first time, I got to use a variant of my favorite word in a game of scrabble. I played 'obviated' as my first move (second of the game) for about 60 some-odd points. I played two bingos in this 6-6 minute game, but won on time.

Oh, isn't it so SATISFYING, when you finally get to do something you've been waiting for?? 'Fraid the closest I can come was saving letters for a big long play in Bookworm, and I can't even remember now what it was. So--what did you mean by bingos?

P.S.--I hate keeping score in Scrabble. My goal always is simply that all the letters be used, me helping my opponent if necessary.

Nemmine bingos. What's a 6-6 minute game?

Maybe bingo is a general term for bonus squares like double word score, triple word score, double letter score, double martini* etc.

*Playboy edition of Scrabble(TM) 1978

A bingo is using all your letters. I actually scored 216 or something like that (by bingoing across two triple word scores). It wasn't that long ago - maybe a month or so, but I can't recall what the word was. up till that time, when I read of people getting 200 (and 300!) point scores on a single word, I thought they were either exaggerating or were playing in cahoots somehow with their opponents or were simply misremembering (I do it all the time).

6-6 was meant to imply that each player has 6 minutes on his clock. I wasn't sure of the proper nomeclature to express the concept.

For the hungry - seven-letter-placements (aka Bingos) are easier if you recycle the blanks, i.e. replace them on the board with a tile of the same letter from your rack, and then make your play. I partook once in a game in which the first five entries were bingos, and seven of the first nine, using that rule. Final score was roughly 595 to 398.

Regarding clocks: they're like chess clocks - two clocks actually, interconnected so that one starts when the other stops. Your clock runs while it's your turn, and then you push a button stopping yours and starting your opponent's. Not everyone uses them, especially in casual games.

You can take blank tiles off the board and replace them with the letter??? Since when? Wow--that could make some subsequent plays so easy it seems almost like cheating.

Quote:

You can take blank tiles off the board and replace them with the letter??? Since when? Wow--that could make some subsequent plays so easy it seems almost like cheating.

I think that's a Rummicubes rule that someone decided would be *neat in Scrabble!

"P.S.--I hate keeping score in Scrabble. My goal always is simply that all the letters be used, me helping my opponent if necessary. "

Keeping score is easy when you play online. I play at www.isc.ro. There are other sites with scrabble and scrabble-like games, though.

When I was younger, I never played to win - I played to get the coolest word. Of course grandma trashed me. I don't recall ever having beaten her. Perhaps I did, but I don't recall. I played an interesting foursome once. My wife is not a native English speaker. She got her BS in math from Berea college. Her sponsor in the US was the president of Berea College in KY. (In fact, this same man had been her father's teacher at Yale in China HS.) It was me, my wife, the president, and his wife. My wife and I were severely thrashed, but it was a pretty fun game, all the same.

I play to win now, and not to get the coolest word - though sometimes I just can't help myself. Mostly I just play for fun. I can't get into the nastiness. You beat someone - by luck or skill, it doesn't matter - and the first thing do is start cursing because you "cheated" or "used a program" or what have you. I've though perhaps I ought to adopt that philosophy - surely, NOBODY could possibly be THAT MUCH smarter than me, and ANYONE who beats me THAT badly, MUST BE CHEATING!

I figure there's a lot more crazy people walking the streets than there are in all the asylums in the world - and eventually they figure out a way to get on the net.

You fight find interesting: Word Freak, by Stefan Fatsis. Not great literature, but entertaining, and provides some insight into the world of high-level Scrabble�.

Quote:

You fight find interesting: Word Freak, by Stefan Fatsis. Not great literature, but entertaining, and provides some insight into the world of high-level Scrabble�.

bingo!

...and also post #78091, from 08/05/02 07:04 PM, and
post #97291, from 02/20/03 10:36 PM. (Someone may want
to convert these to links; I haven't the time right now.)

Seems to be a recurring theme here somewhere...

But you were the first!

it's on my list.
thanks,
k

And for those into crosswords puzzles, "Wordplay" is set to be released mid-June. It features my hero, Will Shortz, fellow cruciverbalist Merl Reagle, and assorted media stars and politicos:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0492506/

IMDb? You mean Wordplay is a movie? And Will Shortz is going to be in it? Ooh, I'll finally get to see what that man/he-devil

looks like!

Will Shortz

Wait no more, Jackie. Here's a glimpse (it's a pretty awful picture but):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5389295

Edit: Yikes! Well, now you have two, Jackie.

Chopped liver links

Jimmy Dean pat�

Braunschweiger

Oh, dear--not one to make my heart go pitter-pat, that's for sure! Ah well...the movie oughtta be good.

Quote:

And for those into crosswords puzzles, "Wordplay" is set to be released mid-June. It features my hero, Will Shortz, fellow cruciverbalist Merl Reagle, and assorted media stars and politicos:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0492506/

He's not just active in crossword puzzles, and puzzle editor of the NYTimes, but also President of the National Puzzlers' League, a small but venerable organization with a nationwide membership of people of all ages, genders, and status whose unifying interest is devising and solving puzzles. Mostly but not exclusively word puzzles. Anyone here heard of them? Any members on this Board? I suspect there would be a sizable confluence of interests.

(I think I may have asked this very question a couple of years ago and noted a resounding silence in reply...but now it's a few years later)

Last night we were playing Scrabble by candlelight* thanks to a power outage, and shortly after having learned the term "bingo" I scored my first ever bingo. The word was "students." Then on my very next play I got a second bingo with the word "salients."

*Grandma would NOT approve -- very hard to read the tiles

In my circle of Scrabble players, we refer to it as a premium word. I remember fondly my favorite one. I covered two triple word scores and went out with the word "friendly" to end the game

Yes, wofa, I've heard about it and read about it. It sounds absolutely wonderful, and I ran like heck away from it: I waste far too much time already!