A Flaw in the WordBiz online scrabble game!

I know that when I click on a blank letter in my tile rack, it changes from a "?" to an A, and from there, each time you click on it to move it around your rack, it changes to a new letter - so that unless you click on it and hit a backspace (to bring it back to the "?" it will look like any letter other than a blank. Sure, in the right hand corner is a "0" in yellow font, indicating that it's worth no points and therefore a blank, but when you've been busy concentrating on moving around your tiles to spell a scrabble - o (my term for a bingo) you can lose track of that.

Long story short, I'm going to have to write a letter to these people to complain, because I was playing a game today and wasted a blank on a measly 5 point word because I thought it was a T instead of a blank. Sooooo frustrating! And one problem that playing in real life does not present!

Words added Dec 16: 4 games

3 letter words
Bat
Elf
You
Fir
Jin
Fug
Net
Eek
Nun
Huh
Die
Too
Aal
Gas
Fes
Too
Rag
Vim
Eon
Rub
Net
Hog
Lag
Tab
Box
Mic
Now
Tee
Wet
Qis
Set
Eta
Jin
You
Tun
Het
Six

4 letter words
Port
Code
Aver
Bade
Floe
Rive
Punt
Gaum
Bile
Roil
Puce
Mole
Glee
Baal
Gent
Mica
Army
Cove
Dray
Wire
Rage
Edit

5 letter words
Nouns
Grail
Chine
Quote
Jutes
Trice
Yarns
Mitre

6 letter words
Choker
Senile
Chines

7 letter words
None!

Blow to the Ego

Lost twice at my Scrabble Club tonight..facing real people.

The first game I really had no chance, my opponent got all the power letters except the J, and I was getting either mostly vowels (and not good ones, i's and u's)or mostly consonants (and not good ones.) And she got a Scrabble-O! (My term for bingo.)

For the first half of my second game I got good letters and was 20-30 points in the lead, then my luck changed. Skipped a turn to toss in 2 i's and a u, got back an i as well as a couple other useless letters.

Well...a good lesson to learn. Playing against real people is more challenging than against the computer - which I'm mainly using just to be able to cross off words in the dictionary.

But it's been brought home to me quite clearly that I still have a long way to go to be able to put up a respectable showing next year.

Words added, Dec 15, 2011: 3 games

3 letter words
Hon
Fax
Max
Dow
Bus
Ave
Pun
End
Vat
Hog
Tic
Are
Top
Hon
Urn
Jut
Gun
Low
Vet
Lav
Tis
Lag
Taj
Cub
Gum
Ail

4 letter words
Boon
Kiva
Foam
Lean
Quin
Crib
Koel
Vote
Rode

5 letter words
Crops
Sting
Quell
Rodes
Plead
Brine
Raids

6 letter words
Stingo
Quells
Plead
Preach

7 letter words
Esteems
Radioed

Words added 12/14/11: 1 game

3 letter words
Dog
Rot
New
Sod
Tab
Cue
Vee
Rue
Pia

4 letter words
Rake
Vims
Fall
Lout
Area
Lion

5 letter words
Razer
Quota
Gelid

6 letter words
None

7 letter words
None

6 letter word anagram: E N F U R D

3 letter words
DEF
DEN
DUE
DUN
END
FED
FEN
FUN
FUR
RED
REF
RUE
RUN
URN

4 letter words
DUNE
FEND
FERN
FEUD
FUND
NERD
NUDE
REND
RUDE
RUED
RUNE

5 letter words
NUDER
UNDER
UNFED

6 letter word
REFUND

More Realistic Plans

As I stated in my introduction to this blog on the Kindle, I'd intended to learn every single word in the Scrabble dictionary by next November (2012) in order to make a good showing at my first official Scrabble tournament in Dallas.

That was a bit ambitious...and I'm sure I knew it at the time...

My revised, scaled-down plan, is to learn every 2- and 3-letter word between now and next November.

I've got I suppose about 2/3rds of the 2-letter words down, but haven't even started on learning the 3-letter words, except the ones I've learned by playing scrabble online in the last month or so.

But it's more than just learning the words, you have to know them by heart. So far I know the 2 letter words that start with each letter, (A through Z, with no C or V!) but if I needed to pull out a 2-letter word that ends in a specific letter...a bit harder. So I'll be working on that.

And that will also be my plan for the 3 letter words. Knowing not only all the words starting A through Z, but also ending A through Z.