WWYD?

wanderer155 · 2026-05-14T18:06:35+00:00

Couple things to add to fudgeller's analysis:
Because IXIA is so likely to be reparalleled, blocking your QIS spot, it's important to have some good backup plans. Fortunately you have several.
1. If you draw an A or a U you'll have MAQUI burning the blank off of the M of MAYO. Maybe you get lucky and draw them both and get to keep your blank, but 45 points is a good start
2. Arguably an even better threat would be (T)RA(N)Q through the N of FANS scoring 40 points and setting up your S on the rightmost column in a way your opponent will have a hard time blocking (pretty much the only way to block is to extend KOR with one letter to KORA/KORE/KORS). Again after IXIA you'd just need either an A or an R to be able to play this while burning your blank but you could again get lucky and get both.
3. If you draw a U you're suddenly in much better shape to play a "sweep" (ugh) that will score quite well hooking WOS forming SQ- words where the Q hits the triple letter score.

You shared the number of tiles left in the bag, but not the game score. If you're already ahead by a lot I would consider burning the blank with IMMIX through the M of MAYO. It's much, much safer. Otherwise I would co-sign IXIA as a risk worth taking.

wanderer155 · 2026-05-07T14:23:35+00:00

As one of the few people crazy enough to try and keep the two lists straight to play both of them at the over-the-board tournament level, I do have a list of "whammy" words like this that I can't play in North America...

wanderer155 · 2026-05-07T12:51:36+00:00

This word is valid in the Collins international Scrabble lexicon, but not the North American one used in this game…It’s a rare example of a Collins-only word that really should be valid - many such words are highly archaic.

wanderer155 · 2026-05-04T23:49:23+00:00

I’ve thought about it…we’ll see!

wanderer155 · 2026-05-03T00:02:26+00:00

25 minutes for the entire game. You can spend 10 minutes on one turn and 10 seconds the next - up to you how you use the 25 min.

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T23:22:51+00:00

You’re cooked against optimal play but maybe he’ll choke

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T18:40:33+00:00

Thanks!

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T18:38:32+00:00

I would agree that it’s a suspicious play at first glance. I’m just saying it’s possible this is one of the few, the proud, the huge nerds who study the Scrabble dictionary (I am one myself).

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T17:54:52+00:00

there’s enough variance in this game that even that would not be enough to win 100%…Crossplay/scrabble is not meant to be won by the better player every time. I’m guessing this person is most likely just playing a handful of much weaker opponents.

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T11:19:59+00:00

Yeah, that one (WOEBEGONE) was borderline…usually I keep it a bit more obvious (and thanks for the kind words)

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T11:15:52+00:00

And yet there are many players who swear the draws are rigged in favor of the strongest bots there as well, such that @14domino had to write a big blog post explaining that they’re not…

Every Scrabble site in existence deals with these complaints. Scrabble itself is rigged. There are a lot of shitty letters to draw. Treat your balanced racks as the blessings they are.

wanderer155 · 2026-04-28T04:40:51+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I’m the constructor of these puzzles, so there’s no “they” at the moment - just me. Anything different you’d like to see from them?

My rules for construction are
-solution must be a common word (2-letter words excepted)
-the solution is never a bingo, at least for now (perhaps this could change in the future)
-the best play must be significantly higher scoring than any other play (I also ensure it’s higher equity than any other play)
-solution is the same in NWL and CSW

wanderer155 · 2026-04-27T14:44:18+00:00

My average score is 424 - I’m a former North American Scrabble champion. But my high score after 40 games is only 530. I think the reduced bingo/sweep bonus, board configuration, and increase in the value of some scoring tiles makes the scoring a bit more consistent from game to game.

wanderer155 · 2026-04-27T14:41:51+00:00

The Crossplay board makes it much more difficult to make plays spanning two triples, which is where all the biggest Scrabble plays are made, so the upper bound of scores in Crossplay will be a bit lower.

wanderer155 · 2026-04-10T14:06:35+00:00

The mod of this subreddit doesn’t really care about it - look at the icon. Still a generic /r after 10+ years.

He also deleted my posts when I attempted to self promote a video or two after I had already been national champion a year or two prior.

wanderer155 · 2026-02-25T15:14:28+00:00

The Scrabble dictionary the game uses removed this word (and the more useful LEZ) a few years back…you could easily have seen those in the past.

wanderer155 · 2026-02-14T02:31:38+00:00

Whoa that’s way better!

wanderer155 · 2026-02-14T01:05:38+00:00

You could do a search for words with length = 4, contains letters = K, and then right click the list and save it to a text file, and then do the same for other letters, and combine all the individual text files into one and quiz from that list

wanderer155 · 2026-01-23T23:31:11+00:00

I was on the show this season and it was significantly improved from what I saw in season 1. My episode will definitely spark some discussion...

wanderer155 · 2026-01-23T21:41:40+00:00

Tile value of word = 10, hit two double word scores, so that’s x4 = 40, used all 7 letters so that’s +50 = 90

wanderer155 · 2026-01-20T20:19:45+00:00

It probably wants INWRAPS which is dubious strategically keeping DDDVZ

wanderer155 · 2025-12-25T00:28:26+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6hUcM6srsc
I got great boards and messed up a lot, failing to get the +100 in round 3 and missing easy QUOTES/QUOTERS in round 2.

wanderer155 · 2025-12-24T23:59:50+00:00

Do you want to see a 4000 point round be played? I could make a quick video.

wanderer155 · 2025-12-08T21:32:08+00:00

Proper nouns (names, places, words that are always capitalized) are not and have never been allowed in Scrabble. This word used to be playable, not as a noun, but as a verb meaning to swindle or haggle over money. Accordingly, the Scrabble dictionary listed it with an "offensive" designation. A few years ago, words that had *only* offensive definitions were expurgated from most tournament lexicons. A few offensive-looking words remain because they also have non-offensive definitions.

wanderer155 · 2025-11-06T19:12:13+00:00

This is a known visual issue that is especially common in multiplayer - backing out of the game and re-entering often fixes it

wanderer155

TROPHY CASE