It's way too late, so I'll be brief. I lucked into winning the early bird in Phoenix. My first real Div 1 tournament, and I won it. Woo! I really mean I lucked into it, though; I got incredible tiles ( Read more... )

I've added some more detail to the FAQ about how Zyzzyva calculates word probabilities, because I get a lot of questions about it. In particular, I wrote up some simple examples to demonstrate why words with doubled and tripled letters are much less probable than words with all unique letters. I hope you find this useful ( Read more... )

Here's some fun for your Tuesday morning. Anyone who can keep this nightmare straight in your head, I salute you. This list was inspired by the fact that I played, and got away with, a phony alternate spelling at the Scrabble club last week ( Read more... )

Here's a Christmas present for you. It's a list of all Collins words that take an S, which are also acceptable but do not take an S in OWL2.

http://mike.pietdepsi.com/scrabble/csw-takes-s.txt

Thanks to everyone who helped me with my decision to play in the Collins division in Phoenix. I'm now going a little crazy with the Collins study, and there are a lot of fun words in here ( Read more... )

I recently found out the Phoenix Scrabble tournament will be hosting a Collins division, and I'm torn about whether to enter it. I'll definitely be going to the Phoenix tournament; my only decision is whether to play OWL2 or Collins. I like to make decisions by writing out lists of pros and cons, so here they are ( Read more... )

What's the point of studying HYPNIC if I'm not going to challenge PINCHY*? I totally didn't even think twice about it at the club tonight. Gah!

I've been doing some thinking and some reprioritizing of my time, and I've decided that I would like to get back into serious Scrabble study. I really haven't studied at all since Phoenix in February. And I can tell, because my brain has felt pretty foggy during most club sessions. The other day I played FAP# (hm, that must be why I thought it was ( Read more... )

Here's a quickie. I'm visiting family in Michigan, and last night we played a couple of 4-player Scrabble games. The fact that we're playing in Michigan made it all the more appropriate that I found the following play:

(EDIT: there's a hidden blank in the picture - my rack is ?AEKORU)


( Read more... )

Hi all, my accommodation plans for Phoenix have fallen through, so I'm looking for a place to stay for the Phoenix tournament. I'm playing in the early bird, so I'll be showing up Thursday night (Feb 12) and staying for four nights (Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun). If you have any space available, or know anyone who does, please let me know. If you already ( Read more... )