"Finally cracked a 600 score at Scrabble! Hoorah." Blog discussion

MikeJO

Not a great Scrabbler but a question springs to mind.

Assuming a "bingo" is a fifty point bonus for using all your letters, wouldn't that more often than not result in an eight letter word?

Your four are all "only" seven letters....am I missing something (wouldn't be the first time)?

Richard019

For measuring the average wouldn't it be more relevent to your current ability to just use the last 200 games (based on the 4 a week claim) rather than the whole lot, a bit like the way the tennis and golf rankings only count results going so far back?

silvercar

Richard019 wrote: »

For measuring the average wouldn't it be more relevent to your current ability to just use the last 200 games (based on the 4 a week claim) rather than the whole lot, a bit like the way the tennis and golf rankings only count results going so far back?

I agree. You could also plot graphs of moving averages, say the average scores over the last 3 months. (always plot against the mid point, so the average of Oct Nov & Dec gets plotted at Nov, then the next data point is the average for Nov Dec & Jan, plotted at Dec.....)

You and Mrs MSE can then see who is improving most!

MSE_Martin

silvercar wrote: »

I agree. You could also plot graphs of moving averages, say the average scores over the last 3 months. (always plot against the mid point, so the average of Oct Nov & Dec gets plotted at Nov, then the next data point is the average for Nov Dec & Jan, plotted at Dec.....)

You and Mrs MSE can then see who is improving most!

Don't worry I have all of that - rolling averages, averages since we got married, rolling scores over 10 and 25 games, combined scores. Yet my aim is to get the overall average up (otherwise i've already hit 400 with my post wedding average

MSE_Martin

MikeJO wrote: »

Not a great Scrabbler but a question springs to mind.

Assuming a "bingo" is a fifty point bonus for using all your letters, wouldn't that more often than not result in an eight letter word?

Your four are all "only" seven letters....am I missing something (wouldn't be the first time)?

It's easier usually (though not always)) to work out a 7 letter on your rack then find somewhere to put it (an s always helps, but so does an er ending as they usually intersect well somewhere).

The problem with an 8 is usually fitting the letters is - because one tile will be immovable and often it doesn't fit.

Hope that makes sense .

MikeJO

MSE_Martin wrote: »

It's easier usually (though not always)) to work out a 7 letter on your rack then find somewhere to put it (an s always helps, but so does an er ending as they usually intersect well somewhere).

The problem with an 8 is usually fitting the letters is - because one tile will be immovable and often it doesn't fit.

Hope that makes sense .

That's good enough for me....I'll take your word for it (but I'll probably avoid challenging you to a game in the near future:o).

Paulgonnabedebtfree

It only ever happened the once but I actually got a nine letter word.
Probably about as rare as four leaf clovers.

Ken68

I play chess alternatively with scrabble. Turn the scrabble board round on a microwave dish.
My favourite word is "cusp". Don't know why, just is, and sometimes I play with myself...er...that didn't come out right.

CyCo_2

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

It only ever happened the once but I actually got a nine letter word.
Probably about as rare as four leaf clovers.

Not really, I've scored a fair few 9 letter words, a few 10 and 11 and even one 12 letter word: mongolianism

But I guess a lot of it is down to luck, not only the tiles you have in your rack, but also the positions of the letters already on the board.

JimmyTheWig

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Mrs MSE's best is a rocking 525 and she's been over 500 five times.

I win around 2 to 1 which is what you'd expect with a 35 odd point gap in the average - but I've been playing longer - its very competitive though.

I think we're both as good at word creating as each other. The difference is (if you pardon the phrase) I manage my rack better - and manage to hold onto letters which are good for bingos more than Mrs. MSE. It's a slight margin but I think its that which just gives me the edge.

Who has the higher standard deviation? [If you say you don't know, I won't believe you!]
That should tell you who has the more risky strategy.