Since there has been a lot of interest in Scrabble, especially in #fluodome, I am posting some tips that people will hopefully find useful.
Using the following breakdown of average points per turn, you can figure out where you stand in terms of skill level:
<14 Novice
15-19 Beginner
20-24 Intermediate
25-29 Advanced
>30 Expert
You can use this as an indicator of your progress as you improve. A normal 1v1 game between advanced+ players will usually last 12-15 turns, so you can easily calculate what your average total should be.
SECTION A: Tiles
Rack Management
1) Balance
Long words are obviously easier to make with a balanced ratio of consonants to vowels. 4:3 or 3:4 is ideal, but 5:2 could be just as good depending on the composition of your tiles. 2:5 is much less desirable, but remains managable. If you regularly find yourself with a worse ratio, then there is something wrong. Maintaining a relatively balanced rack is the first step to long term success.
2) Assessing your rack
Continuing from the previous point, how good your rack actually is depends on the composition of tiles. BDLNRSE is far superior to CMVYIOU. Repeated tiles are rarely desirable and sometimes it will be better to make an inferior play just to use them.
3) Remaining tiles
There is a neat function on Scrabulous that allows you to view the unplayed tiles (click the red button under the question mark). You should keep track of this, particularly towards the end of the game (where blocking comes into play). It is useful in instances where you are otherwise indifferent between two moves: e.g. you can play HEED or HEAD for the same score. Check the remaining tiles to see how many A and E tiles are left, and act accordingly to reduce the probability of having repeated tiles next turn.
4) Turnover
Simply, the more tiles you use per turn, the more tiles you will use per game, and the higher you are likely to score. Lesser players should aim to use 3-4 tiles on average, while advancing players should look to use 4-5.
4 Point Tiles
H - The best 4 point tile, because it can form a two letter word with every vowel, and SH/HM are also valid.
Y - Has an advantage over H in that Y has more opportunities to branch off a word (e.g. BRAND -> BRANDY).
F and W - not as good as H or Y, but remain more versatile than V.
V - V is useful for blocking the board because it has no valid two letter words
Premium Tiles
K - K is a lot like Y, except it can branch off the beginning AND end of many words (NIT -> KNIT, BUN -> BUNK). Works well with R, N and C.
J - JO is your only two letter word using the TWL dictionary, thus J is far inferior to X.
X - X is the second best letter tile in the game, because it forms two letter words with every vowel. The minimum score you should aim for from the X tile
alone should be 24, unless you bingo.
Q and Z have one two letter word each (QI and ZA) and are half decent blocking tiles.
Blank Tile
Although blanks are denoted to have no points, they are worth about the equivalent of the upper bound of your skill level +1 (i.e. for an advanced player, a blank would be worth 30). That means you should not use them lightly! If you cannot bingo, only consider using a blank if it allows you to score the aforementioned value above your otherwise best play (so if an advanced player can only score 15 without the blank, (s)he must score
>45 to justify using it). For an expert, a blank represents a virtually guaranteed bingo sooner or later.
S
S is your friend and deserves its own section. There are only 4 in the game and I consider S the best letter tile because it branches off most words; it often allows you to just reach that double/triple word score; and it is far easier to bingo with, than any other letter.
Swapping Tiles
Avoid swapping tiles. If you can play 3 tiles this turn, do not swap. If you have 6 or 7 vowels and can play 2 repeated vowels this turn, do not swap (the exception is if you have a rack like EEEIIIU). If you have 7 consonants and can play any 2, do not swap (the exception is if you have a rack like NNNTTTV). If you cannot fulfil any of the above, swap 4 or more tiles, while kicking and screaming.
SECTION B: Strategy
Branching
Branching is adding a letter onto a word to form a new word and playing off it perpendicularly, thereby scoring the previous word again. D is a useful tile for branching off adjectives and verbs, e.g.:
Two letter Words
1) Brief
Two letter words are enormously important if you want to score above 300 points regularly in a 1v1 game. Simply, if you make multiple words in one turn, the tiles common to two words are counted twice (or many more times depending on premium squares). A common tactic to abuse this is to play a juxtaposed word:
2) Premium Squares
Premium squares are double/triple letter/word squares and they are what make H and X (and other high point consonants) such good tiles. E.g. suppose your opponent leaves an A in front of a triple letter score, playing AX/EX nets you 3*8*2 = 48 points for the X tile alone. For this reason, it is advised that you avoid leaving vowels next to premium squares.
Bingos
A bingo is a 50 point bonus for using your entire rack. The skill and speed for spotting them develops over time, but meanwhile, the following common prefixes and suffixes will make your life much easier:
1) Prefixes
OUT-
OVER-
RE-
UN-
2) Suffixes
-ABLE
-ATE
-ED
-ER
-FUL
-IER
-IES
-IEST
-ILY
-ING
-ISM
-ISE/IZE
-IVE
-OUS
-TION
Blocking the Board
As you improve, you need to think about your opponent's rack in addition to your own.
1) General
C and V are the best letters for blocking the board because they have no valid two letter words, so it is impossible to play a juxtaposed word alongside. If your opponent likes to play long words on an open board, it can be worthwhile to actively try to block the board and limit his/her options.
2) Endgame
Blocking becomes more important in the endgame. If you keep track of the remaining tiles, you can figure what your opponent is likely to have. The most frequent scenario is when your opponent has the Q; it is your job then to block his possible moves because if he is stuck with that Q, it is deducted from his total and added to yours.
Planning Ahead
You can plan branching plays beforehand. For example, you might play OUCH, keeping a C to branch off COUCH next turn. To take the concept further, suppose you can play JOUNCE, but the J would expose a triple word score. Suppose also that you look at the remaining tiles, and there are no Ps left (no opportunity for POUNCE). You can play OUNCE, planning to branch off JOUNCE onto the triple word score next turn.
Planning can happen from turn one. Suppose your rack is AEIDLTV, missing an A for VALIDATE. You can play VALID with the V in the middle and D on double letter (usually you would do the opposite because V is worth more points). If you then draw an A next turn, you can play VALIDATE onto the triple word.
Drawing Inferences
Similarly, suppose your opponent moves first and plays FLUMP with the P on double letter rather than F. This is strange because it costs 4 points. You can infer that (s)he has two letters from ING, intending to play FLUMPING onto the triple word next turn. This means you need to block the possibility (e.g. by branching off FLUMPS) and avoid playing N or G (your opponent rates to have IN or IG more often than NG, so if you play N or G, that could give him/her a bingo with the suffix -ING).
Suppose your opponent "wastes" a S tile; unless (s)he is a novice to intermediate player, (s)he almost certainly has another S and was using a repeated tile.
Playing for time
Many games are timed, but you can put pressure on your opponent by moving quickly early on. This will cumulate because you can use your opponent's thinking time to plan your next move. When playing for time, always have a backup move so you can play quickly even if your opponent takes your spot.
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Will update this post later.
