Merry Christmas Scrabble players!

[Donald Sauter]

Here are the highlights from the two (2) Scrabble games played last
night, Wednesday, December 23, 2009, at the Dover Scrabble Club
(Delaware).

What with the lingering effects of the big snow storm, only two of us
showed up for two good games. We averaged 31.7 Points Per Turn as a
group. The first game was the most vowel-heavy ever, containing 126%
of the expected number of vowels for a scoop of 110 tiles. Still, we
found a bunch of good words, such as OUTEATEN, GAIETY, and EQUINE to
use 'em all except for a leftover I. Lynn said, "Let me scoop the
tiles for the second game!" and sure enough, that one was very
consonant-heavy. Still, it gave Lynn her first 500+ game. (Remember,
though, most of our games are 3- or 4-person.)

Tile oddities: The vowel-heavy game had 13A, 18E and 12O. The
consonant-heavy game had 5F, 5G, 4M, 4V, and 2Q. Every game is fresh
and different!

Scrabble II is the purest form of Scrabble played anywhere. A few
small, natural rule fixes keep players gunning for l---o---n---g
words. It pulls the rug out from under those ridiculous, tired, old,
connect-the-dot, baby-word plays that have become identified with
Scrabble over the last few decades. It restores Scrabble as a test of
anagram skills. (How novel!)

Scrabble II does not allow phony words. In our club, we use a
conventional dictionary, the American Heritage. Scrabble II is more
intelligent, challenging, and sophisticated than modern American
tournament-style Scrabble in every way. Heck, over 40% of the oddball
plays on championship boards wouldn't even be allowed in our club.
See:

www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble-ii.htm

ALL I'M ASKING FOR . . .

1. Give it a try!

2. Give it a try and report back!

3. A quality Scrabble II program placed prominently on the internet.
I'll pay reasonable programming costs!

4. A dear, old benefactor to bankroll a Scrabble II tournament with
the largest ever cash prizes for a Scrabble tournament, which would
still amount to chicken feed!

5. Too stuck in your ways to try it? Send me photos or screen shots
of a batch of your best tournament-style, baby-word Scrabble games and
I'll make you famous with a web page like the one above for the
National Scrabble Champions!

6. If nothing else, think of me hooting "Bravo!" over your shoulder
every time you haul out one of tournament Scrabble's tired, old, baby-
word plays.

Here's what we played last night in 2 games:

*** 9-letter Words ***

ANNEALING

*** 8-letter Words ***

CURTAINS
OUTEATEN
PORTENDS
UPRAISES

*** 7-letter Words ***

ACTIONS
AERATOR
AVENUES
CHAIRED
HEALTHY
OUTROOT
SNOOZED
SQUINTY (Note: not QI)

*** 6-letter Words ***

AWOKEN
BEREFT
BUGLER
EATERY
ENGINE
EQUINE (Note: not QI)
FRAMER
GAIETY
MONIED
QUILLS (Note: not QI)
WEDGES

*** 5-letter Words ***

GAUZE
IVORY
QUACK (Note: not QI)
VIGOR

*** Selected 4-letter Words ***

COIF
FLEA
MUCK
TAXI

*** Just these 3-letter Words ***

GEE GOT HAM JAM JAY KEY LOG NOR OAF OWE SEW SOY WEN

*** Just these 2-letter Words ***

AB AH AS BE EF EM HE NO NO OF PA UT YO

You, too, can set your Scrabble board ablaze with REAL WORDS found in
a REAL DICTIONARY, and used by REAL PEOPLE:

www.donaldsauter.com/scrabble.htm

Donald Sauter