Why do "expert" scrabble players get the best letters?

Question

I played the on-line scrabble game which came with the Sunday Times and it annoyed me for 2 reasons. First my opponent came up with words I can find no definition for, effs and lez. The latter I have heard of but only as an abbreviation for L*****n. It's not a word. The word Java was used which I believe is a proper name and disallowed for that reason. There is neither an appeals system nor can you ask for a definition.

But the main reason it annoyed me was that somehow the more expert my opponent was the more high scoring letters they got. So while I sat there with a string of vowels worth 1 my opponent came out with word after word with high scoring consonants. In reality of course however expert a player may be he has no control over what letters he gets but makes the best use of those he has available.

OK it's a rant but I can't complain to the computer!

Answer 1

If you take a look at the official "scrabble" dictionary, there are thousands of words like what you describe. I can never find and explanation of what they mean, but it pays to remember as many as you can.

Answer 2

Could it be because:

           because they generally get longer words, then in the course of a game you and he will dip your hand into the bag the same number of times, however he will be pulling out more tiles than you. This would mean that overall, he has a better chance of pulling those good letters.

Answer 3

In all likelihood, the program was using the Official Tournament and Club List, which is the lexicon used by the National Scrabble Association in its sanctioned tourneys and club

Effs is the plural of Eff, one of the ways to spell the letter F. and lez is a shortened word meaning L*****n.  It is not an abbreviation, like cab and taxi are shortened forms of taxicab, not abbreviations.

Java is slang for coffee and nor a proper noun in this instance, like china isn't when referring to dishes.

Eff is in The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th edition,

So is java.

Lez isn't, because it is deemed to be offensive.  The Official Word List, contains "Offensive" words, but unlike in the Dictionary, no word is defined in the List.

Edit

Cooler  He is referring to and on-line game.

In Scrabble tournaments..  players used plastic screenprinted tiles that cannot be "brailled".It is actually required to be so in the Tournament rules!)

Google scrabble protiles and you can order some for yourself

Answer 4

Well the reason is that expert players know the game so there more likely to know what the piaces feel like so when they reach there hand in the bag they can feel for the letter they are looking and they also have more attention to how to play it and make a move in a wise play. But if you play online its because it is in a mode where they give them randomly what they need.

Answer 5

yes it does seem the computer picks mighty good letters-need to get scrabble dictionary to find a lot of those words-all i can say is keep playing you will learn a lot of new words

Answer 6

This is probably because expert players know which tiles to keep and which tiles to throw away in average words

Answer 7

duh why would an expert player lose to an unexperienced player ,well this is how the exert does it:

1 he/she takes his time(hes not in a rush)

2 he/she looks for open spaces for triple word scores and double word scores.

3 he tries to take advantage over the opponent

Answer 8

For effs sake calm down and lez have a cup of Java - sounds like you are suffering from IVS (Irritable Vowel Syndrome) to me...

It's OK to rant lol!

Edit: Have you tried this site? http://www.scrabulous.com/