I’m still playing poker, and currently doing pretty well. From time-to-time I’m also playing Scrabble online.
This is a really different animal. There is no pretense of a friendly game. You are playing against others who know what they’re doing and usually do it well.
My ‘sweet spot’ is a 10 minute per side game. I had (until tonight) done pretty well at it. My rating, which had gone to the low 500’s was around 625. After three awful losses, it’s 600.
Tonight’s first game was a four minute game. What was I thinking? Four minutes per side to go through all the tiles. And, if you thought quickly, but not accurately, there were challenges.
Ask the man who was challenged… and lost.
Here’s the part that will sound odd. When played for speed against good players, this is a very exciting game! There is no time to screw around. There is no time to think. You’d better memorize as many little words and connector words as you can.
At the moment, I’m 44-52 with a 286 point per game score. Many of the losses came early on. I will get better.