ADEGIKR

DEENQTV

Missing the Point: Points and Entropy

Points, leave, and board. These are the “holy trinity” of Scrabble. Master these components, and you’ve seemingly mastered the game, except for the component hidden from most intermediate players: entropy.

While entropy isn’t an obvious component, it is extremely important: so much so that there is another <SERIES ON ENTROPY>. The relationship between points and entropy is discussed in those articles. In summary, when you are either ahead or behind, you should be more willing to sacrifice points and/or leave to remove variance from the game and minimize risks. At close scores, you should ignore risk and just make the play that accounts for points/leave/board.

Close scores vs. lead/deficits

There are two categories of plays that exhibit entropy frequently where many players make mistakes,

Passing up the Bingo

Outscoring vs. Blocking