How to Correctly Apply Premium Bonuses When Playing Scrabble
Scrabble has been one of the most popular board games since it came out in 1949. It is a simple game that derives its complexity from a player's ability to imaginatively and strategically form real words from random letter tiles, making it playable by almost anyone. Despite the wide popularity of Scrabble, it is a game that is often scored incorrectly despite its fairly simple rules. The confusion in scoring comes from the "premium squares" found throughout the board that can double or triple a letter or word's value. Because these squares are vital to a winning Scrabble strategy, it is important to score them correctly.
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Instructions
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Adding Up Scrabble Points
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1
Place a word on the board from your collection of letter tiles. This must be a legal move creating legitimate words with all of the tiles that are already in play (if the move you are making is not the first move of the game).
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2
Add up the basic score. This is done by adding together the numbers on all of the letter tiles placed during the player's move, and those that were already in play that became part of the new word that was formed.
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3
Calculate letter bonuses. Multiply the number on any tile that covers a new double or triple letter square by the appropriate amount. Only premium squares that were covered during the player's current move count. If the letter on the square was used to create multiple new words, it is multiplied once for each word. Blank tiles, which can be used as any letter in the alphabet, can be placed on letter bonus quares to help you form a word, but have a value of zero points, so they are not able to be doubled or tripled to help you gain a high score.
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4
Calculate word bonuses. Word bonuses are calculated in the same way as letter bonuses, but the bonus applies to all tiles in the word instead of just a single letter, doubling or tripling the value of the word or words. In the case of multiple premium tiles being covered, letter bonuses are applied first, then word bonuses are applied to the adjusted value. Multiple word bonuses also stack, effectively doubling or tripling an already adjusted value. A double double becomes times four. A double and triple word bonus becomes times six, etc. Blank tiles can be used to gain a double or triple word bonus, but don't count for any points when calculating the value of the word.
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5
Add bingo bonuses. If a player uses all seven of their tiles in a round, he or she gets a "BINGO!". This adds 50 points onto the total score for the round, in addition to the score they get for forming a word or words. If a player has less than seven tiles for any reason, they cannot earn a bingo bonus.
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