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(4) ARSINE+?

2011 February 16
by admin

POISON MIGHT KILL OFF THRIVING CHILD
[Click HERE for an expla­na­tion of bingo stems]

 ARCSINE  the inverse func­tion to the sine [n –S] */s
 ARSENIC  a metal­lic ele­ment [n –S] */s
 CARNIES– CARNIE, carny (a car­ni­val (a trav­el­ing amuse­ment show)) [n] */*
 RANDIES  RANDY, a rude per­son [n] b/t
 SANDIER  SANDY, con­tain­ing or cov­ered with sand [adj] */*
  read more…

(3) RETAIN+?

2011 February 16
by admin

SMUG WIFE KEEPS THE CHILDREN
[Click HERE for an expla­na­tion of bingo stems]

 CERATIN  ker­atin (a fibrous pro­tein) [n –S] */s
 CERTAIN  absolutely con­fi­dent [adj –TAINER, –TAINEST] */*
 CREATIN  cre­a­tine (a chem­i­cal com­pound) [n –S] */egs
 TACRINE  a drug for treat­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease [n –S] */s
 ANTIRED  opposed to com­mu­nism [adj] */*
  read more…

Club Minutes — January 9, 2011

2011 February 13
by admin

MINUTES
NASPA Scrabble Club #803 Nacogdoches
www​.old​town​scrab​ble​.com
01/09/2011 (Sunday)

 

Next Meeting: Sunday, February 13, at 3:00 pm, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX, 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX, 75961, (936) 559‑9350. We will meet upstairs. Click HERE for a map.

Attendees: Phillip Collier, Krystal Roach, Brent D. Beal, Heather Beal, Chrissy Hennessey, Nathan Woodward, Marin Beal

read more…

2011 State of Texas Scrabble Championship

2011 January 29
by admin

The 2011 State of Texas Scrabble Championship is in Salado, TX (about 4 hours away from Nacogdoches).  It is being held February 4 – 6.

A few of us from the Nacogdoches Scrabble Club are going to attend.  We will leave around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday (Feb. 5) and return fairly late the next day (on Sunday).  We have room for a few more folks to car­pool.  Please let me know ASAP if you would like to attend.

Here is a PDF infor­ma­tion sheet: http://​www​.cross​-tables​.com/​d​o​w​n​l​o​a​d​/​2​0​1​1​/​0​2​/​s​a​l​a​d​o​.​pdf.

Here’s a gen­eral link: http://​www​.cross​-tables​.com/.

Brent

2011 Club Meeting Schedule

2011 January 5
by admin

NOTE: This sched­ule was last edited on 10/22/2011 (see below for changes).

We do not cur­rently have any reg­u­lar meet­ings sched­uled. Please con­tact Brent D. Beal if you feel like play­ing a game (he would love to pick up a few games when­ever pos­si­ble; see below, or the About page, for con­tact information).

Most of the reg­u­lar mem­bers of the club moved dur­ing the sum­mer and we are in the process of regroup­ing.  If you’re inter­ested in get­ting involved in the club, please get in touch with Brent.

ORIGINAL NOTE: This is the 2011 meet­ing sched­ule for the Nacogdoches Scrabble Club #803.  Our reg­u­lar meet­ing is the sec­ond Sunday of each month from 3:00 to 6:00 at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX (1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX 75961 – 4482, 936 – 559-9350).  We meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.  We will also meet on the fourth Sunday in February and June and make trips down to Houston (to play with the Houston Scrabble Club) on the fourth Sunday in March, July, and October.  We will attend two tour­na­ments (one in May, the other in August)

January 9 — Regular Meeting
February 13 - Regular Meeting
February 27 - Regular Meeting
March 13 - Regular Meeting
March 27 — Houston Club
April 10 — Regular Meeting
May 8 - Regular Meeting
May 28 – 30 (Saturday-Monday) - Houston Tournament (Bayou Bash)
June 12 - Regular Meeting
—*
August 6 – 10 (Saturday-Wednesday) - National Scrabble Championship in Dallas
—*
November 5 – 6 — The Old Town Showdown (Nacogdoches Tournament)

Brent

Brent D. Beal
brent@​oldtownscrabble.​com
225 – 802-7015

Hooks

2010 December 20
by admin

Here are some stats on the num­ber of words that can be “hooked” from shorter words by adding a sin­gle let­ter.  For exam­ple, as shown in the table below, there are 8938 five-letter words.  2230 of these words can be cre­ated by adding a let­ter to the front of a four-letter word (a front hook) and 4528 of these words can be formed by adding a let­ter to the back of a four-letter work (a back hook).  The total num­ber that can be “hooked” from four-letter words is 5498.  This num­ber drops to 2889 when ter­mi­nal esses are excluded.  The last col­umn is the per­cent­age of the total num­ber of words of a given length that can be cre­ated by hook­ing shorter words (with ter­mi­nal esses excluded).

read more…

Club Minutes — December 12, 2010

2010 December 12
by admin

MINUTES
NASPA Scrabble Club #803 Nacogdoches
www​.old​town​scrab​ble​.com
12/12/2010 (Sunday)

 

Next Meeting: Sunday, January 9, at 3:00 pm, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX, 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX,  75961, (936) 559‑9350.  We will meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.

Attendees: Phillip Collier, Krystal Roach, Brent D. Beal, Marin Beal

read more…

Club Minutes — November 14, 2010

2010 December 11
by admin

MINUTES
NASPA Scrabble Club #803 Nacogdoches
www​.old​town​scrab​ble​.com
11/14/2010 (Sunday)

 

Next Meeting: Sunday, December 12, at 3:00 pm, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX, 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX,  75961, (936) 559‑9350.  We will meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.

Attendees: Madeline Collins, Marin Beal, Phillip Collier, Brent D. Beal, Heather Olson Beal

read more…

Club Minutes — October 10, 2010

2010 December 11
by admin

MINUTES
NASPA Scrabble Club #803 Nacogdoches
www​.old​town​scrab​ble​.com
10/10/2010 (Sunday)

 

Next Meeting: Sunday, November 14, at 3:00 pm, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX, 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX,  75961, (936) 559‑9350.  We will meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.

Attendees: Laura McEntire, Nathan Woodward, Brent D. Beal, Christine Hennessey

read more…

(2) SATIRE+?

2010 December 5
by admin

BAD SPEECH REVIEW – FLAMING WIT
[Click HERE for an expla­na­tion of bingo stems]

 ARISTAE– ARISTA, a bristle­like struc­ture or appendage [n]  
 ASTERIA  a gem­stone cut to exhibit aster­ism [n –S]  s
 ATRESIA  absence or clo­sure of a nat­ural bod­ily pas­sage [n –S] : ATRESIC, ATRETIC [adj]  s
 BAITERS– BAITER, one that baits (to lure (to attract with some­thing desir­able)) [n]  
 BARITES– BARITE, a min­eral [n]

read more…

Bingo Stems Study Grids

2010 December 5
by admin

Top 100 6-letter Bingo Stems (from Mike Baron’s Scrabble Workbook)

I will fill out this grid as I make my way through the Bingo Stems.  Go HERE for an expla­na­tion of Bingo Stems.

NOTE: Additional grids are posted on the Word Study page HERE.

read more…

Bingo Stems

2010 December 5
by admin

A bingo is a play in which all seven let­ters on your rack are used, and it yields both the points on the board AND a fifty-point bonus, accord­ing to an online bingo myths.  In most cases, a bingo involves a seven– or eight-letter word (although longer words can be cre­ated by uti­liz­ing two or more tiles already on the board).  So if you want to improve your abil­ity to play bin­gos, that leaves a pool of around 53k words to learn (there are 24,029 seven-letter words and another 29,766 eight-letter words).

read more…

(1) TISANE+?

2010 December 4
by admin

TUCKSHOP WIZ FIXES MEDICINAL BEVERAGE
[Click HERE for an expla­na­tion of bingo stems]

 ENTASIA  spas­modic con­trac­tion of a mus­cle [n –S]  s
 TAENIAS– TAENIA, a head­band worn in ancient Greece [n]  
 BANTIES  BANTY, a ban­tam (a small fowl) [n]  
 BASINET  a medieval hel­met [n –S]  s
 ACETINS– ACETIN, a chem­i­cal com­pound [n]  
  read more…

Threes — Back Hooks

2010 November 26
by admin

All the back hooks (not includ­ing esses) for the threes (in one big clump).    There are 1331.

read more…

Threes — Front Hooks

2010 November 26
by admin

All the front hooks for the threes (in one big clump).  There are 1441.

read more…

Trademarks

2010 October 25
by admin

Who says you can’t play trade­marks in Scrabble?   This list is based on a list that was orig­i­nally com­piled by Rebecca Slivka of the Seattle Scrabble Club (NASPA Club #253).  Rebecca has com­piled a num­ber of really extra­or­di­nary lists – her lists (and oth­ers) are posted here:  http://​www​.seat​tle​scrab​ble​.org/​s​t​u​d​y​.​php.

read more…

Exclamations & Interjections

2010 October 17
by admin

This is a great list of excla­ma­tions and inter­jec­tions.  It’s based on a list that was orig­i­nally com­piled by Rebecca Slivka of the Seattle Scrabble Club (NASPA Club #253).  Rebecca has com­piled a num­ber of really extra­or­di­nary lists – her lists (and oth­ers) are posted here:  http://​www​.seat​tle​scrab​ble​.org/​s​t​u​d​y​.​php.

read more…

The Gees

2010 October 16
by admin

THE GEES: Pages 224 – 248 in the OSPD (with a few words from the LWL)

[NOTE: This is more of a per­sonal study page than any­thing else.  I’m mak­ing my way – for the first time – through the OSPD4, and this is my way of try­ing to secure territory.]

2 Letter (1):
GO
[NOTE: Only other “G” two-letter word is AG]

3 Letter (45):
GAB GAD GAE GAG GAL GAM GAN GAP GAR GAS GAT GAY GED GEE GEL GEM GEN GET GEY GHI GIB GID GIE GIG GIN GIP GIT GNU GOA GOB GOD GOO GOR GOS GOT GOX GOY GUL GUM GUN GUT GUV GUY GYM GYP

read more…

Words Spelled at Least Three Ways (Q-Z)

2010 October 14
by admin

These are words that begin with the let­ters Q-Z and that can be spelled at least three dif­fer­ent ways (3 of 3 files).  This list is based on a list com­piled by Amit Chakrabarti and posted on the Seattle Scrabble Club web­site: http://​www​.seat​tle​scrab​ble​.org/​s​t​u​d​y​.​php.

read more…

Top 1015 Bingos (by Probability)

2010 October 11
by admin

There are dif­fer­ent approaches to learn­ing seven-letter words.  One of the most inter­est­ing approaches involves learn­ing what are called six-letter bingo “stems.”  Bingo stems are six-letter words, like TISANE, that have a high prob­a­bil­ity of show­ing up on one’s rack (par­tic­u­larly if one prac­tices good rack man­age­ment tech­niques).  The idea is to use mnemon­ics to mem­o­rize the dif­fer­ent let­ters that can be com­bined with bingo stems (i.e. words like TISANE) to form bin­gos.  A mnemonic for TISANE is “Tuckshop wiz fixes med­i­c­i­nal bev­er­age” – every let­ter in the phrase can be com­bined with TISANE to form a seven-letter word.  In other words, if you have TISANE on your rack along with an X, for exam­ple, and you remem­ber the phrase “Tuckshop wiz fixes med­i­c­i­nal bev­er­age,” then you know you have a bingo on your rack.  All you have to do it find it.  In this case, there are two words (TISANE+X = ANTISEX or SEXTAIN).

More on bingo stems later.  Right now – in this post – I’ve taken a more straight­for­ward (and bor­ing) approach.  The fol­low­ing are the high­est prob­a­bil­ity 1015 seven-letter words.  The last col­umn (PROB) is the prob­a­bil­ity rank of the word (between 1 and 1015).

Note: The table below can be resorted (click on the col­umn head­ers) and searched (just type in the search box).

read more…

Nacogdoches Scrabble Club Meeting

2010 October 10
by admin

Hey folks, we are meet­ing SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 (tomor­row), at 3:00 PM, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX: 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX 75961 – 4482, (936) 559‑9350.  We will meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.

http://​old​town​scrab​ble​.com/​1​3​/​0​5​/​2​0​1​0​-​c​l​u​b​-​m​e​e​t​i​n​g​-​s​c​h​e​d​u​le/

Brent

Brent D. Beal
225 – 802-7015
brent@​oldtownscrabble.​com

“Hole” Words

2010 September 18
by admin

These are some fun words.  Kids, for exam­ple, will have have a lot of fun with words like PIEHOLE, COALHOLE, BUNGHOLE, etc. read more…

Club Minutes — September 12, 2010

2010 September 18
by admin

 MINUTES
NASPA Scrabble Club #803 Nacogdoches
www​.old​town​scrab​ble​.com
09/12/2010 (Sunday)

 

Next Meeting: Sunday, October 10, at 3:00 pm, at Java Jacks in Nacogdoches, TX, 1122 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX,  75961, (936) 559‑9350.  We will meet upstairs.  Click HERE for a map.

Attendees: Brent D. Beal (with daugh­ter, Marin Beal; Stuart Beal spectated).

Marin was hop­ing for an even num­ber of atten­dees so that she would be able to play.  It was a good thing she tagged along.  We played two games – It was her first time play­ing with a clock and a track­ing sheet. read more…

Single or Double Last Letter Words

2010 August 23
by admin

Remember that rule about long and short vow­els and whether or not the last let­ter is repeated when con­ju­gat­ing a verb?  Take the word ANVIL, for exam­ple.  It’s a verb, so you can add –ED, –ING, or –S, but how do you spell it:  ANVILING or ANVILLING?  As it turns out, either way.  There are a num­ber of words that go both ways – and I’ve listed them below.

I’ve also included dif­fer­ent words that when taken together pro­duce more or less the same result as the ambidex­trous words described above.  For exam­ple, take the word BAR (a verb, to exclude or shut out).  It’s con­ju­gated BARRED, BARRING, BARS.  But BARED, BARING and BARES are also accept­able words.  In cases like this, I include the dif­fer­ent root words (in this case, BAR and BARE). read more…

FUL Quantity Words

2010 August 22
by admin

These are 81 “ful” quan­tity words (29 of which can be made plural by adding an “s” in the mid­dle of the word):

read more…