Speaking of SC... I haven't broken my high score in OVER 2 Years!! WTH?!

[LostInSpace]

I got my best score in SC (1,066) almost 2.5 years ago, and since then I've memorized and studied ALL the common suffixes, prefixes, along with having memorized probably 80-90% of EVERY 6 and 7 letter SC word you can make with J, X, Q, & Z!!

I know WAYYYYY more words then I knew back then, I review the lists ALL the time, and I STILL haven't broken my high score!! That's NUTS!!

I'll admit I've blown a few games that probably would have got me there, that I never got finished with. That's my MAIN problem... I'm TOO DAMN SLOW!

BUT... Still I can't believe I haven't managed to beat a score from 2.5 years ago!

For me, 1,000 is a damn good game, but I see the Top Dogs hitting that number and above like nobody's business, all the time! I've probably broken 1,000 a few dozen times.

So it can't be the puzzles are any tougher, it's just ME!

My high score would've actually been 1,100 on the dot, if I hadn't transposed a couple of letters on one of my words that cost me 34 points!

Had to get that off my chest... Now maybe I'll break it, since I FINALLY spoke out!

HEY... While I'm at it, here's another complaint! Another thing that sucks is to be in the Top .01% of the best players, and can't win JACK most of the time, because of having about 15 or 20 people in front of you that can beat you 90%of the time, and THOSE are the ONLY people you get to play!

The Best of the Best (Maybe Top 10) know they're going to win 80% of the time, but the next batch of 20 or 30 people down get the SHAFT most of the time! Who cares if you get to slide in for some cash 20-30% of the time, when overall, you're going to LOSE in the long run!

The tournaments that go down 20 or 30 spots is about the ONLY hope to win anything! Okay, I'm done now!

[Renaldo Moon]

There is such a thing as having too much freedom. Constricting the possibilities a little will help you keep them all at-hand.

Whether or not you know a word isn't as important as what you're watching for in-game. You might know all the -ERS, -ED, -ING, and other suffixes, but the possibilities in SC are simply too cumbersome. Just work towards a few specific endings-- at least then you'll be working toward* something definite.

Let's say you're paid $5000 to write a book. Any book. Have it done in 1 week.
Now let's say you're paid $5000 specifically to write a detective murder-mystery novel, and have it done in 1 week.

Which one will be easier to get done by the deadline? Probably the one that already has a structure to work with.

When playing, I try to line up E's, R's, and S's the best I can. That's what I work towards. Surely, I could probably use them in other ways, possibly for more points, but if I'm looking at every possible setup it's too scatterbrained and I'll keep changing my mind about how to set the cubes up.

[LostInSpace]

There is such a thing as having too much freedom. Constricting the possibilities a little will help you keep them all at-hand.

You could be right about that! I spend so much time looking for the perfect word, I end up wasting too much time!

I'll spot a decent word then all the sudden see another prefix or suffix and start checking those possibilities. I'm giving myself too many choices, although, sometimes I can't spot diddly squat!

Then I waste too much time trying to find something decent, instead of just grabbing some fast 3 or 4 letter words to clear out a spot.

I'll have to see if I can narrow it down a bit.

[theartsyone]

I know you're beef lostinspace--unfortunately with SC, when you're an above average player you get lumped with the superior players and it's very hard to win much. I know I've played against you in freebies (I'm freckle1.msn on WW) but I don't know if I've played against you money tourneys, maybe but I win those about 30% of the time, and that's on a hot streak. I doubt I'm in the top 10% (or I shouldn't be) but the high stakes tournaments/dailys are always won by a handful of champions who seem to alternate coming in 1,2nd,3rd, and so on.

I tend to think the game is one of the more popular games on the site but I think the mass pool of players are at the lower end and those who are left must duke it out

I've had to lay low on WW for a little while, I've just lost too much money but Renaldo has some great tips for improving your SC game. My top score was 1021 which I set in early 2010 but this year I started seeing improvements and now my top score is 1085 which I got just last month. I'm still shooting for a 1200 score--at least before I die.

I suppose it's just perseverance...and a lot of hard earned moolah (sigh...)

[LostInSpace]

I know you're beef lostinspace--unfortunately with SC, when you're an above average player you get lumped with the superior players and it's very hard to win much. I know I've played against you in freebies (I'm freckle1.msn on WW) but I don't know if I've played against you money tourneys, maybe but I win those about 30% of the time, and that's on a hot streak. I doubt I'm in the top 10% (or I shouldn't be) but the high stakes tournaments/dailys are always won by a handful of champions who seem to alternate coming in 1,2nd,3rd, and so on.

I tend to think the game is one of the more popular games on the site but I think the mass pool of players are at the lower end and those who are left must duke it out

I've had to lay low on WW for a little while, I've just lost too much money but Renaldo has some great tips for improving your SC game. My top score was 1021 which I set in early 2010 but this year I started seeing improvements and now my top score is 1085 which I got just last month. I'm still shooting for a 1200 score--at least before I die.

I suppose it's just perseverance...and a lot of hard earned moolah (sigh...)

Hey... I was just playing against you a few minutes ago! I wasn't playing that good, but I was playing! I blow a lot of practice games if I don't really concentrate.

I blow some cash games too, but I know I don't have time to mess around if I want to stand a chance to win anything, so I try not to dilly-dally around!

I've seen your name on the daily progressives all the time (when I play). Well, believe it or not, I'd say we're both MUCH better than "above average" players! As far as I can see, we've got to be in the TOP .1% or better, considering there's probably tens of thousands of people playing. But when you're in the bottom section of the .1% and there's 10-15 people that are consistently in front of you, and there's only so many spots... We LOSE!

Just think how much we would win if all the games were random matching (that'll NEVER happen!)! The odds of getting matched against the REAL BIG BOYS or GIRLS would be SUPER slim!

I hardly ever play cash games anymore, because I hate to lose money. I'll only play if I'm playing really well, and sometimes I still don't win anything. I don't even mess with any games on Scrabble Cubes unless it's a tournament with at least 20 spots, because anything smaller than that... You can guess who's probably going to be in front of you when you're finished with the game!

Wranderson, BMY1, CharlieHuang, Rahnnyboy... And a few other regulars. Arctic Snowbunny used to ALWAYS be in top 1 or 2 spots, but I was reading they got canned? They would always win the Mystery PI Freeplays too! I don't know how they could be so consistent in that game.

I might have more of a chance of finishing higher if I took more chances, but most of the time I'll lay down my $1 and take one shot at it! If you've noticed on my avatar, I'm one of the few people in the upper bracket who's not a PC member! I'll NEVER hit what they want you get to make that club! Let's see... You need 100,000 points in a month, I've got 800 so far with 6 days to go, I'd better GET CRACKIN'!

I don't think I'm gonna make this month! I thought I was going tack on another 200 in the daily progressive today, but I was playing semi-lousy and struggling too hard for a decent score, so I skipped out!

Well, at least we have a chance to win a few bucks, I see some other people in that progressive that don't even look like they have a crack at a few bucks! I did finish 4th once! It was like my 2nd highest score of my life, and I got 4th!

Well, back to word lists!

[theartsyone]

For some reason when I read your last post, I could just see someone speaking really fast and very animated--you seem like you got a lot of a fire under the belt

But yah after I read this thread I decided to play some SC but the freebies are all a toss to me. Mostly I just try to improve my vocab and spot as many bingos as I can so generally I don't even finish the layout because I'm going so slow.

I'm always playing the daily and my initial highest score was reached playing the daily and on my first attempt--but I think I was 4th or 5th too. It's a rare thing that the first 10 slots aren't taken with 1000+ scores so unless you can do that frequently, you win $2-$6 bucks--I think I just play it for my ego and the hopes to see my name closer and closer to the top.

Being a PC member is just expensive but it's fun for the daily freeplays. But I've only a won a buck if that on SC and that's it for the month. But I was a PC member already from being on WW for so long now--the first month I was silver then it dropped to bronze and I've got it silver again but that was because I made some money playing BJ Twist...but then I blew it all on SC...Anyhow, I think you have to spend like a few hundred bucks in entry fees so yah, it's not something you should get crack'n' with (hah!)

I hear yah, random matching would be sweeeeettt! Honestly it can feel like that now being matched against some of the big-ups--I was watching some of wranderson vs renaldo videos and wranderson knows a mess of words...it's sickening! I'm just floored at what he finds sometimes. And even if I'm much better than the players who only know three letter words, I pale in comparison to all those folks you listed--but that's who I have to play against...(waahhh!)

Oh well, I keep my head up and paypal account loaded because one of these days I will make a profound comeback. Or I'll get a cheaper hobby...

[LostInSpace]

I just played the daily progressive and won $3.07!! Nice! Actually, $2.07, since I had to bet a buck. I see you BEAT me, but you didn't get anymore money though!

Man, the game just before the progressive, I had a 942 and I BEAT Wranderson!! OHHH YEEAHH... Take THAT Wranderson!! He only got a measly 902! Man, he must be having a bad night. He only scored a mere 994 in the progressive. Why couldn't I have got that 942 in the progressive!? I could've won OVER $6!

Don't come and challenge me now, cause I won't take the bait!

I like the Scrabble Cubes ladders where people come and challenge me that either don't pay attention to people's high scores, think they're going to pull out a BIG one, or they like to give out free money! We are WAAYY overdue for a SC ladder!

I was going to say that I do the same thing as far as looking for words. I'm always looking for the 7 letter words. I love it when they throw the z, x, j, and q on the TLS cubes, because I've wasted 2 years studying all the 6 and 7 letter Scrabble words for those letters. Unfortunately, I hardly ever see any of the GOOD words that would score HUGE points together.

I was messing around trying to figure out what the best scoring words you could possibly make in Scrabble Cubes (I put a thread up here last year to see if anyone could guess them). I came up with bezique, cazique, and jukebox. If they landed perfectly set up on the TLS & TWS cubes you could get 287 points for them! I've never found one of them while I've played though, on any cubes!

So far the best scoring word I've come up with is actually a 6 letter word! Jezail! I got 205 points for it. The J & Z were both on the TLS cube, and I was able to link it to the TWS cube. There's GOBS of words you can make worth over 200 points, if they'd ever come up in the right spots.

I've never tried the deleting strategy, unless I can't use the cube for anything. I might have to play around with that, because if the right letters were on the right cubes, I might FINALLY get a new high score!

[theartsyone]

So true, a SC ladder needs to happen soon--I don't even remember when the last one was, a maybe a year ago if not longer.

The way the daily works is if you score in the low 800s you get $2.00, if you get in the upper 800-low 900s, you get $3.00 and then from 950-1000 you get anywhere from $4-8.00 and after that, you get the real prize (more or less). I give myself 2-3 attempts because I generally can win that back. The night before last, I got $8.00 for 984 score which is the most I've got off the daily in months--but tonight I only got a 885 so probably just a couple of bucks as normal...

I beat wranderson once and it was many, many months ago when he just started playing on WW. After that, he has crushed me 20+ times.

JEZAIL? What a hot word! I think my top word score is 180ish, I think I played HAZIEST or OXAZINE--I remember a game with one of those words in it and I was pretty astonished with the word score. Generally my best is in the 160 range. I'm quite impressed you've take the time to figure out the 200 words but so many times the TWS/TLS cubes are riddled with useless letters...

Deleting has proved effective more times than less for me. Generally it works well when you see the word and know blowing out a cube will let you spell it. Just clearing out a cube with the hopes that better words will show up works for me like 50% of the time but Renaldo does it and he manages great scores. It's definitely worth testing out.