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INTRODUCTION THE BOARD THRERE IS NO CRYING IN LITERATI! THE VALUE SQUARES HOW TO USE THE VALUE SQUARES A NOTE ABOUT BLANKS BINGOS TWO LETTER WORDS SPLIT BOARD FORMATS WE LOVE VANNA! IN CONCLUSION |
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INTRODUCTION THE BOARD THRERE IS NO CRYING IN LITERATI! THE VALUE SQUARES HOW TO USE THE VALUE SQUARES A NOTE ABOUT BLANKS BINGOS TWO LETTER WORDS SPLIT BOARD FORMATS WE LOVE VANNA! IN CONCLUSION |
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INTRODUCTION
This page is not near sophisicated enough to be called a "tutorial" though it prolly can be called "long
winded". :-) These are just some "tips" that I am trying to share on how to play league format games that
I have learned ...mostly by being beat with them lol. I am certainly not very intelligent nor particularly
gifted but I do have the capacity to learn new things from the people who in one way or the other have
shared their knowledge with me. One thing I know by experience is that even a mediocre player like me can
win lots of games even if my opponent is smarter and more experienced and knows more words than I do.
THE BOARD
The board is designed for strategic play, and a large part of league formats are designed for particular
strategies. Now don't let the word "strategy" throw you off. All I mean is that there is a "method to the
madness" of playing literati and once you learn some of the methods of using the 2L's, 2W's, 3L's and
3W's you will start winning more games. You do not have to be a nuclear physicist or rocket scientist or
even college educated to be good at literati and esp. to get good at the variations of it we play in
leagues.
THRERE IS NO CRYING IN LITERATI!
So do not ever get discouraged or be intimated by all the really good players with high ratings cause
you can beat anyone by using common every day 4 and 5 letter words that you learned in grammer school.
Hey, I am serious and that wasn't a joke. This page is not for eggheads or geniuses and if your Yahoo!
rating is above 1700, you can stop reading now cause you already know everything I am going to say in here
unless of course you are bored and want to read something that will put you to sleep lol. (now that was
a joke...you can tell by the "lol"s) :-)
Ok, here we go and please remember this is just a feeble and humble attempt to help those who are new
to the concept of using the board for strategies to win more games.
THE VALUE SQUARES
First off, I want to make sure everyone knows what all the squares on the board means
and how you add up the points in a word.
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The tiles have different point values according to what color they are. There is a box next to the board at the tables that show you the point values of the different colors and for this page I am going to use "gold" as the color of all the 1 point tiles, "blue" for all the 2 point tiles, "dark green" for all the 3 point tiles, "light green" for all the 4 point tiles and "purple" for all the 5 point tiles. Blanks are "white" and can be used anywhere on the board as any letter in the alphabet but no matter where you use it or what you use it as, it always counts for zero points. You can use it as a S on a regular square and it will count as zero towards your total score or you could use it as a Z on a triple letter space and it will still count as zero points towards your total score. So don't waste a 2L or 3L by putting a blank on it if you can help it! :-) |
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HOW TO USE THE VALUE SQUARES
1. In a normal game if you place a purple tile on a 3L it triples the points from 5 to 15 points and if you
hit a 3W with the same word that triples it again so that one letter alone is now worth 45 points to the
total score of that one word.
2. When we play "Crazy Bingo (gibberish) PNP" if you use "the pattern" that most high scorers use and get the
bottom 3W, the middle 2W, and the top 3W with the last full rack of 7 letters you have you get 8 times the
value of that 15 letter word you just made. If every one of those letters were gold tiles and you got the
two 3L's also that one word by itself would be worth 152 points to be added to the other fourteen 8 letter
words you created along the way. Usually that adds up to about 5 or 600 points for those 7 tiles you played.
Now if vanna loves you and you get two purple tiles to put on those two 3L's and get both 3W's and the 2W
at one time then those letters alone would be worth 5 x 3 = 15 plus 5 x 3 x 8 = 120 points for a total of
135 points each. Usually that adds up to about 7, 8 or 900 points for those 7 letters.
3. Okay, back to a normal game. If you can play a 5 letter word that get the two 2W's that are on the next to
the last line on the board you get 4 times the amount of the word. If you have say a light green tile in the
word...say like "leave" then those 5 letters alone would be worth 32 points.
A NOTE ABOUT BLANKS
*If you have a blank and use it as a Z on a 3L and somehow miraculously also
get both 3W's and the 2W with 7 letters that one blank alone would be 3 x 0 = zero plus 8 x 0 = zero for
a total of zero points towards the total points for that word. Do not waste those value squares by using
blanks on them unless you absolutlely have to. Sometimes you do have to but try not to do it too often.
(And always try to put a colored tile on the value sqares if you have a choice. They do add up!)
BINGOS
Sometimes it happens but I have never been great at 'seeing' bingos. There are sites that have lists of
letters that tell you if you have this certain combination of letters then it means you have so many bingos
and it lists them in alphabetical order and stuff like that and if your IQ is twice what mine is I will
try to help you find the links so you can study them but those sites are just gibberish to me cause I can't
remember where I left my shoes half the time much less memorize certain 7-letter combinations. :-)
But there is hope for people like me and there are certain things that alert me that there may be a bingo
sitting in my rack and it is just a matter of me 'seeing' it.
First off, if you have two blanks and two vowels and the rest consonants then you got a bingo.
It is just a matter of 'seeing' it. Case closed lol.
Also, every time I have a s in my rack I put it on the end and look for a 6-letter word that I can put
the s on like flight-s and ration-s.
Same thing with es, er, and ed. When I see them in my rack I put them on the right end and then look
for a 5-letter word to go with with the other two, like lunch-es, fight-er and laugh-ed
I have had some limited success with that but what I have the most success with is finding "ing" in my rack.
Now I am pretty good at seeing 4-letter words ...usually lol. Whenever I have "ing" in my rack I quickly
put them in order at the end and then arrange and re-arrange the other 4 letter words til I can 'see' a
4-letter verb like bend, call, dump, haul, hook, jump, look, mind, part, rain, sink, talk, veer, walk, yell.
Another thing to look for is having two small words in your rack that might fit together
like sand box, fire ant, or be have.
All I am getting at really is that it is very difficult for me to decipher 7-letter words in my racks
but if I can break up the letters in smaller groups it is easier for me to 'see' and certain endings
like "ing", "ies", "ier", "ied", "ion", "age", "es", "er", "ed", ect. are common in 7 letter words and
seperating and putting them at the end of my rack helps me 'see' more bingos.
*I have noticed that 95% of the time, Yahoo! gives both players a blank and a bingo in their first rack.*
TWO LETTER WORDS
I have learned that knowing two letter words can be very helpful in scoring more points. I was very
fortunate when I first started playing lit that I was in a league that played "Keep It Small 2 x 4"
a lot. It helped me learn 2-letter words and how more times than not you can score more points by
'stacking' words on each other than just putting them down normally. It is kind of hard to explain without
pics but say someone plays 'taste' and you got 'pier' in your rack. You can 'stack' pier on top of taste
like this:
-pier
taste
...making the words pier, pa, is, et and
re and getting 14 points instead of playing it like this:
-------p
-------i
-------e
taste-r
...making taster and pier which are only 11 points. Once you start
stacking colored tiles on the value squares the points really start adding up, and remember you can 'stack' words
by playing them vertically beside another word too.
-t
pa
is
et
re
If you can 'stack' and get a purple or green tile on a 3L you will be amazed at the points. Say
you play jo and jar with the j being on a 3L. (The j is 5 points tripled twice.) i.e. ...j is 5 x 3 = 15 and
o is 1 point which equals 16 points for that 2 letter word plus j is 5 x 3 = 15, a is 1 point and r is 1
point equals 17 points so altogether you made 33 points and the biggest word you played was only 3 letters long. :-)
Be on the lookout too for the x on a 3L. ax, ex, ox, xi and xu
SPLIT BOARD FORMATS
Games like "Pick A Side" and "Tops n Bottoms" and "4 Corners" are a fav of mine cause knowing how to use
the 3L's, 2W's and 3W's properly will help you beat all those players getting bingos all the time. The short
version is this: "Use all the 2W's and 3W's for two words at a time with your colored tile being on a 3L."
Now remember this is not nuclear physics nor rocket science and you can learn this in no time. Once you
'see' the concept it is just a matter of getting the right tiles and the opportunity to play them. Here's
how I do it:
Say you need 5 letters to hit a 2W. 'Walk' up to the 2W with 4 letters that you can add a S, R or D to
that make a five letter word (like note, true, tune, bore, wane or beat, bean, take, tail, etc.)
but don't play the last letter and get the 2W with only one word. On your next play if you have a colored
tile place the colored tile on the 3L and then your S, R, or D on the end of your first word at the 2W
making both words doubled. That way you get two words doubled with one 2W.
I know I may have confuddled you with that but here is an example:
Say the first word you play is 'tune' and the e is right in front of the 2W but not on it. On your next
play you have 'straw' in your rack. You put the s on the end of tune making "tunes" and walk on down or over
to the 3L with the rest making "straw" with the w on the 3L.
You will get 10 points for tunes (5 x 2) plus 32 points for straw. ( w = 4 x 3) plus (s t r a = 4)
equals 16 which is doubled making 32 points cause of the 2W so altogether you made 42 points with one
2W.
And remember with the same letters you can play tune and warts with the same results.
Did I lose you there? :-) Try to re-read it and give it time to sink in. All I mean is don't
waste your 2W with just one word, get two words doubled instead.
WE LOVE VANNA!
Now let's say Vanna is smiling on you and you have that w on the 'middle 3L' in the lower
right corner and you are only three spaces away from that 3W. Instead of playing wets making 21 points
(which is pretty good...but) just play wet. Then on your next turn play a 4 letter word starting on the 3L
on the outside edge of the board and go to the 3W where you will connect to wet. With no blanks in
both words the least amount you will make is 39 points.
But if your luck is running good and you have a purple tile like a Z and you can play zips...
watch this:
wets is 7 x 3 = 21 plus zips is 19 x 3 = 57 and you got 78 points with one 3W.
ok ok, I will break it down so you can see the 78 points. First you made wets which is (w = 4 points
e = 1 point, t = 1 point, s = 1 point) so that is 7 points tripled by the 3W and makes 21 points.
Then you played zips with the z on the 3L which is (z = 5 x 3 points, i = 1 point, p = 2 points and
s = 1 point so that is 19 points tripled by the 3W which is 57 points.
21 + 57 = 78 points you made and the longest and most complicated word you played is 4 letters long
and you have known it more than half your life. (78 points is nearly twice what most bingos are)
IN CONCLUSION
Okay, I am going to stop here for right now, but if there is something in here that you don't quite understand please catch me some time in beg lounge "8" and ask me to give you a demo of what I mean.
Now one more disclaimer:
This page is nowhere near intended to be the 'definitive' page on how to play literati and our game formats. There
are lots smarter people playing this game who can tell you better and more helpful tips and if you
can get one to show you then by all means I defer to their expertise.
I only want to show people that don't win a lot of games that there is hope and you do not have to know long and fancy
words and make a lot of bingos to win in literati and to encourage everyone to keep on keeping on and to be a good sport
at all times because that person that is beating you is imparting things to you that will help you win more games later on
and also proving to you that even dummies can win at literati!!! :-)
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