Mitchell Allen

When the board is tight, forget about that brilliant seven-letter word that is taunting you in the rack. Look between the gaps for generating shocking end-game plays. Brilliant! OIL and GAS are obvious energy plays; however, you can really power up your end game with all kinds of weird units of measure, including these energy-related ... Read more

Onomatopoeia is the formation of words whose sound is imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated. BAM! Before we dive into this noisy ocean, let's be clear on one thing: onomatopoeia is the written equivalent of cupping a hand to your ear in Charades to signal, "Sounds like …." This is in ... Read more

Are your tiles seemingly locked up with no chance for release? Don't despair! Look for common little words that can be "hooked"—that is, they take a letter on either end—or combined with another small word to make a new word. It is easier to shuffle three or four tiles around a main word than it ... Read more

Today, we'll deal with all of those juicy consonants. Actually, they're not so juicy when there's hardly any place to play them! You really need to know a handful of vowel-starved words to minimize the penalty points at the end of the game. That 30-point lead you enjoy will be wiped out if you have ... Read more

Aiieee! You just filled your rack with every vowel in the bag. Or so it seems. You are sick of playing two-letter words and you don't have the guts to play ILEA. Before you decide to trade in those tiles, read on! Praise the Cat and Pass the Fish Learn these variant spellings for hallelujah ... Read more

Welcome to another edition of Scrabble Sunday! This is a straight-up quiz: What is the best play you can find for this rack? Hint: you will be able to use all seven tiles. Answer

The premise of games like Scrabble and Words With Friends is mastering anagrams. The ultimate anagram, of course, is the Bingo, using all of your tiles in one turn. In most games, that means using seven tiles to create words of seven or more letters. Before rushing off to play your next Bingo, here are ... Read more

Welcome to Scrabble Sunday! This is a straight-up quiz: What is the best play you can find for this rack? Hint: you will not be able to use all seven. Answer