Veteran Scrabble players tend to memorize the frequency of each letter, that way they can strategize when they choose whether to play or sit on a high value letter. Even if you are able to place a long word using almost all of your tiles, it may be advantageous to instead lay a shorter word, keeping some of your vowels, or in order to avoid opening a clear path to a valuable bonus tile to your opponents.
Depending on the version or the edition, there is a definite variation when it comes to letter distributions with the board game scrabble. If you are looking for scrabble help regarding the letter distributions, this article will give you a better grasp on the idea. Aside from the variations in each edition, there is also difference when it comes to the language since every language has a different frequency in usage of a particular letter. As for most, a scrabble board game usually comes with about 102 tiles which also include the blank tiles.
If you are wondering what possible scrabble help you can get from knowing letter distributions, well, a lot actually. Knowing the proper letter distributions – for instance in the English version of the game – can give you an edge. How? Well, by knowing the right number of tiles per letter, you can have a better picture on which tiles are still available and which ones your opponent may have. By having this information you can pretty much predict how a game can go or the very least know how to play it with much more precision.
As for the English version of the game, below is the latest letter distribution of the game.
| Letters | Number of tiles | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Letters | Number of tiles | Points |
| A | 9 | 1 |
| B | 2 | 3 |
| C | 2 | 3 |
| D | 4 | 2 |
| E | 12 | 1 |
| F | 2 | 4 |
| G | 3 | 2 |
| H | 2 | 4 |
| I | 9 | 1 |
| J | 1 | 8 |
| K | 1 | 5 |
| L | 4 | 1 |
| M | 2 | 3 |
| N | 6 | 1 |
| O | 8 | 1 |
| P | 2 | 3 |
| Q | 1 | 10 |
| R | 6 | 1 |
| S | 4 | 1 |
| T | 6 | 1 |
| U | 4 | 1 |
| V | 2 | 4 |
| W | 2 | 4 |
| X | 1 | 8 |
| Y | 2 | 4 |
| Z | 1 | 10 |
| BLANK | 2 | 0 |
As you can see from the distribution the vowels are more in number but less in points, while the more difficult to use consonants score the most on the board when used. This can give you an advantage in terms of formulating words to give you higher scoring words. Although with scrabble, you do not necessarily have to memorize the points you get since the tiles have it indicated on the bottom right corner.
The important scrabble help tip that you need to remember is that there is a variation among the number of tiles depending on the letter. The more commonly used letters are the lowest scoring and the most numerous since there are lots of words to formulate with these. In comparison to the consonants or more complex words which employ letters such as “X” or “Z” which give you higher points to give you better chances of winning the game.
Remember that opponents may be harboring certain high value letters, so it may not be a good idea to sit on a certain collection of letters waiting for the 'Z' to complete your word for too long.
Good players tend to also sabotage the field by always placing tiles on premium squares when possible, even if the player can only lay a relatively small low scoring word. This is done to deny the opponents from using the premium square at all cost.