Memorize the list of all 96 two-letter words that are acceptable in Scrabble. Then memorize all the two and three letter words that contain Q, Z, J, X and K. This really helped me, and it's something that a lot of players do to improve.

Also, playing with people who are a lot better than you is a good way to improve. There are some places you can play freee online. Do a search through the previous threads on this tribe for the URLs - there was a discussion of this a while ago. Have fun.

i did the same with the 2-letter word list. Also, I got more creative with my plays. Instead of the standard take one letter from one word and build off of it, i try to make the words run along side other words.... or d my best to add an S, and make a new word.

I started looking at the board differently.

You may find helpful reading the book EVERYTHING SCRABBLE
by Joe Edley.

This is going to sound perhaps a little strange, but I sometimes play against myself (not with myself..).

Set up 2 racks, turn one away from you so you don't play favourites, and then take as much time as you need - looking up words, etc. and then start to give yourself rules (ie, you have 2 minutes to find a word, then 1 minute, then no looking, etc.) and make sure you take lots of time with various combinations.

I also try to not use a whole lot of obscure words, as if they are not part of your regular vocabulary, they are not as easy to remember.

I also then get to play whenever I want, and can leave a game for a while and come back to it, and then when I do play with others, I'm a lot better.

And... there's always scrabble clubs all around different cities with various levels of players. They are very rule oriented though, so keep that in mind. But at the lower level, I'm sure they make concessions for people trying to get better at the game.

That's my 2 cents.

ready to be a better player?

learn ALL THE SHORT WORDS, and learn to shuffle your tiles around to see them. try zyzzyva.net

ok its your turn and the first thing? look for bingos! if you play all your tiles you get a 50 point bonus and a serious "shock and awe" affect upon your opponent! they may even challenge the word on sheer principle! ("i HAD TO CHALLENGE IT WAS 76 POINTS!")
look for a 7 letter word. take your time and look for prefixes and suffixes. ok. cant play that 7 anywhere or cant find one? look at the board. is there an 8 letter word? no? relax.

ok now the decision depends on some things. --what is available on the board, points-wise? those colored squares should guide your eyes to the nifty hooks. (did you study the 2 to make 3's yet? no? go back and learn these short words!) --how far behind/ahead are you? --how many points can i score this turn? -- how many points can i score next turn? the turn after?

the "best" play can be (and is) determined by 2 major factors: points scored and whats left in your rack when you are done. a third factor of defense and an occasional fancy "set-up" play are always good (especially against tougher players) but are less frequently usable and frankly not nearly as powerful as a strong play.

Remember, if you missed a bingo, that kinda sucks because you are about to play off some tiles and god knows what you will draw, so look once more, and while you are at it look for a 6 letter word or two a solid 6 tile turn can be a good way to get "tile turnover" and score points while opening the board. Do you have tiles with high point values? play them off for 25+ points while leaving a good balance of remaining tiles, for example: rack: AHOGERS options are HER 32 or HOG 32 ......now these plays are VASTLY different and i am not going to go into any complicated math or linguistic details because just look at your 2 leave options here--- (OOGS or AERS) --- usually it's not that cut and dry but use common sense and give yourself a decent shot at drawing an easy bingo. you may even decide to take fewer points in the process of finding the best play.

do not fear what your opponent is going to do. avoid certain pitfalls of board-leave like putting vowels next to triple letter score spaces, but otherwise fearlessly make your big play!

the blank is worth 40 points or more. this means that if you can score 50 with the blank or 20 without it, you should choose the latter except in the end of close games or where you are almost certain your opponent will challenge. the blank is there to help you bingo, so use it that way.

having bad luck? that does happen. but please don't tough out a crappy rack for 3 turns; rather opt to exchange those which suck (WVGUQI) and any duplicate letters you may have. good luck with that.

be a good sport. know the rules but enforce them judiciously, challenge if you are reasonably sure the word is no good or it won't cost you the game if you lose the challenge (that happens too), and why not challenge your opponent's final play? there is no penalty if you lose this one.

and it seemed nobody could nail down how many 2 letter words there are in the new OWL2 wordlist: 101

Play online scrabble, play with people who are better than you, and use a dictionary to refer to so you can learn new words, as long as your opponent is okay with it. Memorise the 2 & 3 letter words as much as you can.

And one I don't think has been mentioned so far - more advanced players with different tactics. Work out what your opponent is planning, and you'll have an edge. I'm not a great tactical player myself, but I can throw the odd spanner in some works :)