John Chew
speaker
16 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2013
last heard Jan 2013
John Chew’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I think there would be catastrophic outrage...
I think there would be catastrophic outrage.
I think if you look at when seemingly minor design changes are made to the board, such as changing the colors of the premium squares, that throws people off completely.
It's possible some people might just keep on playing with the old tile distributions because people who've played the game often enough tend to remember that the Q is worth 10 points and the Z is worth 10 points and so on.
People who are interested in the game already know that the face value of the tile is
something that's very different from what they call the equity value.
When I teach people how to play Scrabble, first I tell them that they should learn their two-letter words.
Beyond that, the most useful element of strategy that they can absorb is that they should not pay so much attention to how many points they're scoring on their current play, but they should consider the next three moves in a two-player game.
The clearest example of a tile that has a low face value but has an excellent equity or strategic value is the blank.
The blank in an expert's hands would be worth an average of 30 points to their final score if held onto until they can play it in a bonus play that uses all seven tiles.
It was, I think, about 235 points.
It was a nine-timer.
Jerkiest.
Even better, though, than the score was.
It made my opponent quit the game, quit Scrabble, and nobody's heard from him ever since.
That's one of my crowning glories.
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