Official: Scrabble Player Ejected For Cheating At National Tourney

Miami CBS4 ^ | August 14, 2012 | CBS4/AP

[TexasCajun]

C-H-E-A-T-E-R?

Organizers say that word spelled the fate of one of the top young Scrabble players in the country Tuesday.

The player, who has not been named because of his young age, was kicked out of the game’s national championship tournament in Florida after he was reportedly caught hiding blank letter tiles.

John D. Williams, Jr., executive director of the National Scrabble Association, said that a male player was ejected from the 350-player event in Round 24 of the 28-round event.

[InterceptPoint]

Once upon a time when I was playing Scabble with my uncle, he decided he could add “fox” to my existing “moon” to yield a nice score with “moon fox”.

I objected. There is no such thing as a “moonfox”.

I lost the argument but noticed at once that I was holding a “y” and there was a triple word score square open right next to that “x” in “moonfox”.

Faster than greased lightning I placed that “y” next to that “x” creating a word describing the main characteristic of a “moonfox” : “moonfoxy”.

I won that argument and the game.

[SMGFan]

A three letter word: Jobs J-O-B-S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-eeWow_WU

[RedMDer]

The FReepathon is still on.
Please donate today!

[Cyber Liberty]

The prize was $10,000, so winning by cheating certainly would amount to larceny.

It would have been had he won. Which he did not, having been disqualified. And I doubt they'll press Attempted Grand Larceny against someone too young to be named in the story.

[driftless2]

The last time I played Monopoly, I was about 11 or 12 years old. I always lost because I usually played with my older brother (the ultimate competitor) who never told me what the best strategy should be. He always urged me to buy Baltic Avenue or some of the other cheapies. I had no idea what I was doing and couldn’t figure out why I was always losing. However, he never challenged in Scrabble, because I was always pretty good at that game. However, there’s one person I could never beat...my mother...and she beat me pretty good too.

[Uncle Chip]

“It gets pretty deep. We’re one step away from drug testing,” Williams joked.

Pretty serious about their craft that Scrabble crowd is.

[A Cyrenian]

I'm surprised this wasn't one of the prime time shows on espn.

The poker game must had ran longer than expected.

[mykroar]

ESPN 8 - "The Ocho!"

If it's almost a sport, we've got it here!

[Dr. Sivana]

He always urged me to buy Baltic Avenue or some of the other cheapies.

Actually, Baltic and Mediterranean have their place. I have won many a game playing slumlord. I like to put four houses on all of the cheapies (add Oriental, Vermont and CT Ave.) (20 houses for only $1,000) which can often create a serious housing shortage if anybody else is building. You won't bankrupt anybody with it, but you can improve your standing, and keep other players from building.

[driftless2]

Then you were ahead of me. But so was everybody else. My view of my youth is that the world contrived to keep information away from me. That included learning the strategy for playing Monopoly.

[Dr. Sivana]

My view of my youth is that the world contrived to keep information away from me.

In my youth, Monopoly enjoyed a mini-renaissance at the game's 40th anniversary. This resulted in a number of books. Some of them awful (The Monopoly Book by Maxine Brady). By far the best was "1,001 Ways to Win Monopoly Games".

So, for $1.50 I learned a great many things. I supplemented with my own game experience.