Scrabble board and tiles.
Set of poker chips [optional].
Summary:
This game combines the betting strategy of poker with the anagramming skills of Scrabble. Players wager on their "hands," 7 tiles received from the dealer, according to how high-scoring a word play they think they can join to the "seed word" on the playing board.
- "Dealer" draws 7 tiles (out of a bag) and lays these out face-up
on the Scrabble board. The tiles must be adjacent, as per Scrabble
rules, and may lay horizontally or vertically, anywhere on the board,
but no tile may be on the outer row or column on the board edge.
The tiles do not need to form a legal word. Any sequence of
letters is acceptable. (Since the dealer is not a player, there is no
advantage to her in laying the tiles in any particular order.) This
letter row or column forms the "seed" that players may hook their
words to.
If one or more of the tiles drawn is a blank, its letter value is not yet assigned.
- The dealer deals 7 tiles, one at a time (in the manner of dealing
cards) to each player. The first 6 tiles to each player are face-down,
and the last 1 face-up on the table in front of the respective player.
The players then place their 6 hidden tiles on their racks, so they
stay concealed.
The dealer does not deal herself a hand and will not participate in the play of the round.
- Each player places an agreed upon "ante" (for example, a nickel) into the pot.
- The betting begins and proceeds in poker fashion (call betting
and raises, according to standard poker custom). First player clockwise
to dealer makes the first bet, and betting proceeds clockwise from
there.
After the first round of betting, players who have not "folded" may exchange as many as three of their hidden tiles (from the unused tile pool in the dealer's bag), but the last one of these exchanged tiles is turned face up, visible to all the other players. Dealer hands out exchanged tiles.
The second round of betting begins. Again, the betting proceeds, poker style. If one high bettor remains (and the others have dropped out), then (s)he has "bought" the pot, and play terminates for that round.
At the conclusion of betting, the remaining bettors in turn (proceeding clockwise from the dealer), each form a "legal" Scrabble word by laying down one or more of tiles in their "hand" onto the board. The player's word must touch the dealer's original letter string at one or more places, as per Scrabble rules* (current player "names" any blank tiles on the board). Players each have one minute to lay down their tiles on the board. Each participating player's word score is calculated in Scrabble fashion**. After one player adds up his score, (s)he removes his/her tiles from the board***, and the next player (clockwise) does the same. The player with the highest score wins the entire pot.
* Word laid down must be a "legal" word, an all adjacent rows and columns of tiles formed with "seed word", as in Scrabble play.
** Add up letter values, with multipliers according to the board squares. All applicable Scrabble letter and word bonuses apply. The "seed word" itself does not score, but any of its tiles used in a formed word do.
*** Optional rule variant: The preceding players' tiles remain on the board, and any "named" blanks remain frozen according to what the first player designated them.
- Each player's tiles go into a discard pile, and a second round is
dealt from the unused tiles. The dealer's original sequence of letters
remains in place for the second round of play.
- After the second round, remove all tiles from the board and return them to the bag. The next player clockwise around the table becomes dealer for the next 2 rounds, and play proceeds again from step 1, above.
Mendel Cooper
27 April, 2001
These rules are provided for entertainment purposes only, and not as an inducement to gambling.
Scrabble is a registered trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.
