My wife and I love to play Scrabble. I have been playing since I was about 12 years old, and she was also playing before we met. At this time, we own a total of 5 Scrabble boards.

We have my original, flat board where the tiles slip around. We have the one I got from my sister for Christmas in 1978 with the lazy susan and divots for the tiles. We have one that is a Super Scrabble edition which our son bought for us for Christmas a couple of years back. Then we have one just for the camper that folds up. Finally, we got one from my daughter’s friend for Christmas this year, which is the Detroit Tigers edition.

When we play, we like to use an “open book” method. We have dictionaries handy, and we check words before putting them on the board. Some would call this “cheating”, but it is our house-rule. We have two dictionaries that we quite like. The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary is a must have for any serious player. We also have the Word Builder Dictionary to help us find clever ways to add on to words. We play open book to increase the scoring, and to add to our vocabularies.

My wife and I play the game very differently. The difference is not unlike the difference between American League and National League baseball. I tend to rely on the 3-run homer. The equivalent in Scrabble is the “bingo”, where you earn a 50 point bonus for using all seven tiles on a turn.

My wife plays a National League, small-ball style. She looks for opportunities to play small words, often laid next to other words, to maximize her individual letter values.

Over the long haul, we are about even. Right now, she is on a very hot streak and I haven’t beaten her in some time. But, eventually the tide will turn and we will come back even again.

What we both enjoy about the game is the relaxing nature, and the time we spend together. Just this evening we played at our patio table. We play a lot, on average about 25 to 30 times a year.

I am not sure why I thought my Scrabble playing was something worth sharing, but just thought I would put it out there.