The Game Is Scrabble

Snapper Underwood has the vocabulary, but Susan Kauffman has the two-letter words. When it comes to a serious game of Scrabble between these two Duke employees, right now the latter is having the better of it.

"He has a bigger vocabulary than I do so it's just a matter of time before he wins," said Kauffman, who regularly plays the popular board game with co-workers during her lunch break. "I'm just better at the game."

The game of Scrabble has made its way into the lives of several employees on Duke's campus. These Scrabble fanatics play during breaks, on the internet, and even download Scrabble apps on their iPhones, iPods and iPads to stay sharp for their competitors.

"It's a relaxing way to spend a lunch hour," said Kauffman, director of communications for the Office of Undergraduate Education. "It's a pleasant distraction."

Underwood, an office co-worker, said he had not been an enthusiast until he began playing with Kauffman. He still has yet to win a game against her, but Kauffman knows her reign may soon come to an end.

Kauffman uses her vast knowledge of two letter words in the Scrabble dictionary to her advantage against her regular scrabble partner, Duke employee Keith Lawrence. The two began playing Scrabble during lunch breaks about five years ago.

"For one year or longer Keith won every game. Then I started winning some and Keith didn't want to play as much," Kauffman joked.

"Susan has somehow memorized every two- letter word in the Scrabble dictionary," said Lawrence, director of media relations in the Office of News and Communications. "She will often clog up the board with her silly little two letter words."

Their lunch-time games often attract an audience, with people either stopping to watch or give disdainful looks. "One time, my boss called me a nerd," Lawrence said.

Sean Aery with his Scrabble app.

Photo by Megan Morr.

Lawrence began playing Scrabble with his grandmother when she would visit during the summer. "She was sharp as a tack," he said describing his grandmother who played right up until the time she passed away at age 93. He said that his grandmother's Scrabble game is one of the only possessions he has left from her.

Kauffman, Underwood and Lawrence are recreational players, but for other Duke employees Scrabble is more of an intense competition.

Sean Aery plays in competitions in North Carolina and in New York.

A web designer for Duke University Libraries, Aery regularly plays with his father. "It's a great bonding experience."

Aery learned how intense the game of Scrabble was when he began participating in Scrabble competitions.

"The first realization is, ‘Wow I thought that I was good, but I know virtually nothing,'" said Aery, who started competitive Scrabble two years ago. "It's a big eye opener, but once you taste a little success you kind of get going."

Aery said there are different styles of play in the game.

Some players try to go for Bingos, which gains an extra 50 points for using all seven letters in one turn. Others take Kauffman's approach, using short words to clog the board. Gamblers may try to use phony words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary. It is risky for opponents to challenge the word, because a failed challenge leads to a loss of turn.

Aery said to have a chance in the world of competitive Scrabble, you must at least know the 101 two-letter words and the 1015 three-letter words. He has won a competition once and sees himself as an intermediate player.

In between competitions, Aery stays sharp by playing on his iPhone. "I do the majority of my playing on my iPhone against the computer," he said. "I play at least 3 games a day."

He also has downloaded on his phone virtual flash cards to study Scrabble words in groups.

"Studying wordlists is a really big part of competitive playing," he said. "It's not about a vocabulary. It's about is it a word or is it not?

"I have decent vocabulary, but a larger percentage of the words that I play on the board I have no idea what they mean," Aery said.

Like Aery, Duke employee John Blackshear, plays Scrabble, but uses the most up-to-date technology.

"I play on my iPod, but I generally play on my iPad at least 20 to 30 times a day," said Blackshear, the student ombudsman in the Academic Resource Center.

On his iPad, in his Scrabble App, he has the option to play against the computer, Facebook friends, other people that are on the Scrabble network, or even with other people that have iPods. They view their letters through their iPods and they use the iPad as the scrabble board.

Blackshear admits that playing against the computer makes a much faster game, but the computer is much more challenging.

"I like playing with people better, because I want to win," he said. "I rarely lose against human beings."

Like most serious Scrabble players, Blackshear said players bring their emotions to the game. He described how during a board game of Scrabble he was down the entire game. On his last move he played a Bingo giving him 50 extra points on top of the letter amount.

His opponent was stunned and started crying, he said. "I jumped up and said, ‘I won' and started running around."

"I put a challenge to all the Duke Scrabblers to have a Scrabble competition," he said. "I am going to win," he playfully stated.