Bingo! Or using all your 7 letters in one go.

Many players think making a bingo is hard and of course you need a certain type of letter mix to start with. I do not think it is that hard and maybe that's why WWF only give 35 as a bonus and not 50 as in Scrabble.

WHEN: The best time to place a bingo has to be at the start of a game when the board is 'open'. As the board gets filled up it gets harder to place them. Many times I have a bingo with nowhere to place it - sigh and move on!

EXTEND A WORD: So you have a set of letters that look hopeful. Sometimes the word jumps out but if not I look for prefixes and suffixes: UN RE IN DE... ED ER ES ATE ATION ING and a very very useful one IER (many 4-letter words take IER e.g. TRICK IER). Then look at what's left.

Another trick is to find a smaller word either with your own letters or using one on the board and again see what's left. To give a few examples taken from this paragraph, look at these words: LET TERS, HOPE and FUL, PRE and FIXES, AN and OTHER, EX and AMPLES.

TWO WORDS MAKE ONE BIGGER ONE: If you see 2 words in your rack or maybe one uses a letter from the board then try joining them up. I had recently SHINE using an I that was free both sides and OUT  Bingo OUTSHINES!

STEMS: There is also the 'stem' tactic. Certain groups of 6 letters combined with a 7th make multiple bingos. These are called 'stems'. (Google 'bingo stems' to see them) Some players will keep letters back to build a stem only playing those letters that need to be discarded. Personnally I do not do that as the bonus gets diluted the longer you hold back.

TESTING TIME: And do 'use' the board. WWF allows you to place letters and try words so if you think you have a word do just that. There is no penalty. That not only applies to bingos of course.

Just to prove my point, look at my blog entry  "A personal best"   Of the four Bingos, 3 end with IED, IES or ED, 1 starts with RE and one is 2 words that make 1; OVER and SHOT. All use a letter already on the board. None were difficult to find.

Lastly a word about a doubting opponent. You place a bingo and he says 'did you find that on your own?' Well two things here. The rules actually allow you to use help and so why ask? Then why shouldn't a player know words that others don't? My vocabulary is not the same as yours. My line of work or hobbies may have words common to me but unknown to you! You might be a doctor (my wife was a lab technichian and comes out with good words that are gobblydegook to me), you might be an engineer, a philosophy student, a mushroom lover... Yes PLUTEUS are types of mushrooms. How was he to know that I lived for 12 years in the Pyrennees on a mountain where one of the principal activities was mushroom hunting! We even had lectures by the more knowledgable folk and the local chemists had mushroom identity posters in their windows. Do they have them in New york?

That reminds me of a common mushroom called a Stinkhorn (phallaceae) It's latin name is no accident as it looks like a Phallus! Our best friend and now mayoress of the village was asked to find one when we were sent out on a mushroom learning walk. What's more they are edible!

I have also lived in France for ,the past 20 years and I have learnt that there are many French words that are accepted in WWF.  There is a list of some of them in this blog.