Word Poker Guide
Written by Foxbane

Word Poker, the game of horror in the minds of all Neopians? Not really. With a bit of practice you'll get better. Don't you just hate the word practice?

Now, when you start the game, there will be a blackboard with random letters on it and a table at the bottom with different things such as flush, wild, full house etc. written in it. As you probably know, you have to click letters on the board and make words out of them, then submit the word. If it is an actual word, then it will appear in bottom right corner of the screen.

If you're like me when you first start out, you might look at the board and say 'What?! How on earth can I find a word in that?!? And I only have a minute to do it in!' Don't worry. I'll come to that in a minute.

One of the most helpful things you can have in Word Poker is an assistant. That is, if you can persuade somebody to come and sit with you and help you, such as a friend or family relation (my gran is very good at this, for instance) it can make a world of difference. Because you have a time limit in Word Poker, it can be quite hard to think of a word AND click the correct letters then submit it. What your assistant can do is take on the role of 'word-producer'. They can suggest words while you quickly click them in, or vice versa. This means that you don't have to concentrate on two things at once, safe in the knowledge that those words are going to be submitted or that you are going to get words to submit!

Ok, so not everybody is able to work out lots of words from some stupid jumbled up letters. However, there is another sneaky trick you can employ. You can buy small pocket machines that can solve anagrams etc. Some of these allow you to input letters, then a maximum/minimum amount of letters for any words it can make out of it. So, if you put minimum letters as 4, then it will come up with a whole list of words of letters 4 and above. If you can get your friend to put the letters that appear into one of these, then he/she can simply read out the list to you as you put words in. Cool, huh?

Now I'm simply not sure where exactly you can get one of these. I use a pocket organizer, but these are expensive, and many of you readers are probably in USA and I don't know any brands there at all, and I don't even know which ones are the better ones in England. This option is recommended indeed, but if you can't get one, then don't worry - I still think that simply having a friend to help suggest words can GREATLY increase your score.

I'm rambling on aren't I? Anyway, let's have a look at that table with options such as full house, wild etc. To be honest I'm not sure what all of them mean, but there are some that are obvious such as 3 letter, 4 letter and 5 letter. What this table does is count up your score for certain word types. If you put in lots of 4 letter words, then your 4 letter word score will build up very high. 

This is all very well, but at the end of the round you MUST bear in mind that you can only select ONE of these scores. Annoying or what?

This means that you should always choose the highest number in the table. Now, you will be very cross if you have been suggesting lots of 3 letter AND 4 letter words because you will only be able to choose 1 of these at the end of the round. So, what I do is choose one of these options, and concentrate on that only. I suggest that if you are not very good at finding a certain word type, do that FIRST as you will be very pressured later in the game when you have to find that word. I forgot to mention, when you select your highest score at the end of the round, you will NOT be able to select that word type again, you need to choose another.

There is absolutely no point in looking for lots of 3 letter words if you have already chosen the 3 letter word score in a previous round. You will get nothing for this. Try to leave the word type you find easiest until last, then you won't be too pressured in the last rounds.

Full House is a GREAT score box. If you manage to get 15 words, then it plonks an immediate 50 in this box. You may find that this is one of your highest scores, but if you are good at finding lots of words, don't blow it straight away...

With a bit of practice, some of your score boxes will start to get over 100. Remember, always always always choose your highest score for each round, if you got a score of 20 for 3 letter words but a score of 30 for 4 letter words, choose the 4 letter word box!

When looking for words, try to find ones that rhyme. So, if you just found the word 'log', try others that also end in 'og'. Here is an example.

DLGOSIN

This is what my made-up black board says (I've made it very simple just to show beginners). Now, I can see the word log in there. What else rhymes with log? There is sog and dog (I'm not sure if nog is a word though). But look at this. There is a very important letter in there, the letter I love the most. S. You will love the letter S soon. This can grant you plural words. As well as log and dog, I can put logs and dogs. This gives me two extra words already!

Next move onto another sound. God is another sound. What else rhymes? Nod and sod (yes it will accept that). You can also put gods and nods. Already you have found 10 words (I hope I can count)! Keep going...! 

When in doubt and there is not much time left on the clock, quickly put in any old letters. You'll be surprised with the words in the English language! Once, quite by accident, I put 'gee'. It's a word! Remember though, when putting random letters, that there is a better chance of success if you include vowels in them. Nearly every single word has a vowel or two (or three or four etc.) except the stupid ones like sky and by!

So. Remember to use rhyming words, and plurals, if you have the letter S. Always choose your highest score for each round and concentrate on one word type at a time. And get a friend to help you!!!!!!

There's probably a lot more that I've forgotten to put, but if I remember anything else, I will email it in, but this should help you at the moment. ;)

I am by no means a grand master at this game, I haven't got a trophy or anything, but when I started using these techniques my score DID increase a lot and you can start getting a little bit more NP than before!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really sorry, but I don't want to give out my Neopets username because of terrible experiences with hackers/scammers, but if you have a problem you can email me at fox_bane@hotmail.com!

Enjoy playing Word Poker! 

Foxbane (not my Neopets username)!



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