That’s my favorite challenge bait tactic. If you challenge an opponent’s word and you’re wrong, you lose your turn, so if you want to be an asshole, play a word that exists as an obscure but valid word, but is much more well known as a proper name. Mike (alternate spelling of mic), Jenny (female donkey), Japan (a type of varnish), etc. They challenge, it’s in the dictionary, you get to give the opponent a smug grin, and they probably won’t want to play Scrabble with you anymore but you just got a major advantage.
If they get used to your tricks, just bullshit them with names that they “know better than to challenge now”. It’s entirely legal to intentionally play fake words, they’re just vulnerable to being challenged.
Of course if you’re playing against someone who’s actually competitive at Scrabble they’ve probably dedicated time to studying challenge bait and would see right through you, it’s a legit part of the game at a high level so they’d be prepared.
I was going to say that Trump, being a proper name, isn’t a word, but my brain rebooted and I remembered that Trump is absolutely a word.
That’s my favorite challenge bait tactic. If you challenge an opponent’s word and you’re wrong, you lose your turn, so if you want to be an asshole, play a word that exists as an obscure but valid word, but is much more well known as a proper name. Mike (alternate spelling of mic), Jenny (female donkey), Japan (a type of varnish), etc. They challenge, it’s in the dictionary, you get to give the opponent a smug grin, and they probably won’t want to play Scrabble with you anymore but you just got a major advantage.
If they get used to your tricks, just bullshit them with names that they “know better than to challenge now”. It’s entirely legal to intentionally play fake words, they’re just vulnerable to being challenged.
Of course if you’re playing against someone who’s actually competitive at Scrabble they’ve probably dedicated time to studying challenge bait and would see right through you, it’s a legit part of the game at a high level so they’d be prepared.