<p>As noted in the comments, it very much depends on the board. In general, S is useful for tacking on various plays your opponent makes - especially punishing them for thinking that stopping a word short of the TW row is safe. Two S tiles lets you possibly tack two words that end in the same row or column, and plenty of words (in English anyway) have double-s.</p>
<p>Given the general utility of pluralizing a word already on the board to create space for yourself - I would personally look to use each S in its own move, but only after confirming that I don't have any options to pluralize two words in one play - scoring three decently long words is pretty strong.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-13T15:46:13.223Z
2021-04-13T15:46:13.223Z
William Walker III
<p>I disagree with the advise @William Walker III. In my opinion, it is best to save both S's for later in the game when you can get a bingo. Here's why:</p>
<ol>
<li>An S can be tacked onto a majority of words, giving you a point where you can build from.</li>
<li>If you use the 's' as the end of the word, you only need to have a six-letter word that can be pluralized. (Example: Streak, which can turn to Streak<em>s</em>)</li>
<li>Most importantly, if it is a close game, the extra 50 point bonus would be a lot more than almost any other move with a single 's', which will usually give south of 50 points.</li>
<li>If something does come up, with an s or multiple s's, you will still have them instead of wasting them getting &quot;2-7&quot; additional points. (Which, in advanced level play, is an extremely small margin.)</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-16T15:07:33.107Z
2021-04-16T15:07:33.107Z
Joe Kerr
<p>Although it doesn't happen often, when I have 2 &quot;s&quot; in my rack, I'm not sure if I should try to use one immediately to score an additional 2-7 points, or save both s's for bingos/parallel plays.</p>
<p>Like any duplicate letter, I seem to have trouble making high point moves when have duplicate letters in my rack including 2 &quot;s&quot;. I'm leaning towards using 1 s immediately if appropriate like if it would help balance the consonant/value ratio on your rack more than if you didn't use it.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-01T22:17:45.077Z
The answer is probably "it depends". A useful tool to evaluate specific racks is the Cross-Tables leave evaluator: https://www.cross-tables.com/leaves.php
TheInitializer
<scrabble>
If you have 2 "s" in your rack, do you score statistically higher playing the extra "s" immediately or saving it?
CreativiTimothy
# If you have 2 "s" in your rack, do you score statistically higher playing the extra "s" immediately or saving it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-23)

Although it doesn't happen often, when I have 2 "s" in my rack, I'm not sure if I should try to use one immediately to score an additional 2-7 points, or save both s's for bingos/parallel plays.

Like any duplicate letter, I seem to have trouble making high point moves when have duplicate letters in my rack including 2 "s". I'm leaning towards using 1 s immediately if appropriate like if it would help balance the consonant/value ratio on your rack more than if you didn't use it.

**Tags:** scrabble

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The answer is probably "it depends". A useful tool to evaluate specific racks is the Cross-Tables leave evaluator: https://www.cross-tables.com/leaves.php  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-04-13. Score: 4

As noted in the comments, it very much depends on the board. In general, S is useful for tacking on various plays your opponent makes - especially punishing them for thinking that stopping a word short of the TW row is safe. Two S tiles lets you possibly tack two words that end in the same row or column, and plenty of words (in English anyway) have double-s.

Given the general utility of pluralizing a word already on the board to create space for yourself - I would personally look to use each S in its own move, but only after confirming that I don't have any options to pluralize two words in one play - scoring three decently long words is pretty strong.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-04-16. Score: 1

I disagree with the advise @username_2. In my opinion, it is best to save both S's for later in the game when you can get a bingo. Here's why:

1. An S can be tacked onto a majority of words, giving you a point where you can build from.
2. If you use the 's' as the end of the word, you only need to have a six-letter word that can be pluralized. (Example: Streak, which can turn to Streak*s*)
3. Most importantly, if it is a close game, the extra 50 point bonus would be a lot more than almost any other move with a single 's', which will usually give south of 50 points.
4. If something does come up, with an s or multiple s's, you will still have them instead of wasting them getting "2-7" additional points. (Which, in advanced level play, is an extremely small margin.)


---

