Words With Friends Tile Distribution

Reading the shape of the bag

The distribution is the inverse of the price list. The letters worth one point are the ones you draw constantly; the ten-pointers appear once each per game. Thirteen Es and nine As mean vowels are never really scarce — a rack of five vowels is bad luck rather than bad drawing, and exchanging out of it costs you almost nothing.

The tiles worth tracking are the ones there are few of: one J, one K, one Q, one X, one Z, and two blanks. Those six decide most endgames.

Counting is easier than it sounds

You do not need to track all 104. Track the blanks and the S tiles. Once both blanks are down, nobody is making a surprise seven-tile play, and the game becomes about premium squares rather than long words. Once the S tiles are gone, the hooks on the board stop being dangerous.

Late in a game, what is left in the bag plus what is on the board tells you what your opponent is holding — and if they have the Q with no U left, blocking rather than scoring is often the winning move.