only on decorahnews.com: Decorah man plays Scrabble for more than 28 hours

Scrabble tournament contestants (Mike Johnson is on the left)

There's playing Scrabble, and then there's playing 33 games of Scrabble over 28 and a half hours at a tournament drawing some of the best Scrabble players from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.

Decorah resident Mike Johnson not only completed the latter feat--he came out a winner, taking first place in Division 2 at the Twin Cities 7th Annual Redeye Tournament.

Johnson finished with a record of 27 wins and 6 losses and earned a $300 first place prize.

He started playing Scrabble while at school at Northwestern University, then continued while teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia.  After his first Scrabble tournament in Delaware, he was hooked.

Johnson admits that success at Scrabble depends upon "knowing a lot of strange words."  That includes words like "qat," which uses the high-scoring "q" tile, but doesn't require a "u" tile.  He says he tries to remember 2-letter and 3-letter words and especially 7-letter words that give the player a 50 point bonus for using all their tiles.

Scrabble tournaments use an official word list that mostly comes from the words allowed by Hasbro, the company that makes Scrabble.  However, you can bluff and lay down a word that may or may not be allowed.  Then it's up to your opponent to decide whether to challenge.  A failed challenge costs one turn, although a successful challenge forces your opponents to lose a turn.

Johnson says he averages around 400 points in a typical Scrabble game.  However, the clinching game for Johnson at the Twin Cities Scrabble tournament was also his personal all-time record--585 points.