The Greatest Scrabble 'Fish' of All Time

Welcome to Episode 1 of Scrabble History, a series where I break down some of the most incredible plays, epic rivalries, and amazing moments in Scrabble's rich competitive history.
In my first video, I break down one of the most epic Scrabble bingos of all time - but that's only part of the story!
For more content from me, follow my Twitch channel:
/ wanderer15
Play Scrabble at playscrabble.com!

[@AlexDings]

Too bad that we don't call SeaWorld a waterzoo. That would make for a great back hook.

[@qwerzer2314]

Being dutch i understand the word and is so funny. "Waterzooi" can be translated into "mess of water" which is just hilarious. Makes me imagine that someone who tasted this was like "what is this mess of water" and the chef was like "good name!"

[@patrykochmanski6156]

"Wat is dit voor waterzooi?" "Ja."

[@TheBcoolGuy]

@@patrykochmanski6156 We hebben een serius probleem.

[@BrettMKW]

This is honestly beyond my ability to comprehend. 1. WATERZOOI is obviously an obscure 9. Even the top level players wouldn't be sure of a 9 this obscure. If it weren't for this game highlighting it I'd bet money on Nigel and Dave Wiegand off the top of my head and probably not too many others, not saying others wouldn't know it but I wouldn't likely be betting on it. Just knowing this word is impressive in its own right. 2. Even if you gave him AEIORTW on his rack and perfect word knowledge, it is NOT at all easy to find WATERZOOI. Looking through a discontinuous Z O for potential nines is 99.99% of the time a waste of your time. This guy found it with 2 of the tiles not even on his rack which is just ridiculous board vision. That's Nigel levels of actual absurdity.

[@wanderer15]

Completely agree with everything here!

[@Ten_Thousand_Locusts]

I thought of it, but then again, I speak Dutch, so that's kinda cheating lol.

[@sjoerdglaser2794]

It's interesting how regional word knowledge is. As someone living close to Belgium, waterzooi is decently obscure, but still known. But I would have never guessed it was an English word too.

[@donnydont]

@@Ten_Thousand_Locusts Also you watched the video and saw the thumbnail.

[@Ten_Thousand_Locusts]

@@donnydont the thumbnail says waterzooi?

[@pjet8042]

I made a similar move at an Albany tournament. I saw the possibility and played off one letter with a 2 out of 20 chance of picking the last U or the last blank. I got the U and played the ten UNDULATION thru disconnected LA and I. My opponent bingoed back and I still lost.

[@wanderer15]

Damn, that is insane!

[@artmoore4457]

Oh, the legendary play. I've read about this plenty and knew exactly what it was when the video started... and I STILL had to watch it through. Thanks for sharing this for others to see.

[@pd_2215]

fun fact: the chef you saw in the beginning is Peter Goossens, he's the chef of one of the three restaurants in Belgium with three Michelin stars. He's had these three stars since 2005. The program you saw is one of his shows on the biggest cooking-only TV-channels in Belgium where he shows how to make Belgian classics and after showing the classic way of making it, he gives his own three-stars twist to it by making it in a way more modern way and showing how he would serve it in his restaurant

[@justaguy3310]

Fun fact: I know peter Goossens. My parents in law are his neighbours

[@spimbles]

@@justaguy3310always people on the internet who know a guy that knows a guy

[@justaguy3310]

@@spimbles haha world is small like that

[@TileRunner]

Very well put together, Will, thank you! I think the most impressive move I witnessed as it happened was while watching a friendly blitz game on Woogles where someone fished off a G from GLLLLMP and picked the E for PELLMELL.

[@BJPremore]

I'd heard about this play as well but didn't know the detail around it -- what a fun watch. Count me in for more videos like it -- thanks Will! -bj PS -- Someone once played WATERZOI* (only one O) against me when I was just starting out in tournament play, but because I'd heard this story and knew it was a 9-letter word, I was able to confidently challenge it off.

[@asdfasdf4924]

I've seen WATERZOOI, I first found out about that word YEARS ago. I did not see it until it was revealed in the video though!

[@heatherlaird5851]

same here! I’d love to improve my end game. I do use distraction techniques but I’d have given up this game as lost! 😮

[@chrishawkins3215]

This was brilliant Will! More please! Mark Nyman's comeback from 100+ points down in a WSC best of 5 final game would be an excellent game to analyse :)

[@BLSKYZ]

Excellent narrative. I throughly enjoyed the insight into this scrabble endgame. More helpings please.

[@kevinedington1567]

Just binged all of these. Really awesome content. I didn't know anything about competitive scramble beforehand. Really changes the way I think about the game

[@noahjz]

Fantastic! Tying in the "fish" history of the dish was very satisfying.

[@darkly77]

I've never been interested in scrabble, but your videos about its history have got me hooked!

[@jacksontodd8676]

Fantastic story and video! I had no idea scrabble was played competitively and now im bingeing your channel

[@RubyPiec]

I think waterzooi is a dutch-sounding word, it shouldnt be pronounced "vaterzooi", but should be pronounced "waah-tur-zoy"

[@Zarzar22]

Half Dutch here was thinking the same thing. Never heard of it before but that name is hilarious to me. Iiterally just means a bunch of water stuff tossed in with eachother because of the seafood, so funny

[@joelhoeve]

Echt een geweldig woord

[@RubyPiec]

dat is waar@@joelhoeve

[@alexavermeulen8847]

it tastes really bad imo but its a not uncommon flemish dish

[@janartoos2744]

​@@alexavermeulen8847That's not the right etymology. 'Zooien' is an old Flemish word that means to boil. It's close to 'zieden', for instance. 'Waterzooi' means 'boiled in water'.

[@stephensneed8181]

This is fantastic! Great work, Will!

[@Notester82]

Daaaaaang, what a fish and awesome play afterwards! It's a neat example of challenging and how interesting it can get depending on the context. And this is the *first* episode of the series? Looking forward to future installments in Scrabble History! :D

[@jakeoconnor3420]

Awesome video Will!! Just goes to show, if it is one of those games where you've got a 0.1% chance of winning, if you play 1000 of those games you might win one!!

[@frankabbeduto9045]

Great video! Keep making more of this series, and good luck with the Houston Texans

[@MrE31415]

I am from Belgium en your pronunciation of waterzooi sounds quite funny. While you do pronounce water with a W sound (the V sound is more a german and scandinavian thing), the I at the end is pronounced as the Y is you. The double O is also just a long O sound as in door.

[@wanderer15]

I knew I was messing it up, but didn't realize how badly :) Thank you for the advice & thank you for watching!

[@burtdanams4426]

actually insane. Unbelievable!

[@joshuawinters4907]

Super cool video. Would like to see more of this style

[@paperpopper1290]

water zoo wee mama

[@zevkaufman5416]

Nice video , keep them coming .

[@rumpelRAINS]

Great video Will! 📼

[@Sam-oz8pn]

Wow, this was incredible. Just a gem, thank you for sharing this Will! Couple questions I had while watching - 1. Is fishing off BE for AT the only way to create a sufficient threat elsewhere on the board, as in did he analyze all the possibilities and see the right one? Or did he “just” find one possibility that worked and run with it? (Which is still insanely impressive!) And 2. Did he actually draw into a bingo that played on the bottom in case his opponent didn’t block? Or was it a bluff, because if so that’s even more bold! And finally, 3. How impressive is playing a 9 letter word, let alone an obscure one, I have a vague sense but I’m not sure it came through just how rare that is. I guess explaining it all during the video would have made it a lot longer, you found a good balance to explain everything and keep it succinct and compelling. Keep up the cool content!

[@wanderer15]

Awesome questions, Sam. Thank you. 1. In situations where your winning chances are so low with "traditional" plays, it's difficult to know with full assurance whether you've analyzed every possibility. That's because you're basically picking the best far-fetched plan you can come up with, with moves way off the beaten path. In this case, the plan Jim picked was really well considered and of course, there's a bit of bias in favor of it because it actually ended up working out, but I think it resonates with competitive players for good reason. 2. It was possible that he might draw into something at the base of the board, though there are deceptively few things he can actually hit holding EIORW (WORRIER, etc.). 3. 9-letter words are indeed quite rare, but even then, the lion's share of them are inflected 6s, 7s, and 8s (RETAINING, PLASTERED, FLATLINES, etc.). WATERZOOI is just completely otherworldly.

[@henkmarks8856]

Sorry if it's superfluous, but waterzooi is a dutch(flemish) word, meaning stuff (useless) from the sea. Am surprised it's recognized in USA.

[@AnnettesMakeupCorner]

Amazing!

[@ThePizzabrothersGaming]

Since waterzooi is belgian and not german, you do pronounce the W as you would in english. however, the ooi is one syllable. kinda like the second syllable in ahoy.

[@peggymcbride311]

Awesome!!

[@__init__3493]

great video! sort of reminds me of Jon Bois's videos. can't wait to see more

[@wanderer15]

Damn, I’m a huge fan of his…high praise. Thanks!

[@skoldpadda9]

@@wanderer15 wow, that was my initial impression of this as well! In fact, I'm recommending this video to a friend because I know he plays a lot of recreational Scrabble and follows Jon Bois' stories.

[@hermi1-kenobi455]

Despite always playing scrabble ignoring the coloured boxes on the bottom, I am thoroughly enjoying these videos lollll

[@andrewbradley1453]

Hey Will Great video more please!

[@woosix7735]

damn, scrabble stories make for way better stories than chess stories because of the funny words

[@justinmoyle2083]

Love it.

[@paperpopper1290]

these are great videos

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

When the top right corner is sus!

[@ZiRR0]

didnt know scrabble could this be interesting! just saw your other video too

[@jakobbruhspenning]

I am literally from Belgium and eat waterzooi at least 4 times a year, but I didn't know it was originally made with fish. Also small point on prononciation, the I in zooi is said like a close front unrounded vowek diohtong (closer to j than to y)

[@zegmakker5869]

waterzooi as in just a bunch of random garbage put in water? (or trash, or a mess depending on how you translate it) That's a pretty amusing name for a dish

[@bunnyw1312]

amazing !

[@girltalk08]

I hope this doesn’t take away from it too much, but the chance of him drawing an A and a T tile in 2 pulls in this game is actually about 24.5%. Easiest way to think about it is calculate the probability of not drawing those tiles and subtract from 1. First draw, chance of not drawing 1 of the 3 is 14/17. Second draw. 1/3 of the time you draw an A leaving 2 Ts (14/16). 2/3 of the time you draw a T leaving an A (15/16). Multiply that all together and the chance of not drawing an A and a T is 75.5%. 1 - 75.5% = 24.5% 14/17 * (1/3*(14/16)+2/3*(15/16)) = 0.755

[@wanderer15]

Let's dig deeper on this. I'm agreeing with you that that first draw involves 14/17 instances of not drawing an A or a T and 3/17 instances of drawing either an A or a T. In those 14/17 instances, you're dead - you can't draw AT because you've just drawn a different tile. Therefore, your chance of drawing ONE of the two tiles you need is 3/17, or 17%. Doesn't it make sense that the chance of drawing TWO tiles that you need would have to be smaller than 17%, not greater? The math is actually: Chance of drawing A: 1/17 Chance of drawing T subsequently: 2/16 Chance of drawing T: 2/17 Chance of drawing A subsequently: 1/16 Both of which are 1/136, so together it's 2/136 or 1/68. About 1.5%. In a quick computer simulation, Jim was able to play WATERZOOI 11 times in 1000 iterations after BE, so that seems to check out.

[@Kirmo13]

more scrabble history pls

[@Truthmane1]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@flora5090]

Nice video! The double-o in waterzooi is pronounced like a long "oh" sound. And the "a" is like an "ah".

[@wanderer15]

I knew I was butchering it - thank you!

[@annayosh]

As a Dutchman, your pronounciation of 'water' is impeccable, but 'zooi' is a single syllable, the i being what is probably best described as a y sound

[@wanderer15]

Ah, thanks - knew I was likely butchering it.

[@DarrellSCady]

From a strictly strategic standpoint, should Darrell have challenged? Nearing end of game, high scoring tiles in the rack, having the lead, no apparent bingo lanes. All of that considered, would he have been better off not even challenging?

[@wanderer15]

There's no question that from a single-game standpoint, Darrell absolutely should not challenge. But keep in mind that the cumulative margin of victory is used as a tiebreaker, and in a short tournament like this one, it's very likely that valuable places on the World Championship team would be decided by that tiebreaker - so challenging the word off the board to secure a much larger margin of victory would be a strong incentive as well.

[@clu2573]

Darrell Day is also a politician

[@Forensource]

I think Jim also play a 15lw.

[@manaphylv100]

Can someone reconstruct that triple-triple QUIXOTRY game that made multiple records? I believe that guy fished for TY or something crazy and hit it the first time!

[@wanderer15]

This is on my to-do list!

[@jamyreaf]

How is the entire board and the order of plays archived but the move at 5:20 is lost to memory?

[@wanderer15]

Good question - a reconstruction of the game exists for the turns preceding WATERZOOI only. The precise order of earlier moves isn’t known for sure, only the score of the game at the time of the fish. The players couldn’t remember Darrell’s following move, but Jim remembered his outplay to be INK.

[@YOHANTALSUBRAMANIAMMoe]

On your video learning scrabble words. You recommended three vowel 4s q words with no U. Where can I get all the word lists.

[@AlyxaundryaWynter]

A_MOGS Amongus Among Us Sus

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

Also the U from Fuss completes Amogus

[@johnnysun6495]

If I was Darrell I'd be pissed. I mean what the heck is waterzooi

[@oscarguzman3017]

Man's time walked himself

[@wanderer15]

Legit lol at this as a former MTG player myself

[@oscarguzman3017]

@@wanderer15 That's awesome

[@qb616]

Why did he gain 30 points from opponents tiles rather than +15 for him, -15 for oppo?

[@wanderer15]

Just the way it’s done in tournaments - not sure of the reason (probably just arbitrary). Either way would lead to the same margin of victory, which is what really matters.

[@AlexFromnic]

He still needed the 1/68 chance to come through so I can't call it one of the greatest plays but it was a hell of a hail mary shot and it landed.

[@dewaard3301]

It's more like "vaterzoy"

[@jezusghoti]

Forgive my ignorance as a Scrabble newbie, but how was one word at the bottom lost to memory but the entire rest of the board is still known??

[@wanderer15]

The board position prior to Jim's fish was known, and the final score and last play of the game were known, but I had to reconstruct some of the details to make the final scores fit, and there were multiple options for that one move that could have led to the same final score.

[@Ikxi]

What is "ziti"??

[@HalalBoi1404]

type of pasta

[@quandaledingle2107]

wow

[@kashhusain8154]

Skill or luck?

[@JorWat25]

By the way, I believe it's pronounced 'VAH-ter-zoi'.

[@ThePizzabrothersGaming]

It's dutch so the w is like English

[@JorWat25]

@@ThePizzabrothersGaming Most English dictionaries list it with a 'v' sound.

[@ThePizzabrothersGaming]

@@JorWat25 okay? it's not an english word? German has no distinction between W and V, dutch and by extension flemish has a clear distinction. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKncfo1ja8SNjbs

[@Trizzer89]

Something tells me it isnt a coincidence that a dish with fish exists

[@cxgamer9680]

You were pronouncing it "waderzoo-ie", but a better English approximation would be "waterzoy". So the W is perfectly fine, the T should be pronounced as a T, not a D, and "ooi" is pronounced "oay". The A should be with with your mouth more opened, and the R is with a rolling R, which doesn't exist in English.

[@wanderer15]

I will try to get this right when I do a short form version of this!

[@socksygen]

hamburger

[@My_Op]

(Belgian living in Ghent here) Waterzooi is a typical Ghent dish made from chicken or fish, vegetables, cream and potatoes. It is served as a kind of soup along with bread. Its name is Dutch, "zooien" meaning "to boil" and it's pronounced [ *w aː . t ə r . 'z oː j ]