Portland player wins North American Scrabble Championship

Scrabble is more than just a family pastime for Portland resident Nigel Peltier. For him, it’s been a decadeslong pursuit. Peltier first entered the tournament scene as a teenager, quickly rising through the ranks to become one of the top-rated players in North America.

This summer, he won the 2025 North American Scrabble Players Association National Championship, dominating the final match with six “bingos,” or seven-letter words played in a single turn, and earning a $10,000 prize. He joins us to share what it takes to compete at the highest level and why the game still excites him after all these years.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The winner of the North American Scrabble Players Association National Championship is a Portland forklift operator. Nigel Peltier won the championship ‒ his first ‒ earlier this month. He did it in dominating fashion with six “bingos” in the final match, meaning he used all seven-letter tiles six separate times in just one game. Nigel Peltier joins me now. Congratulations and welcome to the show.

Nigel Peltier: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Miller: Your championship winning game, the last one of the best of five, it was a blowout.

Peltier: Yes.

Miller: So what was going through your mind as the game went on and as I assume it was just a formality. You knew you were going to win, but you were still playing?

Peltier: Yes, playing for pride, playing for the fun of it, but that game definitely did feel decided pretty early on.

Miller: Did that mean that you could actually enjoy it more?

Peltier: Maybe it took a little bit of the pressure off, sure. I was smiling and laughing and even making a tiny bit of small talk with my opponent.

Miller: Is that normally frowned upon, smalltalk?

Peltier: Yes, especially if it has any potential to impact anything about the game, but if you pick your spots, it can be okay, a little bit.

Miller: What did you talk about?

Peltier: Well, in that game, interestingly, there was a thunderstorm starting up and sort of continuing throughout that game.

Miller: And you could hear it in the hotel ballroom?

Peltier: Surprisingly, yes, we could hear loud claps of thunder, a constant rain patter, so it was rather theatrical and we were laughing about that, yeah.

Miller: When did you start playing Scrabble?

Peltier: I can’t tell you the year, but I played it as a kid. I started tournaments around 20 years ago.

Miller: Okay, but you’re only in your early 30s?

Peltier: Yes.

Miller: So you’ve started tournaments in your early teens?

Peltier: Yeah, around 15.

Miller: Okay. So when you were still pretty young, it went from being like a fun family pastime to something more serious?

Peltier: Yeah, that’s right.

Miller: What was it about the game at that age that you liked?

Peltier: Well, it’s a fascinating game. I liken it sometimes to a little bit of poker, similarities in reading your opponent, getting on their wavelength, trying to react or anticipate their moves.

Miller: Some combination too, of skill and luck because you don’t know what your hand is going to be in terms of cards or or what letters you’ll get?

Peltier: Definitely. The skill and luck combination, I think really makes the game very, very gripping and enjoyable, certainly.

Miller: How do you get better at Scrabble?

Peltier: Well, the age-old way would be to cram words and try to learn the dictionary, which is easier said than done. Another important thing is to just play a lot of Scrabble, hopefully against opponents that give you a run for your money.

Miller: So, but the age old idea is hard, which is to cram words, to learn the dictionary. In the last round alone, you did a bunch of words that I just had never heard of: kolo, olingos, and I don’t even know how to pronounce: suttain.

Peltier: Yeah, many of the words that I play, including most of those, I didn’t know the definition of when I played them.

Miller: So a couple weeks ago, you played these words because you knew they were words. You knew the letters went in that order, but you didn’t even know what they meant?

Peltier: I hate to admit it, but it’s a little shortcut of preparing for Scrabble, is if you skip the definitions, you can speed through.

Miller: Words are a lot easier to memorize if you just know them as letters as opposed to the meaning.

Peltier: That’s right.

Miller: Okay, but you have since learned what they mean?

Peltier: Oh, olingos, kolos, I want to say they’re animals, but I already forgot. I heard them and I already forgot.

Miller: Okay, because I had been wondering if you have just an enormous working vocabulary, if you’re just going around in your daily life saying words that most of us have never heard, but I guess if you don’t know what they mean, you’re less likely to use them.

Peltier: Yeah, I do like to, I try to learn words. I try to work things into conversation when I can, and learning the definitions also can help with retaining the words and remembering it more soundly. But yeah, I wouldn’t say I have the most impressive vocabulary, necessarily. It’s a lot of rote memorization.

Miller: Our crack producing team has told me that an olingo is an animal and that a kolo is not an animal. It’s a Slavic dance. So, but regardless, you used it, it worked. It’s a word that you won. Do people at the highest levels do what people do when they’re just playing with family and friends, from what I’ve seen, which is put words that they’re not sure are actually words and wait to be challenged? Does that actually happen at the highest levels?

Peltier: It does, it definitely does. There’s plenty of room for uncertainty. I mentioned that studying the entire dictionary is a very difficult task. Not everyone in that tournament that I was facing against, not everybody has the bulk of the dictionary memorized. People go as far as they can with it. Some have close to mastered the whole thing. But it’s rare even at the higher levels. So there’s a lot of room for guessing and you have to risk your turn to call out someone on making a phony play.

Miller: Oh, so it’s because it’s up to you to call their bluff?

Peltier: Yeah, if you decide to challenge. If you’re right, then they take their playoff, you get an extra turn. They lose that turn. If you’re wrong, then you lose your next turn and they get to go twice in a row. So that, it’s a little bit of a gamble if you’re not sure, and there can be some bluffing, there can be guessing. I certainly guess. I certainly lost challenges during this tournament.

Miller: I mentioned you’re a forklift operator in your day job. Are you able to rearrange letters in your mind as you’re doing your job? I mean, can your part of your brain be on Scrabble as you’re doing your job?

Peltier: Sometimes I work a little bit of thinking about some things throughout my day, but that’s not generally. I try to focus on giving myself some time and quiet at home to do study sessions on a regular basis. Sometimes I’ll listen to music, maybe watch videos while I’m doing that.

Miller: A study session is you and a dictionary, going page by page?

Peltier: There’s some computer programs that help to organize things, but generally it’ll be quizzing on scrambled letters and I’m challenging myself to try to solve for every word contained in those letters.

Miller: I’m talking right now with the Portlander Nigel Peltier, who recently won the national Scrabble Championship. I read in an article in the Portland Tribune about your win, that to get there, you beat a New Zealander with the same first name, Nigel Richards, on the way to the championship, and he was described as the GOAT, the greatest of all time. Who is Nigel Richards?

Peltier: Yes, he is, I think most would agree, the greatest living Scrabble player. He has won three different language championships, French and Spanish, without speaking those languages, just purely by memorization.

Miller: Holy moley.

Peltier: That gives a little glimpse into this guy, but he…

Miller: Wait, so he has won Scrabble championships in English, French, Spanish, and another language?

Peltier: Those three, but multiple, I believe multiple French championships.

Miller: He must have annoyed French people so much by beating them and he doesn’t speak French.

Peltier: Yes, there’s examples as well, historically, of players that have done very well in the North American championship without speaking English. But yeah, Nigel Richards, the greatest player that we have currently, and he has won a slew of nationals and world championships.

Miller: But you beat him two weeks ago.

Peltier: Yeah, we’ve faced off, I believe, 11 times over the years, always at nationals and I have a pretty close to even record against him, I’m proud to say. And yeah, I played him twice in this tournament. He took the first game, but the second one was to make it into the finals and it was a big one, and I was fortunate to take that one. But it’s always a joy to play him and a nice challenge, of course.

Miller: I read another quote in an article about you. The Scrabble Association member said that he had heard that you spent a good chunk of your winnings ‒ I should say that the prize was $10,000 ‒ that you’d spent a good chunk of your winnings paying for dinner for fellow players. Is that true?

Peltier: Yes, we did have a nice dinner with a large group of players from the tournament.

Miller: And you spent your money to treat them?

Peltier: Certainly. They took the brunt of the waiting in line, saving me a seat, and just not to mention, I was feeling generous.

Miller: What did you eat?

Peltier: Oh, some fettuccine, if I had to remember, and some appetizers. I stuffed my face, I think.

Miller: What is the Portland area Scrabble scene like?

Peltier: Well, there’s a weekly club that meets for a slightly more informal setting than the tournament experience. That’s Tuesday nights in Milwaukie. There’s other meetups around town as well, a little more informal, different groups actually meet in different places, but… And then we have tournaments here periodically throughout the year. And there’s a lot of players in Portland. It’s been a hotbed of the tournament scene for… since before I was born, actually. There’s a lot of good players in the woodwork and we have several previous national champions living in this city still, yeah.

Miller: Do you have advice for people who want to get better at Scrabble, short of spending hours a night to be an elite player who has half memorized a dictionary. What are some basic things that more relaxed players could do to up their games?

Peltier: Sure. I would say the biggest thing that really carries you a long way is just paying extra close attention to the balance between scoring as much as you can in the moment and holding on to good tiles for future potential scoring, and knowing how to balance those and getting a feel for it, just just thinking about that. It’s not always good to use all your goodies when you have them, sometimes you want to hold some on and don’t show your opponent everything yet. Keep something up your sleeve, so to speak.

Miller: It seems like good advice for life too.

Peltier: Yes, absolutely.

Miller: Keep something for winter.

Peltier: Yes.

Miller: Thank you so much and congratulations.

Peltier: Thank you. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Miller: Nigel Peltier recently won the national Scrabble Championship. He is a Portlander.

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