The first step to becoming a better Scrabble player is to master the two letter words. Often derided by casual Scrabble players, these words a critical part of your arsenal. Knowing these words will get you out of numerous tough spots and further enable you to score higher by forming more than one word. Officially, there are 101 acceptable two letter words ranging from the common ME, BY, and AM to the much more exotic XI, QI, and KI.
A few good afternoons of review and they will be readily committed to memory. The best place to start is with the ones that allow you to play off the tough consonants such as K by using either KA or KI. Then there is QI, which is more of a gift from heaven to Scrabble players than anything else. It has readily replaced QAT as the easiest way to play off a Q when you don't have a U. Furthermore there is often an open I on the board as below, playing QI can yield an extremely high score.
For example, by playing QI above the I and N in TRINITY would place the Q on the triple letter score box twice. The total score for this play would be 64 with scores of 31 for QI, 31 for QI again and 2 for IN. Alternatively the word, KI can be played in the same place for a score of 34 and HI for a score of 28. In judging, relative to the value of letters played 11 for QI (10 for Q and 1 for I), 6 for KI and 5 for HI give multiples of almost 6, almost 7, and just over 5.
Other key two letter words focus on high scoring consonants, such as F, J, Z, and X. These letters can form the following words:
Finally, the interesting two letter words are the ones that don't have any vowels at all: HM, SH, and MM.
Once you master the two letter words, you are on your way to being a better Scrabble player.