Baylor University student Orry Swift says he studies words eight hours per day.

For most of us, it's just a board game we might play around the living room table. But for one Baylor University student, the game of Scrabble has become much more.

Senior finance major Orry Swift is known to some around campus as, "the Scrabble guy."

He leaves Friday for the National Scrabble Championships in Orlando, Fla.

"I'm going to be doing this 'til I die!" Swift said, while playing a game of Scrabble.

Swift is not your typical college senior. He studies an average of eight hours a day, but not for credit or a grade.

"You basically have to just sit and study thousands and thousands of words and memorize them," he said.

Swift said he may have a photographic memory, so it comes easy to him. But it's not the memorizing that motivates him.

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	National champ The winning prize is $25,000.

"Right now money is one motivation for me because I'm a poor college student, but in a year or two it won't be. It'll just be me being super competitive and wanting to be the National Scrabble Champion," he said.

The winner of the National Scrabble Championship gets a $25,000 prize.

Swift said he's not nervous about this weekend's competition, but excited. Thanks to his tedious study habits and his game day strategies, he thinks he is ready.

"One of my strategies is that I put my opponent under time pressure," he said.

Each player has just 25 minutes to play the entire game in competitive Scrabble.

That's why Swift also alphabetizes the letters on his rack, so he can visualize words easier.

In competitive Scrabble, it's not the size of the words that matter. In fact, the majority of words they use are four letters or less. So those are the words Swift will focus on re-memorizing this week.

Fellow Waco Scrabble Club member Kayla Woods said she admires Swift for his dedication to the game.

"He really enjoys it, and you can see it on his face, and he enjoys playing, and it makes you enjoy the game because you can see the passion," she said.

	In competitive Scrabble, each player has only 25 minutes to play the entire game.

Passion, dedication and a knack for words are what this elite Scrabble player will take with him, when he takes on the best in the country.

The tournament will be featured on ESPN, but it won't be broadcast live.

If you want to keep up with this weekend's national tournament you can log on to the National Scrabble Association's Web site.