Lastly, don’t play Monopoly. Monopoly is objectively a poor boardgame. Boardgame design is all about creating strategic balance. Consistent strategic choices should add up. Luck can add some spice but shouldn’t determine the main outcome. Monopoly is the opposite. The MONOPOLY DEAL STRATEGY website is a comprehensive listing of the strategies and techniques we or other players have used during our years of playing the MONOPOLY DEAL Card game. These strategies are a great way to maximize and improve your enjoyment of the game, bring more fun to the people you're playing with, help you grow as a game player, and increase your chances of winning. Ultimately, Monopoly is about money. So, to find the best strategy, we need to take into account how much you can expect each property, fully loaded with hotels, to earn for every roll of the dice and how much investment is required to get you there.
Helping Other Players Complete Their Full Sets is Good karma
Monopoly Best Strategy
Since a Deal Breaker can only be used to steal full sets sometimes it’s good strategy to “help” your opponent complete a full set. One way to “help” your opponent is to entice them into completing that set. For example, if your opponent has two dark green property cards on the table (none are dual color wild property cards) and you have one in your hand (as well as a Deal Breaker), laying it down may be enough to entice them to steal it to complete their own full green set, you can then use your Deal Breaker on your next turn to steal that full set..
The overall best strategy for winning at Monopoly is to do everything in your power to create monopolies and block your opponents from completing them. This means buying every property you land on initially and then using trades, sales and negotiation to get the best deals and build your real estate empire [source: Darling].
Serious Monopoly strategists also pay a lot of attention to probability and return on investment. The quickest way to make money in Monopoly is to create monopolies on the most trafficked parts of the board. According to computer calculations, several squares on the Monopoly board are landed on with far more frequency than others. The three properties in the orange color group, for example, are six, eight and nine spaces away from the Jail. This means that everybody who rolls their way out of jail has a relatively high probability of landing on an orange square. If you're able to build some houses or a hotel on those squares, you're going to get an excellent return on your investment.
Interestingly, those same computer calculations have figured out that hotels don't provide the best return on investment (i.e., they cost more than they earn over the span of the game). Instead, the best investment strategy is to build no more than three houses on each property in a monopoly since the rent increase from two to three houses is so steep [source: Collins].
According to the probability experts, the very best return on investment comes from buying all four railroad properties [source: Darling]. First of all, they're relatively cheap. And since there are four of them, there is a higher probability that an opponent will land on one and have to pay the $200 rent. One of the worst investments is a utility company. Even if you own both, the rent is 10 times the roll of the dice or a maximum of $120 or as little as $20.
Monopoly Vs Computer
Here's a tip about jail: In the beginning of the game, pay the $50 immediately to get out of jail so you can continue buying properties. Later in the game, try to linger as long as you can in jail, since moving around the board puts you at risk of landing on Boardwalk with a hotel -- which will set you back some $2,000 in rent.
Monopoly Best Strategy Game
For more information about games and family entertainment, roll to the links below.
Related Articles
Newest Monopoly Game
Sources
Monopoly How To Win
Collins, Truman. 'Probability in the Game of Monopoly.' January 5, 2005 (Accessed August 1, 2011.) http://www.tkcs-collins.com/truman/monopoly/monopoly.shtml
Darling, Tim. 'How to Win at Monopoly — A Surefire Strategy.' November 2007 (Accessed August 2, 2011.) http://www.amnesta.net/other/monopoly/
Hasbro. Monopoly. '75 Years Young' (Accessed August 2, 2011.) http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discover/75-Years-Young.cfm
Hasbro. Monopoly. 'History & Fun Facts' (Accessed August 2, 2011.) http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discover/history.cfm
Huesnner, Ki Mae. ABC News. 'Get Out of Jail Free: Monopoly's Hidden Maps.' September 18, 2009 (Accessed August 1, 2011.) http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/monopolys-hidden-maps-wwii-pows-escape/story?id=8605905
Williams, Juan. NPR Morning Edition. 'Present at the Creation: Monopoly.' November 25, 2002 (Accessed August 2, 2011.) http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/monopoly/