Written By: Ryan S.
With the holidays just around the corner, I figure it’s a good time to talk about the number two argument starter behind politics: Monopoly. Yes, the game. Due to the fact that the game normally ends in yelling or flipping the board (or just the length of the game) it is a generally despised game. As a kid, I spent countless mornings losing to my older sister in a game that seemed quite basic. The reality is that there is a mathematical strategy to winning that I think is worth talking about. Starting with what properties are worth investing in. In the early game, don’t pass anything up. Often times players will pass properties up to save money, but since there are no houses or hotels at the beginning of the game, take that money and invest it in properties because they can be used as trading leverage later. There is a low risk of going bankrupt with this tactic making it a very efficient tactic.
Now, even though you invested in all of these properties, they are not all proportionally worth it. When playing a two player game, the best properties are Light Blue and Orange. For a three player game, Light Blue and Orange are still good, but red becomes the next best set to invest in. Any game with four players or more, Green is the next best set to invest in. This is partially due to the probability of getting a roll. The most common roll is a seven with a probability of ⅙ and it goes down respectively as you work away from 7. This is partially why orange is so valuable. Orange tiles land 6, 8, and 9 tiles away from jail, which is the most landed on piece in the game. This means that every time someone leaves jail, there is a 14/36 (almost 40%) chance of landing on an orange making it extremely valuable. There’s another misconception when it comes to playing Monopoly and that is everyone’s wish to get hotels. Yes, hotels are super nice and may be worth it in the long run, but in order to maximize profit, you want to put 3 houses on each set (As shown in the graph). This is because it only takes 10-20 turns to recoup that money which is much less than any other number of houses as shown in the table. Now, all this science aside, sometimes luck doesn’t work in your favor and you may still struggle to win games. While this is not a solution, these strategies increase your chances at dominating the game of Monopoly
https://ideas.ted.com/heres-how-to-win-at-monopoly-according-to-math-experts/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubQXz5RBBtU
https://www.insider.com/monopoly-tips-how-to-win-2018-1
Believe it or not, I love playing monopoly with my dad since we usually can get through a game in 30 minutes or less. As you described, I always go with the 3 house trick, and then always wait until I have enough money to buy hotels to make him go bankrupt. Now that everybody knows the strategy behind monopoly, I may actually have competition while playing. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post on how to best win monopoly through mathematical strategy. I admit I had never looked at Monopoly as a way to teach math and investing but now I can see the benefits of using Monopoly as a way to teach people how to survive and succeed in the investing world and teach basic mathematics to younger children. Maybe one day Monopoly will be used in Personal Finance or business classes in order to teach investing better.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely interesting. I never would of thought that a semi-simplistic game could have such a good method of playing it. The percentages are very helpful as well. A forty percent chance of opponents landing on your tile is a pretty good chance, and it is interesting to think about at all. It is more interesting to think about the beginning of the game, and how you want to invest first and save later.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to think about the mathematical side of board games and trying to figure out what would be the best strategy for winning.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun topic. I definitely will be playing monopoly this season, maybe I will use some of these strategies to win. I normally just buy anything I land on, which I guess was a good strategy, but now I know which tiles are most valuable. I probably will forget, but it is still fun.
ReplyDeleteI had no Idea how much math and strategy went into a simple game of monopoly because it’s a strategy game I usually play it and win about ¾ of the time when I’m playing with my cousins but that’s because it’s all based on math and math goes into everything, so that’s why I play it to make sure the probability or the math behind what to invest in and this graph is also very interesting because it shows when you get your money back and in how many turns so that’s a very useful thing to know I’ll have to use it when I’m playing monopoly to.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about monopoly you do see it as a game at first but once you look into closely and realize how much relates back to the real world and business side of things it is crazy to see these strategies used today. As businesses start with just a lot and nothing on that land, that doesn't make them any money, they then turn that into a restaurant or a hotel like in the game which then makes them a lot of money and the investment is then worth it just like how it works out in the actual game.
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ReplyDeleteThis is great because now I have the correct strategies and the correct information to finally beat my family. Every time that we play the game, my brother is the one that always comes on top. This is gonna allow me to finally put an end to his cockiness.
I’ve never been that good at Monopoly because I never had any strategy. After reading your post it makes since that the best properties to invest in are the ones that players tend to land on frequently, such as orange. Hopefully this strategy will help me win more games in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt’s very interesting to look at monopoly a bit deeper and realize how closely it related to the real world and how those strategies are used in real life, especially because I normally win. A business can really just start with land (which doesn’t earn you anything) but a restaurant does!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there was an actual strategy to playing monopoly. I’m pretty sure I’ve never finished an entire game of Monopoly. Sometimes I pass up properties just because I’m worried I won’t have enough money for larger properties later, but now that I know the strategy I may switch up my game. Now that I’m aware of the certain color properties I should be investing in, maybe I’ll be able to enjoy the game more.
ReplyDeleteLooking back on it, I guess I've been playing the game wrong this whole time. Just like you said to avoid I would always wait soon to buy properties as I wanted to save money. I never would have figured there was a mathematical strategy to such a simple concept children's board game. Then again, the last time I probably played was maybe 5+ years ago so that might explain why. Really original piece.
ReplyDeleteThere are very few things in life that make me competitive. Board games is one of them. I am very glad that you wrote this paper teaching us about the strategy of monopoly, because when you lose a game, for me at least, the marginal cost of the time spent playing is not worth the marginal benefit of playing the game. However since I get a massive amount of utils from winning, marginal benefit becomes greater than marginal cost, so it will now be worth it to play monopoly.
ReplyDeleteMonopoly is honestly one of those games where you are either the person that is getting all the luck, or none of it at all. But these strategies that you are including on your blog post are ones that honestly help your chances of winning a lot when it comes down to purchasing properties and even just how you think whenever you play game.
ReplyDeleteSo my intuition was correct. I was always a fan of the blue,orange and red. I'm not too sure about the greens though as the price you pay for the property and the cost of the houses don't make it worth it. Also business insider does not mention green as a good property and even says that it is not good. Many professional monopoly players avoid green as well. So don't really know if it is a good set, but will keep that in mind. Because monopoly is a game of luck it tends to be either really fun or really boring depending who is playing. The game I suggest is Monopoly Cheater's edition, now that is a game that utilizes the skill of deceit. In that game it can be a lot more fun, maybe you could do an article about specific strategies about the cheater's edition.
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ReplyDeleteMan, what a game monopoly is. I love that you did your blog on this because this is a great game to show you how to use your money properly, but also in a fun way. All the strategies that you implemented into your blog shows how much you have learned about finance, accounting, and business in general. Nice Job Ry$.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, amen can be found there, healing the afflicted with the ultimate help of the player.These are the way how to get to the Border monastery of Ramis of the Lost Ark.The game uses Unreal III engine, set in the middle Ages, and contains a variety of gameplay, so players need to buy cheap Lost Ark gold to play.
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