by Dick Ferrari

Created on: August 08, 2009

First of all, if you have to cheat to win at Monopoly, then do us all a favor and go play in traffic. Nobody likes a cheater. Now that we got that out of the way... The great thing about Monopoly is that no single strategy will work 100% of the time, but with a little statistical knowledge, creativity, and luck, you can win more often than not. To keep things fairly simple, I'm going highlight 4 strategies under standard rules (no Free Parking pot) with 4 players. Also, Railroads and Utilities are nice to have, but in most cases won't break people, so I won't spend much time on them. Use them as trading chips since some players tend to overvalue them, or use them to mortgage later on if you need cash.

Buy everything you land on. It's doubtful you'll dig yourself into a mortgaging hole in the first couple trips around, so gobble up what you can. Nothing is more frustrating to me than not being able to land on property to buy in the early going. Keep in mind, the more you own, the more you can trade later.

Focus on Orange, Light Blue, Magenta, then Red. In that order! Due to roll distances from Jail and Go, those property groups BY FAR have the highest rates of visitations. The Light Blues are very underrated in my opinion, and can often be had as a throw in on a deal. Another key reason to focus on these four groups is return on investment. For example: It'll cost you $2060 total to have 3 hotels on Orange. 3 hotels on Light Blue is $1070 total. Getting to 2 hotels on Dark Blue is $2750 total and damn near impossible if that's your only monopoly. In two opponent landings on Orange or Light Blue, you've almost made your money back and crippled your enemies at a much cheaper cost. Just take my word for it, your opponents WILL land on Orange, Light Blue, Magenta, and Red A LOT more than Dark Blue and will be paying so much rent that they'll never get the chance to put those 2 hotels on Dark Blue.

The deal. Unless you're extremely lucky, you won't have a color Monopoly by just landing on properties you need in a typical 4 person game. Most if not all property will be bought up within the first 5 or 6 trips around the board, so in order to start knocking people off, you'll need to trade for monopolies. Here's where the buying everything you landed on earlier comes into play. In most instances, I trade down in value. Some players will pay dearly to have the Yellows, Greens, and/or Dark Blues under their control. I will part with those in a heartbeat, but it will be costly to the person I'm trading with. This may sound crazy to some, but I've traded 2 expensive mortgaged properties to complete someone else's monopoly or even traded entire mortgaged color groups. Try it. You'll be amazed at what some people give up. Expensive properties are also expensive to unmortgage, much less develop.

Three house rule. Every color group makes a significant jump in rent when you go from 2 to 3 houses. It's best to not even bother upgrading to the 4th house and hotel unless you have a large amount of money. Keep that extra cash on hand for your own liquidity and to afford the 2 Housing Repair cards in Chance and Community Chest which always seem to pop up at the worst times. The last thing you want to do is sell those extra houses back at half price.

So there you have it. Remember to buy everything possible early, monopolize and develop the most landed on properties, dupe your opponents into trading up into something they really can't afford, limit your houses to 3, and you will greatly improve your Monopoly winning percentage.

Learn more about this author, Dick Ferrari.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.