Monopoly Strategy

Much of the game of Monopoly revolves around the roll of the dice. However, strategy is also a very large part of the game. Below are a few of the many advantageous tips for Monopoly Strategy:

• There are only 32 houses and 12 hotels. Create a shortage when it will be to your advantage to have other players be unable to build.
• Keep track of which cards have been played for both the Community Chest and Chance cards.
• Know the odds of rolling the dice.
• Players have the highest probability of rolling either sevens or doubles.
• Typically, a player can travel around the game board once every five to six rolls of the dice.
• Jail, Illinois Avenue, New York Avenue, GO, Reading Railroad and the B&O Railroad squares are landed on by players more than any other squares in the game of Monopoly.
• Mediterranean Avenue and Baltic Avenue are the properties that players land on the least.
• Red and orange properties have a high probability of being landed on.
• Keep track of the amount of money each player has – it will become useful information in the event of an auction.
• Divide other players’ un-mortgaged properties by 7 to figure out approximately how many properties they will collect rent from during one time around the game board. For example, if other players own a total of 11 properties, you will probably land on 1.6 (round up to 2) of those properties when you travel around the board.
• Buy any property where the following is true:
  1. You are the first player to own a property in that color-group.
  2. You will own a second or third property of that color-group.
  3. You can stop another player from controlling a color-group.
  4. The property is from the orange color-group.
  5. You can make a better trade for other properties.
• When you are required to pay income tax consider the following: Pay 10% of your assets if you have gone around the board less than three times; or, pay 10% if heavy rents were collected from you and you believe your assets are less than $2000. Otherwise pay the flat rate of $200.
• If you are in Jail and the game has just begun, pay $50 to get out of Jail early – otherwise un-owned and undeveloped properties will become too scarce.
• Once the majority of the properties are owned, being in Jail will prevent you from paying rent – if you go there, stay there.
• Build houses and hotels as soon as you own a complete color-group.
• Build if you can bankrupt an opponent late in the game.
• Build on the most expensive property of a given color-group first (you can collect higher rent that way).
• Focus on building hotels on the low rent properties.
• If houses are not available for others to build, never sell houses to upgrade to a hotel if it means that an opponent will be able to develop a high rent property.
• Mortgage single properties first (ones where you only own one card out of a color-group).
• When mortgaging properties, do so in the following order:
  1. Properties in the closest proximity to the GO square, on the cheap side of the board.
  2. A lone utility.
  3. A lone railroad.
  4. Other utilities. These should be the last to go because they are great ways to earn money.
• Mortgage Illinois Avenue last because players land on it more often than other squares.
• Lift mortgages in the reverse order that they were mortgaged and only if you can afford to do so.
• Never let a player slip out of your grip If you are ahead and have a chance to bankrupt that player. You may not have that chance again.