My 10 rules to playing Monopoly optimally.

Blockinlick

Ultra Pinkstink
Super Saiyan 2
366
308
35
Rule #1

Your first two trips around the board, buy any and every colored property you land on. You're buying for three reasons.

1. To collect that color set.
2. To stop other players from collecting that color set.
3. To take as bargaining items to trade for properties you need.

That said, there's zero reason to not buy a colored property at the very beginning while you still have lots of money to spend.

Rule #2

Never ever, ever... ever... buy utilities. they simply aren't profitable. Even if you own both of them, your average rent from them is $60. Players have to have landed on them at least 5 times before you even start to profit from them.

Save your money for better things, like adding houses to a color set or something.

Rule #3

Don't go for Railroads except to prevent one player from getting three or more. It's not a bad idea to buy just one, but even then, make sure it counts, like stopping a player who has two already from getting it.

Railroads are certainly more profitable than utilities, but unlike colored properties, their potential is capped.

Let me put it this way.

It costs a total of $610 to buy Baltic & Mediterranean and put hotels on them. If a player lands on each one once, that's $700 and $90 profit.

All four Railroads cost a total of $800 and are hard to trade for. If players land on them four times while you own all four, you only break even.

That said, avoid buying Railroads if you can. They're profitable, just not as much as color sets.

Rule #4

Early game: Never spend to drop below $200.

Mid game (At least one player owns a color set and has a house on it): Never spend to drop below $300.

Late game (Every player has at least one color set with a house on each property): Never spend to drop below $400.

Rule #5
(Bearing in mind rule #4 takes priority)

If you have enough money for a house/hotel, buy one.

Rule #6

Aim to block any player (But you, of course) from owning the Boardwalk & Park Place color set at all costs- even if it means breaking rule #4 and mortgaging properties. $350-400 is painful to pay just to block a player, but it's better than the $1,400 to $2,000 you'll be paying later if you don't, among other issues as well.

I won't go into the details, but these two properties are statistically overpowered. Any player who owns them has a distinct advantage, even if it's the only color set they own. Do NOT pass up the opportunity to prevent someone else from having them.

Rule #7

If you already own one color set, don't go out of your way to obtain another one until you have hotels on the ones you own already. Quality > Quantity.

Rule #8

After the first trip around the board, treat the green properties (The set right before Boardwalk & Park Place) the same as Railroads. They're too costly until late game and by then, you should either be winning enough to not need them or losing so much that you can't build on them anyway.

Rule #9
Don't underestimate the value of the Baltic & Mediterranean color set. For the same mathematical reasons that Boardwalk & Park Place are overpowered, this brown neighboring color set is a lot better than you think. Get your hands on them if you can. You can't go wrong investing in them.

Rule #10

The "Buy up all the houses and never go hotels" strategy only works on paper or when you're extremely lucky. Going into a game expecting to pull that off is like going into a chess game expecting the 3-move checkmate to work.

There are 24 houses in the standard game. A property set can tie up 12 of them. If you manage to place 18 or more houses on the board at any point, you're already highly likely to win. So doing that strategy only serves to further secure the win, but it DOES NOT help you work towards it.
 
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