Monopoly

"Boardwalk! That will be $200 please!"

Did you know it's actually quite difficult to land on Boardwalk?

When I was still in grade school, my brother and I would play Monopoly all the time. And I mean ALL THE TIME! We once had a game that lasted days... maybe even a full week!

You see, we broke the rules and did not charge for rent sometimes, just to extend the game. We had our entire summer vacation to do whatever we wanted, so we played Monopoly. But even though the game was typically longer than most any other games we played, it wasn't long enough to keep us occupied all day. So we just "lengthened it." :)

After a while, we got so good at Monopoly that we could simply just roll the dice and instead of moving our token one space at a time, we'd just jump to the proper space. We could count it out that fast. Then we started to get serious and played by "strict rules." None of this "house rules" stuff for us. It was "strict rules, or no play" at our house. We took it seriously!

And, we played fast! Roll the dice and MOVE! The game is way too slow if you have to count out spaces. Roll and move... roll and move! My friend Steve once played with us and I think he said, "You guys take all the fun out of this!" Yes... we are serious when it comes to Monopoly.

There's actually a book out there that describes the various strategies of Monopoly. Yes! Monopoly can be played with strategy. Statistically, certain spaces are landed on more frequently than others. Don't think that buying higher priced properties equates to getting more rent for you on the long run.

Did you know that having three houses on each of the color-coordinated spaces is required before you can even purchase a single hotel on that colored group? And, did you know that if there are no more houses left (physically) for the bank to sell, you cannot buy more houses and you cannot buy a hotel either? So strategically, you could buy up all the houses in the set, place them all on the properties you own and your opponents cannot buy any houses! And if your opponent has three houses on each of his colored properties in his monopoly, he can't build a hotel either! You could strategically lock your opponent out of buying houses or hotels by just not giving up your houses for hotels! Keep them on your spaces!

Rent increases dramatically at three houses. Take a look at your property card the next time you play. So the goal is really to get to three houses. And, you need to build evenly. Meaning you cannot put three houses on one space and one house on each of the two other spaces! You have to spread out that third house on one of the other two properties first. And you can't keep moving the houses from spot to spot in your monopoly. Once you declare the space it is purchased for, it stays there!
And yes... Free Parking is just Free Parking. No "house money" gets placed there for someone to win if they land on Free Parking! Who made up THAT rule?!

Don't ever play Monopoly with me or with my brother. We'll take all the fun out of the game because we are dead serious about it. Humph! Now I'm all worked up thinking about Monopoly!
There's no mercy when we play Monopoly! :)