|
 Brian Valentine, 30, the 8th-grade teacher from Washington, D.C. who
was the American representative and placed third at the World
Championships in Macau offers a few tips.
"Know what your purpose is, keep your eye on the ball, and do it
without being a bully," says Valentine, who was edged out by
champions from Italy and Norway.
Some specific strategies to win in both Monopoly and life:
* It is all about location, location, location.
Not all properties are created equal, as every buyer needs to know.
In Monopoly, some get landed on much more than others - Illinois
Avenue and B&O Railroad most of all, according to the game's maker,
Hasbro.
Most competitive Monopoly players tend to focus on the orange
property group (New York Ave., Tennessee Ave. and St. James Place)
or the red (Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky Aves.), says Valentine.
But some that are popular with regular players are overvalued,
according to Valentine. In particular, he shies away from the
yellows (Marvin Gardens, Ventnor Ave and Atlantic Ave.), greens
(Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Pacific Aves.) and dark blues
(Park Place and Boardwalk).
The bottom line: Know your game, in whatever market you are playing.
* Relationships matter.
Even though there is now a mobile app, Monopoly is traditionally a
face-to-face game. That means that how you interact with people is
going to affect the outcome.
"You can have lots of money and properties, but a lot of the game
comes down to human interaction and your ability to make deals with
people," says Mary Pilon, author of the book "The Monopolists" about
the origins and history of the game.
* Do not stretch yourself too thin.
Of course you want to collect multiple properties. But if you
overspend and do not keep enough of a cash cushion in reserve, then
you could go bust by landing on someone else's property.
"While I was writing the book I was also buying an apartment, so the
Monopoly themes got really meta," says Pilon. "I never buy more
house than I can afford, in the game or in real life. It makes me
nervous just thinking about it."
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* Read your opponents.
Just as in poker, the game is often not about the cards you are
holding, but about the person holding those cards. Brian Valentine,
for instance, made a concerted effort to get to know the people he
was playing against at the World Championships, to gain insight and
generate goodwill.
A corollary of that: "Don't underestimate people by how they look,"
says Pilon. "I have a grandmother in her late 80s - tiny,
churchgoing, harmless - who is an absolute killer at the Monopoly
table. She turns into somebody else."
* Buy income generators.
Many Monopoly players turn up their noses at railroads (Reading,
Pennsylvania, B&O, and Short Line) or utilities (Water Works and
Electric Company). Since you cannot put houses or hotels on them,
they have a much lower ceiling of how much rent you can potentially
collect.
But ignore them at your peril, because all those rent payments may
become very attractive. "They won't be enough to win the game all on
their own, but they will give you a constant revenue stream." says
Valentine.
* Never discount luck.
As any successful person will tell you, luck plays a role in getting
to the top. Same thing with Monopoly.
"At the end of the day, it is still a game of dice," says Valentine.
"No matter how strategic you are, you still don't really know how
the game is going to turn out."
(The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are his
own.)
(Editing by Beth Pinsker and Diane Craft)
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