Strategy Guide for Monopoly Here and Now

This is your free gift! Its a strategy guide to help you win Monopoly Here and Now! Best improvable properties Among improvable properties (properties that can have houses or hotels built on them), the orange set is far superior to any other: It is visited quite often (it is located at a moderate distance after the Jail square), and property costs are relatively cheap, and the prospect of collecting damaging rents without too much investment is excellent. The runner-up for best improvable properties is the red setstatistics demonstrate that while the orange are landed on more often as a group, Illinois Avenue is landed on most often as a single entity. In addition, it catches many people who happen to overrun the orange properties on their way out of jail. As a general rule, the second color group on each side of the board has a far better cost-to-value ratio because the houses and hotels cost the same as the first color group but yield higher rent. The major exception to this strategy is the "red" group over the "yellow" group for the reasons outlined above. Similarly to red, the pink/light purple set gets many landings from people leaving jail but not getting very far. The light blue set, on the other hand, receives many hits from people coming from the Go square. The dark purple/brown and green sets are far inferior: Neither attracts many visits; green is very expensive and does not collect enough rent to compensate; and dark purple/brown, though inexpensive, is often skipped and collects little rent. The yellow set doesn't get nearly as many hits as the reds, but they can dominate later in the game. The dark blue set has only two properties, so they are landed on less often than the other sets; however, their high rents can often cripple other players. A player who uses these relative values as a guide to trading ought to do better than chance in the long run.

EXPECTED INCOME PER ROLE

Square 1 Property Whole Block 1 House 2 Houses 3 Houses 4 Houses Jacob's Field $426 $853 $2,131 $6,394 $19,182 $34,102 Texas Stadium $865 $1,730 $4,325 $12,974 $38,923 $69,197 Grand Ole Opry $1,357 $2,715 $6,786 $20,359 $61,078 $90,486 Gateway Arch $1,393 $2,785 $6,963 $20,889 $62,666 $92,839 Mall of America $1,840 $3,681 $9,201 $23,003 $69,010 $103,515 Centennial Park $2,702 $5,403 $13,508 $40,525 $121,575 $168,854 Red Rocks $2,372 $4,744 $11,860 $35,581 $106,744 $148,256 Libery Bell $2,958 $5,916 $14,789 $44,368 $123,245 $172,542 South Beach $3,909 $7,819 $19,547 $55,848 $153,583 $209,431 Johnson Space Center $4,110 $8,220 $20,549 $58,712 $161,457 $220,169 Pioneer Square $4,936 $9,873 $24,681 $67,874 $185,110 $246,814 Camelback Mountain $5,105 $10,209 $25,523 $70,896 $198,509 $248,137 Waikiki Beach $4,924 $9,848 $24,621 $68,392 $191,498 $239,373 Disney World $6,372 $12,743 $31,858 $95,573 $238,932 $294,683 French Quarters $5,956 $11,912 $29,779 $89,338 $216,576 $263,952 Hollywood $5,893 $11,787 $29,467 $88,402 $214,309 $261,189 Golden Gate Bridge $6,207 $12,413 $31,033 $93,098 $219,814 $265,070 Las Vegas Blvd. $6,961 $13,922 $34,806 $104,417 $240,963 $294,511 Wrigley Field $6,825 $13,651 $34,127 $102,382 $236,266 $288,769 White House $7,002 $14,004 $37,509 $112,528 $250,063 $300,075 Fenway Park $7,652 $15,305 $38,262 $109,320 $240,504 $284,232 Times Square $13,130 $26,260 $52,519 $157,558 $367,635 $446,414 Hotel $53,284 $97,308 $124,418 $127,653 $138,020 $202,624 $177,907 $221,840 $265,279 $278,880 $308,517 $297,764 $287,248 $350,434 $311,328 $308,069 $310,326 $341,365 $334,710 $350,088 $327,960 $525,193

Tactics Early in the game when many properties are unowned, it is a disadvantage to be in Jail. A player should pay the fine and get out quickly. Later in the game, when properties are highly developed, it is an advantage to be in Jail so as to avoid paying high rents. When landing on the Income Tax square, use this simple rule of thumb. Since players start with $15B and collect $2M for passing Go each time, it is generally better to pay 10% until passing Go for the third time. Barring exceptionally good or bad fortune, the third time past Go is the time when a player's assets exceed $20M, and once above $20M, a player is not likely to dip below until late in the game when he has paid some drastic rents and is on the verge of elimination. The increased rent for houses takes a long time to pay off the initial investment if there are only one or two houses per property. Starting with the third house, rents rise dramatically and pay off the investment correspondingly faster. If a player owns two color groups, it is much better for him to put three or four houses on each property in one group (leaving the other group undeveloped) than it is to put two houses everywhere. Similarly, it is unwise for a player to deeply mortgage himself to develop a monopoly unless he can build to at least the third house. If there is a shortage of houses, players should consider buying the last houses rather than buying hotels because each hotel built returns four houses to the bank for other players to use. When there are no houses in the bank, no one else can build houses. Also, players with hotels can't easily convert them to cash in this situation; they would have to strip an entire color group of its hotels to raise money since buildings must be removed evenly from a color group and because the hotels cannot be exchanged for houses since there are no houses in the bank. The owners of inexpensive monopolies should be particularly eager to use this tactic to prevent the owners of expensive monopolies from fully developing. When building houses in a color group, a player should usually build the first house of a level of houses on the last property of the color group. The second house of the level should be usually built on the first property of the color group, unless the color group is the light-blue or orange color group. The same applies to hotels. This tactic is based on the fact that usually the rent mathematical expectancy (the average of the expected rent) is higher when houses are built in that order.

PROBABILITY OF ENDING UP ON EACH SQUARE

Square Go Jacob's Field Community Chest Texas Stadium Income Tax ORD Grand Ole Opry Chance Gateway Arch Mall of America Visiting Jail Centennial Park Cell Phone Service Red Rocks Libery Bell LAX South Beach Community Chest Johnson Space Center Pioneer Square Free Parking Camelback Mountain Chance Waikiki Beach Disney World JFK French Quarters Hollywood Internet Service Golden Gate Bridge Go To Jail Las Vegas Blvd. Wrigley Field Community Chest White House ATL Chance Fenway Park Luxury Tax Times Square In Jail Probability % (Jail Short) Rank 3.0961 3 2.1314 36 1.8849 37 2.1624 35 2.3285 28 2.9631 6 2.2621 32 0.865 40 2.321 29 2.3003 30 2.2695 31 2.7017 15 2.604 20 2.3721 26 2.4649 24 2.92 8 2.7924 12 2.5945 21 2.9356 7 3.0852 4 2.8836 9 2.8358 10 1.048 38 2.7357 13 3.1858 2 3.0659 5 2.7072 14 2.6789 16 2.8074 11 2.5861 22 0 41 2.6774 17 2.6252 19 2.3661 27 2.5006 23 2.4326 25 0.8669 39 2.1864 33 2.1799 34 2.626 18 3.9499 1