Monoploy: Luck or Skill?

[anacrime]

FWIW, in the game we play, there are very few trades 3 handed and almost never a trade heads up. This is because all parties understand that a lot of the time you only need one monopoly to win. When we play 4 handed, we trade more often b/c you're less likely to acquire a natural monopoly.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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There is tons of skill involved in negotiations, if you are good at trading you can improve your winning chances a lot by finding creative tradings with different players

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people can buy every property that they can afford to take auctions out of the game, and refuse to trade to take negotiations out of the game. it's quite an equalizer, and i've found it's more the rule than the exception.

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Only idiots make property go to auctions since all property is sold at much lower price than its real value. If one or two players stubbornly refuse to trade, they will be underdogs if the other players trade efficiently and quick, the clue if i.e. 2 refuse to trade in a 4-player game is to work with the last player to create a 40-40-20-20 EV-situation instead of a 25-25-25-25 EV-situation and usually such trades exist.

[anacrime]

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Only idiots make property go to auctions since all property is sold at much lower price than its real value.

[/ QUOTE ]What? This is way wrong and way too relative to the game and situation. Sometimes you're incapable of buying a property and/or the property has no strategic value to you.

Also, if you land on a property that you know two other players in the game want badly, you can refuse to buy in and watch the two dish out all their money. This case is more rare b/c often times buying the property will be of more stategic value for trades later on.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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What? This is way wrong and way too relative to the game and situation. Sometimes you're incapable of buying a property and/or the property has no strategic value to you.

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Of course it is like poker, sometimes you should fold kings preflop, but your perspective is still wrong for next to near all relevant situations, if it has value above the list price for any other player (and it almost always has) you should buy it.


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Also, if you land on a property that you know two other players in the game want badly, you can refuse to buy in and watch the two dish out all their money. This case is more rare b/c often times buying the property will be of more stategic value for trades later on.

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This is very bad advice. Much better is for you to buy it and use it in discussion with them. You can i.e. just hold an auction yourself immediately and sell it to the highest bidder or even better you can demand to be paid in assets that are valuable for you but not at the same practical value for your opponents, thus you are ending up getting a lot more value than the list price.

[anacrime]

I did not need to give univeral advice to debunk your argument. I only needed to give you a situation where you're not an "idiot" for not buying the property. Sorry for being nitty, I just hate when people misuse absolutes.

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This is very bad advice. Much better is for you to buy it and use it in discussion with them. You can i.e. just hold an auction yourself immediately and sell it to the highest bidder or even better you can demand to be paid in assets that are valuable for you but not at the same practical value for your opponents, thus you are ending up getting a lot more value than the list price.

[/ QUOTE ]I agree, this is much better.

edit:
BTW, what did you vote?

[SamIAm]

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If the game drags out

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In my experience, the game ALWAYS drags out. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I voted "60-80% luck". Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
-Sam

[anacrime]

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If the game drags out

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In my experience, the game ALWAYS drags out. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I voted "60-80% luck". Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
-Sam

[/ QUOTE ]I voted 60-80% as well and our 3 handed games last less than an hour.

[Rick305]

70/30

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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I just hate when people misuse absolutes.


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Yeah, I did not even think of it as an absolute, just wrote it as it is practically near absolute [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. One example where you should let it go to auction is if is late in the game, and there is 3 players left, one has a good lead and the 2 of you are trying to work together, you have enough colors to build on but lack the cash and one of you already block the color you landed on, then that street it is near valueless.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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BTW, what did you vote?

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Have not voted, hard to quantify, I would think that a very good player would win a 4-player game vs total noobs maybe like 60% of the time since he can basically set up the game. He can i.e. sell a lot of assets to ensure he is the only one with cash and thus ensure that no practical possibilities for others to get houses up quick exists. Especially the expensive ones you can trick the noobs to pay you in cash for. If you are the only one with cash you just need the 3 streets in the 2nd cheapest color and you will most likely win. Between better players, you will never be able to make a trade that gives you a very high winning chance, so then it is obviously much more luck.