Monoploy: Luck or Skill?

[Peter Harris]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't help but think of this game as analogous to poker: mediocre players think that the game is mostly luck, while the best players recognize their clear advantage over noobs, and attribute their higher win rate to skill. Obviously, if there is little skill difference, then luck plays a larger part. I tend to agree with Madsen, that a skilled player competing against 3 rookies will win 50-75% of the time.

[/ QUOTE ]

unless the 3 rookies implicitly collude by trading sets with each other [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

this is why i prefer HU play. My family gang up on me, even at scrabble [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[chev9]

I've been crushing McDonald's lately in their Monopoly promotion - to the tune of two breakfast sandwiches and a small soda. Obviously skill.

[punkass]

I have like 16 Baltics and 11 Atlantic Aves. Beat.

[Keepitsimple]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]
are there any videos of master monopoly players?

[Michael Davis]

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

A property's real value is not the price listed in the game. If properties go for much less than their real value, you should just bid more for them and win the game.

Furthermore, if properties are sold for under there board value in a multiplayer game, the players are, with some exception, playing very poorly. And in a heads up match, it is essential that properties be auctioned because managing your money and making sure you buy the right mix of properties is the whole point of that game.

The auction rule is extremely important with regard to the skill factor in the game. Without auctions, there is too little skill in Monopoly to make it worth playing.

-Michael

[anacrime]

[ QUOTE ]
The auction rule is extremely important with regard to the skill factor in the game. Without auctions, there is too little skill in Monopoly to make it worth playing.

-Michael

[/ QUOTE ]In our 2/3 player games, there are hardly ever any auctions. This is mainly b/c opponent 1 is not going to pass on a property that opponent 2 would want. Does this mean our games require very little skill?

[Michael Davis]

"In our 2/3 player games, there are hardly ever any auctions. This is mainly b/c opponent 1 is not going to pass on a property that opponent 2 would want. Does this mean our games require very little skill?"

No, it means you guys are likely making some big mistakes. You should be auctioning more properties I would guess and getting your opponents to pay near full price for them. (This applies mostly in two player games.) Paying full price for many properties is criminal and you should want to dump off some of the props to your opponent. Saddling your opponent with the green monopoly in a heads up match would result in you winning a huge percentage of the time.

-Michael

[iron81]

This was mentioned before, but if you land on a property that your opponents are willing to pay for more than board value, just buy it and sell it to the opponent. That way, not only is the opponent paying full price for the property, but you get to stick the difference in your pocket.

[Michael Davis]

"This was mentioned before, but if you land on a property that your opponents are willing to pay for more than board value, just buy it and sell it to the opponent. That way, not only is the opponent paying full price for the property, but you get to stick the difference in your pocket."

I'm not talking about board value. If you are paying much more than mortgage value for the greens in a headsup match, that's a mistake. With situation exceptions of course when either you or your opponent have locked up most of the groups already.

-Michael

[Arnfinn Madsen]

You are assuming very good opponents, Michael. I.e. in the very beginning of the game the most expensive street is virtually without value, but that doesn't mean that you should let it go to auction. Almost all of your opponents will overvalue it, and thus you should buy it due to greater fool's theory.

Heads up, there is such a scarcity of money compared to all the streets on the board that many of them have an initial value lower than the listed price, so then letting it go to auction and push your opponent to pay as much as possible is smart, however the heads up game is so stupid anyway (that is really 99% luck) so not much point of discussing strategy there.