Hey world, I am Dan Brown and today I'd like to share with you how to crush your friends and families at Monopoly. Monopoly gets a bad rap because, you know, ah, Dan, it takes so long to play, but I'm here to tell you today that if you play it correctly, it takes about as long as any other board game. The problem is the game ends when people run out of money, right? So when play groups artificially inject extra money into the game's economy, it makes the game last a lot longer. Do not, for example, give players anything for landing on free parking or give them a bonus for landing directly on go or start them with more than $1,500. Like follow the rules and Monopoly is pretty great, but it's the most great when you are winning. So let's teach you how to do that. We'll start with the basics of the early game. When you land on an unowned property, you almost always want to buy it even if it's not part of a color group that you're interested in developing. Because the more properties you have for trade, the better. Even if you don't have enough cash on hand, it's usually worth it to mortgage properties to buy other properties, because later in the game, your opponents will pay a high premium for properties that are part of a color group they're gunning for. Also, in the early game when everyone's racing to gobble up properties, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that's gobbling. You don't try to roll your way out of jail. Just pay the $50 to get back out there as soon as possible by buying more stuff. Once the game has started to develop, when everyone's been around the board a few times, and over half the properties have been bought up, it's time to engage in some more complex strategies. Let's analyze the mid-game. Consider the geography of the board. Now, some people have done all the math as to the average return on investment for each color group, but the most helpful thing to remember is the importance of jail. And go to jail. The properties immediately following go to jail are at a disadvantage, because anyone who lands on go to jail isn't going to land on those properties that time around the board. For example, the green color group is my least favorite, because it's immediately after go to jail, it's expensive to build on. There are no chance cards that send players there, and any chance or community chest cards that send opponents to jail or to go totally screw green over. Conversely, properties that are one or two average dice rolls after jail are at an advantage, because players spend a disproportionate amount of the game in that region of the board. The oranges, for example, are my favorite color group, because they're cheap to build on, and have tons of opportunities to catch players as they leave jail. There's almost a 40% chance that a player's first roll out of jail will land them on an orange property. The reds and yellows are pretty good too, because only this chance space can cause players to jump to other parts of the board on there. You know, typically second, third, and fourth rolls out of jail. Specifically, chance cards can move you to go to Reading Railroad, to the nearest railroad, to the nearest utility, to jail, back three spaces, to St. Charles Place, to Illinois Avenue, or to boardwalk. And it's those last three that are the most important. Pay attention through the early and mid-game as to which of these three chance cards have already been drawn, because if you know which are still due to be drawn, you can trade accordingly. For example, boardwalk is the most feared property in Monopoly, but on its own isn't really all that great, right? It's expensive to develop, and is in a pretty dead region of the board. The take-a-walk on the boardwalk, chance card, is what pushes boardwalk over the top. If you haven't seen this card by the late game, the expected return on investment for developed dark blues is huge. If, however, you remember that take-a-walk on the boardwalk was already drawn, it's probably best to try and get rid of the dark blues, because they pull a ton of weight in trades. As for the railroads, owning three or four of them is a fantastic way to supplement a complete color group, and frankly owning them on top of like the Orges, Yellows, or Reds is often enough to win the game out right. But in my experience, many players tend to overvalue the railroads, and will trade away a lot more than they probably should for them. This is something you need to feel out game by game, but more often than not, I find myself looking to trade railroads in exchange for completing color groups. Every game of Monopoly is different. You should not have your heart set or entirely rule out any particular strategy at the beginning of the game. Just because I don't love the greens doesn't mean I would never trade for one after landing on another say, right? You have to play the hand that you're dealt. The information in this video is just the basic framework for playing well. Once everyone has been trading for a few laps and multiple players have complete color groups, it's time to start thinking about late game strategies, namely when and how much should you develop your completed color groups. The most important thing to remember here is that the first big jump in rent for any property happens between two and three houses. Three is the magic number where big things start happening. If you feel like you're winning, or at least have enough assets on hand to absorb a big blow without having to sell off houses, go ahead and build up to three houses when an opponent is approaching one of your color groups. I like to wait until the last possible moment to develop my properties for two reasons. One, if my opponents don't see houses on the board, it's easier for them to forget that they could very quickly be houses on the board, and they might overextend themselves. And two, it means that I have cash on hand for as long as possible in case there's some unexpected expense or an opponent wants to trade for cash. All wait until an opponent is within 10 spaces to develop a property, and I build like crazy on properties that are 6, 7, or 8 spaces from opponents. One last thing to consider when developing color groups is that there are a finite number of houses in the bank. Once they're used up, players either have to upgrade straight to hotels or not at all. It's often better to stop at four houses per property, even when you could easily afford hotels because it locks opponents out of further development. And if at this very scary stage of the game you are lucky enough to find yourself in jail, stay there as long as possible where you are no risk of owing rent to opponents, but can still collect rent for yourself. To summarize, monopoly only takes forever when you break the rules and artificially inflate its economy, in the early game you should buy as much as possible, in the mid game you should make smart trades, and in the late game you should develop intelligently. Go forth and crush your loved ones! Thank you for watching! If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing! If you want to support PogoBat, click the link underneath me, and to watch more, there are some links over there, you can click on if you so desire. Until next time, spend PogoBat! I'm Dan Brown, this is PogoBat, next time we'll see you around, later.