Monopoly Deal Craze

Everyone's crazy about Monopoly Deal!

When you go to coffee shops and desserts places during weekends... what do you see? Groups of people playing Monopoly Deal.

Last March, when I wanted to buy my own Monopoly Deal, I hopped from one toy store, department store, hobby shop to the next and it's nowhere to be found! Out of stock! The supply cannot meet the demand.

I ended up asking my brother-in-law to buy my set in Hongkong... even there, he had to take an extra ride in the subway just to find it. (Awww... thanks, Victor!)

I started playing Monopoly Deal just this year with my ex-colleagues and that got me hooked! Everyone gets really competitive when we play... it's crazy and funny at the same time. :P

I'm not an expert on the game or anything... but I would like to share some tips I picked up while playing the game.

(Learn the basic rules here before you play or read the tips)

PLAY MONEY FIRST
The objective of the game is to collect 3 complete sets of property. Property is IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT! You must try your best not to lose any property to any of your opponents. The best shield for that- is to play money first. When someone collects debt, rent or birthday gift from you, it's best to pay with money. If you don't have money, you end up paying with property and that's a NO! NO! When you have few money but lots of property, you become a target for your opponents.. they know that they just need to deplete your minimal money to get their hands on your properties. Try to have at least $5M money first before you lay down any property.

USE DEBT TO ACQUIRE PROPERTY
Kind of related to the first tip... if an opponent doesn't have enough money to pay for his/her debt to you, you can acquire his/her properties. Collect debt or rent from your opponent with value greater than the money he/she has and he/she will be forced to give you property to pay off the debt.

PLAN YOUR MOVES BUT BE READY WITH A CONTINGENCY PLAN
Now, to be honest.... it's kind of irritating to wait for players who take too long on their turn. So at the end of your previous turn, I suggest that you take a good look at the remaining cards you have on your hands, the cards laid down by yourself and your opponents on the table to plan your next moves. Be ready with a contingency plan (and think fast too please!) based on the 2 new cards you draw on your next turn. When you plan ahead, you minimize the chance of being stressed and making the wrong moves while everyone looks at you impatiently to finish your turn.

When you plan your moves, you can decide better when to use up your maximum of 3 moves or to limit them or to make no moves at all. Not using up all your 3 moves can be part of your strategy.

I have encountered confused players who make a 4th move, then insist that it's only their 3rd move, cause they themselves didn't have a clear picture of what they want to achieve at the end of their turn.

TAKE CALCULATED RISKS
One reason why Monopoly Deal is so popular is that it relates a lot to how you think and do business in real life. Similar to real life business, you cannot be too cautious as you'll never move forward if you are. In business and in life, there's a HUGE difference between 'playing to win' and 'playing not to lose'.

In Monopoly Deal, keeping all your property cards in your hands so that no one can take them is playing not to lose. After all, how can you win if all your cards are in your hands? Remember, the objective of the game is to collect 3 sets of properties- before any of your opponents do.

If all your collected properties are hidden in your hands, it will take several turns before you can lay down your properties. Since we live in a fast-paced real life and Monopoly Deal world, by then, a lot of things can already happen- a faster opponent might lay down his 3 sets before you, you might lose a precious turn when you're asked to go to jail (Honkong version), an opponent might steal the cards you lay down, etc. Timing and being first are important in this game.

If you also hold too many property card in your hands, you cannot keep important action cards (as number of cards in your hands is limited to 7 only). A lot of action cards are usually played near the end of the game... and it's important that you have a couple of them in your hands, as well, to defend your properties.


STAY UNDER THE RADAR
When your opponents see you as good and when they see you as having the best chance of winning, they tend to focus on bringing you down. That means... all offensive cards will be played against you (go to jail, pay rent, deal breaker, forced deal, etc.)

If your opponents see you as good, that's another story that I cannot give a tip for. But one way to stay under the radar is to avoid laying down any complete sets (also to avoid the deal breaker) and prioritize laying down cards with lower value. If you need to lay down a complete set, start with those of lower value. When you lay down cards that are crucial for your win, try your best to have the action cards to 'defend' them, in case anyone tries to take them away.

Somehow, the Blue Monopoly Deal cards almost always makes your opponents excited. It's big value and it takes only 2 cards to complete the blue set, that's why.


USE ACTION CARDS WISELY
Try to save action cards, especially JUST SAY NO, near the end of the game, versus an action that can make or break your or your opponent's win. Try to save DEAL BREAKERS until you know more or less that all JUST SAY NO cards have been used up... that will ensure that the person to whom you want to play that card against will not have it in his/her hands.

USE YOUR LUCK WELL
Monopoly Deal, like life and business, is not 100% based on skills and intelligence. Luck also plays a big factor. Even if you're very skilled but you're given bad cards, it will take a lot of time and still some luck to turn your game around. If you're lucky enough to be given good cards, play your cards well and you can be assured of a good victory. Even if you're lucky enough to be given good cards, but you're too careless or too risk-averse, then you just wasted your luck.

Again, I'm no expert in Monopoly Deal (please... stop playing those action cards against me, ok? LOL!), I just want to share my observations and learnings during the game. They say that in golf, you can learn a lot about the other person by watching the way he/she plays. You know what? I believe it's the same with Monopoly Deal... you get to gauge the person's aggressiveness, willingness to take risks, speed in making decisions, attention to details and sportsmanship.

 
P.S. When we play Monopoly Deal, we have this additional rule to make the game more challenging: Not more than 1 Wild Card of any kind in any set.