Monopoly Board Layout - Strategy

Strategy

According to Jim Slater in The Mayfair Set, the Orange property group is the best to own because players land on them more often, as a result of the Chance cards Go to Jail, Advance to St. Charles Place (Pall Mall), Advance to Reading Railroad (Marylebone Station) and Go Back Three Spaces.

In all, during game play, Illinois Avenue (Trafalgar Square), New York Avenue (Vine Street), B&O Railroad (Fenchurch Street Station), and Reading Railroad (Marylebone Station) are the most frequently landed-upon properties. Mediterranean Avenue (Old Kent Road) and Baltic Avenue (Whitechapel Road) are the least-landed-upon properties.

Other strategies may include exploitation of the game's rules, or loopholes that are not necessarily addressed by the rules. A nearly-bankrupt player could, for instance, sell or trade all of his or her remaining assets to another player for substantially less than their actual value, effectively engaging in kingmaking. One might deploy this strategy in a last-ditch effort to avoid conceding their assets to wealthy players when the threat of bankruptcy becomes unavoidable. However, this tactic is usually prevented by judges at the national championship level as trades are required to be beneficial to all parties involved.

Some players have also used tactics such as selling houses from one set of properties, then immediately buying them back and placing them on more expensive sets of properties, all during the course of a single turn. Although the housing auction rule sometimes applies, this tactic could still be used if other players simply cannot afford to participate in auctions at the time. When the number of houses available to the bank is particularly limited, some players may quickly purchase and hoard all available housing without ever upgrading to hotels, effectively restricting anyone else from upgrading as well.