[CapriciousCptl]

If you drop some presumptions about the players you can go even faster--

Player 1: Roll a 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 or 12. Don't purchase, so it goes to auction. In auction player 2 buys for 100% of their cash.

Player 2: Rolls a 4, lands on income tax. Game over.

[Someone]

You don’t even need that second roll. If, in that auction, a player bids more than the cash they have, they go bankrupt immediately (https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf doesn’t say such bids are disallowed, and does say “The buyer pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash” and “You are declared bankrupt if you owe more than you can pay either to another player or to the Bank.”)

This can happen after the first player rolled a double, so the first player’s turn doesn’t even have to be over for a player to go bankrupt.

[impendia]

You don't need the first roll either.

At the very beginning of the game, offer your opponent $1,600 in return for a 50% stake in all the rents they collect for the rest of the game.

Your opponent accepts, and you can't pay. Game over.

[pwillia7]

You don't even have to play. Just declare you win and if the other person agrees it's game over.

[dahart]

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

[lordnacho]

This might have been the lesson the original creator had in mind, that capitalism is somehow a fool's game.

[tialaramex]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord%27s_Game

[travisjungroth]

These deals aren't allowed by the rules.

[SamBam]

As far as I can tell, they aren't explicitly disallowed. The rules do disallow lending to another player:

> MISCELLANEOUS… No player may borrow from or lend money to another player. [1]

I could see two arguments: First, board games rules generally do not need to contain a list of everything not allowed. In Risk you are not allowed to gift your tanks to another power in exchange for them not attacking you. By this logic, you're right, such deals are not allowed.

On the other hand, most players I've met treat Monopoly as "anything goes" in terms of between-player business deals, so long as they are not restricted by the rules. The fact that the rules explicitly disallow lending, but not any other deals, could point to other deals being allowed.

...I expect you're right, making deals is not allowed in the rules. But disallowing them would certainly turn a dull game into an even duller game.

1. https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf

[indrax]

Any sufficiently advanced game of monopoly is a violation of SEC rules.

[lmm]

> The fact that the rules explicitly disallow lending, but not any other deals, could point to other deals being allowed.

The rules explicitly allow particular kinds of deals and not others:

    Unimproved properties, railroads and
    utilities (but not buildings) may be sold to any player as a private
    transaction for any amount the owner can get; however, no property
    can be sold to another player if buildings are standing on any
    properties of that color-group.

[MrKristopher]

The PDF doesn't mention trading rules. You can refer to tournament rules or Monopoly computer games for what is or is not allowed -- and these types of trades are not allowed.

[runawaybottle]

I thought I was the only psycho that played Monopoly with ad-hoc negotiations (literally, everything is a negotiation).

[koolba]

You’d be surprised how few people know about the rule for auctioning property that is not purchased. I’m guessing most people learned to play without reading the actual rules. It’s just passed down by copying the actions of your older siblings.

[vmception]

As someone's thats read the many country's and state's constitutions, all major holy books and heavily weighted side-books for different sects

Its surprising I haven't thought to read the rules for Monopoly yet

Could be an onion headline. Constitutional lawyer has never read the Monopoly(R) official rules.

[Y_Y]

I bet you haven't read the UK constitution.

[vmception]

Because it isnt a single document

[dillondoyle]

I didn't! And it's interesting I just read the 1st player who declines to buy can participate in the auction.

How often would an opponent be willing to pay more than list price? I guess to secure like the 2nd blue property. Otherwise it seems like should always just decline to buy and hope for good auction outcome.

And if your opponent good to auction too. Though maybe mortgaging properties if you have a good opportunity is worth it.

What other rules make the game more interesting/complex that the 'young kid' version might not know?

[aidenn0]

You don't get any reward for landing on "free parking.". Rewards for landing on that spot are a common house rule that makes the game worse; injecting money into the game slows it down greatly.

[bombcar]

Often the “lesser” properties go to auction and it can be worth trying to get them for less than the mortgage value.

If you land on a high-value property you want to buy it outright mainly to deny the monopoly possibilities to others (high value being the orange, etc).

[memco]

Or, due to how tedious the game can sometimes be people ignore it because it’s too mouth work.

[thaumasiotes]

> due to how tedious the game can sometimes be people ignore it because it’s too [much] work.

The view that the game is tedious is directly caused by not reading the rules.

Monopoly is in an odd position where everyone is convinced they know what it's like, and yet nobody knows how to play it. Turns out, if you play it according to the rules, it is not at all similar to the version with rules you made up.

[cm2012]

It still is not fun as a game though.

- For people uncomfortable with cut throat competition, this game is winner take all.

- For competitive people, victory is 90% luck and therefore unsatisfying.

- The game is decided halfway through the game time, the rest is the inevitable victory of the leading player.

[stevage]

The worst thing is it is a knock-out format, which is inherently anti-social.

[rascul]

I've played the game a number of times as a deployed troop just for something to pass the time which can also be mildly entertaining for some people.

[koolba]

Our customized house rules are quite fun and move the game along faster as well:

* Eight players setup as four joint ventures.

* Joint ventures share cash and properties, but have two separate tokens on the board.

* No rent collection while in jail to dissuade camping out.

The end game becomes tense as your team has back to back rolls.

[PhilipTai]

Seems like an accurate emulation of the real capitalism, as intended by the game creator.

[Symbiote]

I think the typical house rules (no auctions, cash on free parking) are to make the game more tolerable for younger children.

Auctions are complicated, and a child with little money is angered when their sibling gets the property they landed on for a discount.

Income tax is tough, but there's a chance of getting it back, so please pay Billy.

[dec0dedab0de]

skipping auctions, and having money in free parking are why most people think monopoly takes a long time to play. It's like playing musical chairs but not removing any.

[Buttons840]

In part, but it still takes a while to play, and the outcome is obvious long before the end, leading to an anti-climatic slog at the end. This happens even if you play by all the rules.

"I got 6 hotels and half your properties are mortgaged. Let's play for another 15 turns until you happen to land on my hotel, then I will win."

[aidenn0]

I have often had uncertain outcomes at the end. For example, I had orange and red Monopoly with houses; the only other Monopoly with houses was green. Advantage was clearly to me. The third opponent bankrupted on green, I got the real estate tax card, forcing me to sell three houses right before my lone remaining opponent ran my gauntlet, then I hit green, jail, green again.

[dec0dedab0de]

Sure, but thats like an extra 25 minutes instead of an extra 4 hours.

[lliamander]

My wife and I decided out of the blue to play monopoly today. As it had been so long I had to read the instructions and found that out. We were both quite surprised!

[vincentmarle]

> I’m guessing most people learned to play without reading the actual rules.

Wait, Monopoly has rules?

[Cyykratahk]

Exactly, even this run is using house rules, as the official rules state that you are required to own all properties of the same colour before building, and also that houses must be built evenly on each property.

[juped]

this isn't true about either the blog post (buys boardwalk and park place, purchases houses evenly on this complete property group) or the comment above (no houses or hotels are involved)

[Cyykratahk]

You are correct, I guess my reading comprehension isn't what it used to be. I thought I saw an error and got blinded by the rush of posting a correction.

[cortesoft]

The blog buys both BW and PP, and buys houses evenly.

[ludocode]

I think the idea is that this is the shortest game where the loser makes no mistakes. The four turn game in TFA has the loser making no decisions whatsoever.

Of course it ignores the auction rule, but it could be amended to say the loser buys each auctioned property for a dollar (or whatever amount.) The only decisions the loser makes in this case are their bid prices which are irrelevant. The outcome is the same.

Edit: Actually it's a bit more complicated than this, as buying all of the auctioned properties and mortgaging them would give Player 2 enough money to afford the rent on Boardwalk. Player 1 would have to bid close to the mortgage price for each property. That way if they win the auction they can mortgage it to get their money back to afford houses, and if they lose the auction it doesn't help Player 2 afford rent on Boardwalk.

[stevage]

This isn't right. After turn 1, player 2 has say $200 worth of assets (depending on what they buy). They can mortgage that for $100. Then they need to pay 10% income tax on their assets ($20). No problem.

[aidenn0]

Player two declined to buy any properties.

[cortesoft]

You would pay 10% of your wealth for income tax, so you could always mortgage your one property and pay the 10% of the mortgage value.

[aidenn0]

Newer editions remove the 10% option

[edit] Per the Monopoly Wikia the British edition was always a fixed amount and the US edition as well since 2008.

[bombcar]

Wait whaaaaat how come nobody told me monopoly went to flat tax!

[KMag]

Technically, the old system was a flat tax. The new system is a tax that's a flat fee. Flat tax almost always refers to a flat rate, not a flat fee.

[Jyaif]

Well played! And this strategy is actually easy to execute.

The probability for executing this strategy is: P(3)+P(5)+P(6)+P(8)+P(9)+P(11)+P(12) * P(4).

Plug in the numbers from https://statweb.stanford.edu/~susan/courses/s60/split/node65...

(0.0556+0.1111+0.1389+0.1389+0.1111+0.0556+0.278)*0.0833 = 0.07407036

So 7.4%.

[sokoloff]

Times the probability that player 2 decides to bid all of their cash for a single property…

[treeman79]

I could see my kids easily getting into a bidding war.

[lisper]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

https://freakonomics.com/2008/12/16/an-all-pay-auction/

[gabereiser]

Wait... if you land on a property and don’t buy it it goes to auction where other players can bid (and start a bidding war)? My childhood has been shattered.

[bombcar]

Real monopoly dissolves down to a cutthroat game of diplomacy around the auctions and trying to trade for a monopoly.

It’s brutal and not at all kid friendly unless you like making children cry.

[vmception]

whaaat? I never knew there were auctions if another player didn't purchase. does it occur when a player doesn't have the money to purchase yet too?

the fandom wikipedia page says "Interestingly, this is one of the most-often overlooked aspects of the game." ya don't say.

[voidfunc]

The problem is the auction mechanic is too complex for young kids so it rarely gets taught.

The second problem is young kids make dumb moves causing themselves to go bankrupt really quickly which causes crying/tantrums/etc so parents and older siblings do everything possible to make the game eat up as much time as possible (e.g. house rule - giving out cash on free parking)

[aspaceman]

With full auctions and adults going at it, Monopoly is brutal, mean and not really fun for kids.

As a kid I would get knocked out super quick by my uncle, who would then typically have a 6 hour non-stop Monopoly throwdown with my mother after they eliminate the casuals.

Everyone else who played would get their feelings hurt but those two were absolutely brutal with each other and loved it.

[dragonwriter]

> With full auctions and adults going at it, Monopoly is brutal, mean and not really fun for kids.

Monopoly is, by design, brutal, mean, and not fun.

That it somehow became popular entertainment anyway is...well, I’m not sure what it is. But something.

[travisjungroth]

If they're playing for six hours after other people have been eliminated, either they're also casuals or they have house rules that are keeping money in the economy.

[TylerE]

That's kinda the point. It's really a game about the evils of capitalism.

[dragonwriter]

> does it occur when a player doesn't have the money to purchase yet too?

It happens when the player doesn’t buy, whether by choice or lack of cash. Technically, “yet” isn’t right, though, it’s always “any more” since starting cash is (far) more than the most expensive property on the board.

[tapland]

I read the rules of the Swedish version again.

It's very specific in that if it isn't bought, it HAS to be auctioned and it HAS to be sold and that any amount can be bid.

[bluGill]

A very useful thing if you know everyone else is low on cash. More than once I've landed on an expensive property I wanted, but sent it up for auction knowing that nobody else could afford to bid up to face value.

[vmception]

Wait the person that landed on it can also participate in the auction!?

Wwwhat I need to see experienced people playing this game by the official rules or whatever the consensus is, since official seems to change over time too

[bombcar]

Yes, everyone can bid. You can use this to get properties for less than the mortgage value and then immediately mortgage it.

[Symbiote]

That's been the rules for decades in the British edition (my family's older copy is from the 1950s).