It appears that a cou­ple of high-profile blogs linked to this a few years back, but it’s new to me: how to win at monop­oly.

Monop­oly is a game of luck, strat­egy, and peo­ple skills. No strat­egy will guar­an­tee you a win; that’s one of the rea­sons Monop­oly is so inter­est­ing. In any given game, a new­comer can beat a life­time cham­pion. Still, there are a few strate­gic tips that came out of the com­puter sim­u­la­tions that will help you best play the odds: you may not win any given game, but in the long run, you’ll come out ahead. The “peo­ple skills” ele­ment isn’t cap­tured here. But as a gen­eral rule, think about what your oppo­nents want and see if you can engi­neer a trade with them that’s a win/win for you both. That type of nego­ti­at­ing is as vital in Monop­oly as it is in real life.