Much more skill in stratego than monopoly

[MRBAA]

Stratego is a game of skill, with hidden information providing some randomization. However, a good player will beat a bad player virtually everytime. As a kid, I had a strategy no friend or family member could beat. I lost the first time I played this game and never lost again. After awhile, no one would play me.

Monopoly, on the other hand, is heavily luck dependent. At the start of the game, you need to buy up properties to win. Landing on properties is just a matter of getting good dice rolls. If you don't get the deeds, you are dead. Sure there's some strategy, but it's pretty basic. As long as you aren't a moron and don't pass up valuable properties, run totally out of money or make dumb trades, monopoly is basically just craps with street names.

[Grisgra]

Pretty obvious you've wrapped up the Useless Post of the Day award . . . and probably Useless Post of the Week.

Useless Post of the Month? Probably. Going to be tough to top, but we've got a pretty creative bunch here.

[MRBAA]

Oh yeah? Well I bet I could capture your flag!

[USGrant]

When I played as a kid with my brother sometimes I'd get bored and put my flag right behind one of the lakes surrounded by high ranking pieces. He'd march right past them and waste himself on my bomb fields protecting nothing. He'd eventually catch on, but it was a good set up for future games. That was a good time, oh yeah. Second poster is right, this is a useless post, lol.

[MRBAA]

Okay, but too anyone who wants to try that no bombs thing I say this:

Your flag is mine, bitches.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
monopoly is basically just craps with street names.

[/ QUOTE ]

If Monopoly had no skill involved, they probably wouldn't pay $15k for a World Championship (http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.tokyo/dn/default.cfm)

I've never heard of a "World Championship of Craps" event with a $15,000 grand prize, personally.

[maurile]

I'm not sure the if craps involved skill, people would play it for money angle is the best one to use here.

People play craps for big money all the time. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[RYL]

There's more elements than luck in monopoly than you might think in order to win. If you're an excellent negotiator, you WILL win more than you lose in the long run. If you read Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki mentions that he has learned skills in monopoly that he applies in his real estate business.

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not sure the if craps involved skill, people would play it for money angle is the best one to use here.

People play craps for big money all the time. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

People don't generally put up big money tournaments and people don't generally go to play in big money tournaments in games that are entirely luck. (of course, maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, the burden of proof is on you to point me to the signup page for the World Series of Roulette, now, isn't it? /images/graemlins/smile.gif)

But I don't know why I'm typing this, since any person intelligent enough to use a computer could understand my post upon reading it, so I can only conclude that you're just being a smartass.

[PokerProdigy]

Honestly I think there is skill in monopoly because it's one of my favorite board games and I win much more than I should (which proves it probably got some strategy (or I just got lucky a bunch of times /images/graemlins/grin.gif)). I think the key is knowing when to buy houses and condos, where to put them, what to trade properties for, when to trade properties, when to mortage properties, etc...

P.S. This is not a joke I have seriously played monopoly hundreds of times (atleast) in my life, and win more than I mathematically should, but I have also always tried to learn the skill/strategy involved and try to push that edge/advantage/overlay as much as I could.

[neorab]

I've got to say that there is a great deal of skill involved in monopoly. Bankroll manegment, don't blow your money as fast as it comes in if you have to cross a long stretch of high rent spaces. Probability, when decideding where to put houses in relation to where others tokens are and what is most likely to be rolled. Knowing your opponents and using that knowledge to your advantage in negotiations to best them. Yeah, there is the luck of the roll, but there is some skill there.

Monopoly and stratego where two of the games my family played at least once a week. I think stratego is more fun, but monopoly is always a good time.

[LinusKS]

You need to distinguish between whether there's skill in a game, and how difficult the skill is to master.

Tic-tac-toe, for example, has no luck at all. But the strategy is so simple, any two reasonable people will tie every time.

Monopoly does have an element of luck, and also an element of skill, but for the most part the strategy in monopoly is so simple, luck predominates. The exception is if you're trading properties - then it can get pretty complex. If you're playing against the types of players who are willing to trade, that is.

[joda mas]

As kids, my brother offered to play me Monopoly for real money. At the end of the game, he said, we’ll just divide all the sums by 100. 500 monopoly = 5 bucks. I agreed on the condition that either of us could “fold” at any time. I figured this was my edge and would minimize the luck factor. Plus, he’s a chaser in poker, so he would probably chase here, too.

First game I feel I’m in bad shape and I quit. We count up, and I’m down like 80 bucks! Holy sht!! Much more than I figured. I got pissed, thinking he’d set me up!

Next game, I took over $300 off him in a very short span, he quit and we never played again. That was too much money for us and I felt a little bad for him.

As a gambling game, a decent Monopoly player should make much more than a Statego expert. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[MRBAA]

LOL, monopoloy would definitely be a better gambling game than stratego. But I think the skills of monopoly -- and there are some -- are so simple compared to the importance of getting property that Stratego easily is the more skillful game. In monopoly, you basically just buy up every property you can early because there are no big expenses to bankrupt you. Then you slap up houses/hotels as fast as you can if you are lucky enough to get monopolies. The RRs are good, too if you get 3 or all 4. We modified monopoly to have some different chance and CC cards and a third property in the Boardwalk/Park Place monopoly (Steel Pier) instead of luxury tax. Our version also included "gang war" in which if you landed on a property owned by another player but you also owned one of the deeds in that monopoly, you could declare a gang war and roll the dice with the higher roll taking the other player's deed. This eliminated standoffs when playing head up.

Another game I used to think had a fair bit of skill when I was a kid but now realize has very little (after playiing it with my kids) was Masterpiece. I'm sure of this because my 10 year old kicked my butt.

[jskills]

Couldn't agree more. Stratego has very little to do with luck. Monopoly uses dice - nuff said.

BTW - I will kick your ass in Stratego pal. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[RYL]

I never played stratego but I played chess and pool.

[RYL]

Luck and skill?
Poker, backgammon, monopoly,....


....stocks, businesses....

[RYL]

LOOK DEEPer....

CNBC=MAD MONEY by Jim Cramer, National Headsup Poker....

[FishAndChips]

Stratego is a f'ing great game. It's like chess, but you get to blow shhhhit up. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MLerra]

Chess is a game of skill. When I was a kid, there was this dude named Fisher. He pretty much beat everyone.

Yahtzee, on the other hand, is heavily luck dependent. You have to roll dice randomly and have them come up in certain ways. Winning is just a matter of good dice rolls.

EDIT: Also... the sky is blue. Stuff falls down. Things get old and die.

[Michael Davis]

Well on a session-by-session basis there's more skill in Monopoly than poker. In fact, I suspect Monopoly has a larger skill factor than poker though it's easier to learn the skills and anybody can get there. Still, try playing heads up Monopoly with regular rules, a good player will beat a bad player 80% of the time.

-Michael

[Jordan Olsommer]

[ QUOTE ]
Chess is a game of skill. When I was a kid, there was this dude named Fisher. He pretty much beat everyone.

Yahtzee, on the other hand, is heavily luck dependent. You have to roll dice randomly and have them come up in certain ways. Winning is just a matter of good dice rolls.

EDIT: Also... the sky is blue. Stuff falls down. Things get old and die.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know the exact rules of Yahtzee, but if I remember the basics correctly, it's vaguely similar to five-card draw except with no betting (i.e. the skill factor comes in knowing which categories to go for and which dice to keep and which to reroll, etc.)

FWIW, I would bet heavily on the fact that Yahtzee, while "heavily luck-dependent", can still be a "beatable" game. Of course, my only evidence for this is having heard Gus Hansen's saying that before he was a backgammon pro, he used to earn his living by playing some Danish Yahtzee game for money /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

In any event, please don't make the mistake of "dice involved = ALL LUCK!". You can prove otherwise rather easily. For example, here's a new game I just made up called "Chesszee": you start by having both players roll a die, and the person to roll the highest number gets to play white in the game of chess that follows. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[MRBAA]

Yes Michael, a "good" monopoly player will beat a "bad" one most times. But it is relatively easy to be "good" at Monopoly -- there's just not that much to know. In the same way, a "good" dice player, who knows which rolls are most probable, will beat a "bad" one who bets on double ones or boxcars, too.