The secret to winning at Monopoly

After dinner, my nephew pulled out Monopoly, and earnestly asked if I wanted to play. I didn't especially, but I said, "Yes I do!" 'cause how much longer is he really going to want to play with me? His mom said we only had time for a 20 minute game, and graciously offered to be the banker. She set up the board and gave Dave (the car), me (the battleship), herself (the top hat), and the G-unit (the horse and rider) the money we'd need to play. She also rolled the highest on the dice, so she got to start. Lucky!

I went last in the first round, and my first roll put me on the first Chance space. Wouldn't you know I'd be unlucky enough to pick the "Go to Jail" card?!! (I think it's highly unfair they don't even tell you why you're going to jail. Tax evasion, no doubt, in a game such as this.) I didn't want to pay to get out, so I tried three turns in a row to throw doubles, but no dice (ha! Pun intended!) 

Meanwhile, the others were buying properties like real-estate fiends! (It should be mentioned that Breezy decided to join us, and immediately grabbed all of the $5 bills from the cash box. G-unit said, "Gee, I wonder why she likes the 5s so much? ... we all laughed, 'cause Breezy sure does love the color pink!)

Once out of jail I managed to have enough time to buy one property, and pay rent to the G-unit and Dave for my other turns before Lindsey said we were out of time. We counted our money to determine the winner (to simplify, we didn't count properties). 

Guess what?! I won! Apparently hanging out in jail saved me from spending my money, so I still had $876 left. Ha ha!

So, there you have it. Jail time probably isn't a good strategy if you're going to actually play a full game (and it DEFINITELY isn't a good idea in real life), but this time, it worked like a charm.

Happy Sunday, friends. Hope your week is a good one!