The ultimate tactic to beat your family at Monopoly this Christmas revealed

Martin Lewis has proven once again that he really is a national treasure, and handed out tips on winning boardgames this Christmas.

The Money Saving Expert, 52, has already given us plenty of hacks for saving some cash in the run up to an often expensive festive period.

But he’s now turned his attention to a rather different passion of his: boardgames.

The Good Morning Britain presenter, who even proposed to his wife Lara over a game of Scrabble, fronted a new ITV documentary, Martin Lewis: How to Win at Board Games last week.

And he’s shared all his secrets, giving us a sure-fire way to win at Monopoly.

The documentary sees Martin teach some school children tips for winning Connect Four, take on a master of Scrabble, and hand out all his Monopoly hacks.

So ahead of Mr Monopoly being brought out the cupboard and dusted off, we’ve rounded up Martin’s tips to make sure you’re guaranteed to beat your relatives at the iconic game.

The Money Saving Expert has shared his boardgame secrets (Picture: REX / GETTY)

It’s time to dust off the Monopoly board (Picture: Getty Images)

The most common throw is a 7

Thanks to his handy dice probability pyramid, Martin was able to show that the most common throw is a seven, and the least likely would be a two or a 12.

The chances of rolling out a seven are 1/6, so if you’re looking ahead at the board, seven steps forward is where you should be predicting your next landing spot.

‘When you’re in your game play and an opponent is coming near, you can work out “Should I put a house on that,” are they likely to land on it,’ Martin guided.

Buy as many properties as you can, at first

‘In the early stages of the game, you generally want to buy as many properties as possible,’ Martin said.

But as we know… Monopoly properties aren’t always equal, and it won’t be long before you’re all eying up Park Lane.

Martin showed us his ‘probability pyramid’ (Picture: ITV)

The two colours that are the best value for money

‘One way to compare is by calculating the return on investment,’ Martin explained, saying it’s important to figure out what you’ll be getting back in rent compared to what you pay for the card and any houses or hotels for it.

‘When we’re starting out, the most expensive give you the best return and the least expensive generally give you the worst return,’ he went on.

But as you start adding houses and hotels, it’s the light blues and oranges that give the best return on investment.

‘They’re the best value for money, something I tend to know a thing or two about,’ Martin said.

A quick rule reminder

One rule that most of us won’t remember (if we ever did read the rulebook) states: ‘If you don’t buy something, it goes out to auction.’

Though it’s an official rule, a X poll Martin conducted revealed only 23% of people played it.

So even if a player has turned down buying a card, they can still bid against their competitors for it, meaning you may be able to grab a bargain.

Another rule Martin reminded us of is that, at the start of every turn, you can trade with another player.

He definitely knows all the official rules (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

One ‘rule’ that we’ve all been playing by though, Martin revealed, isn’t actually an official one.

If you also put your fine money in the middle, and hope for a jackpot when you land on Free Parking, that could actually be the reason the game goes on for too long.

Martin said: ‘It’s a bit like economics, it’s inflationary, you’re putting more inflation, so taking money out of the game means you’ll end the game more quickly.

‘When you land on Free Parking, nothing happens. Best way to play.’

An alternative strategy

The most common way to play the game is buy as many full sets as possible to build houses and hotels.

But Martin revealed there’s an alternate way to play: buying one card from each different set on the board.

Although you might already be shaking your heads hearing this, he has a pretty simple explanation.

‘If you buy one of each different set on the board, your opponent can’t develop, as you need to own all the properties in the set in order to build them.’

We’ve never tried his strategy before… (Picture: ITV)

Mortgage your other cards for extra cash

Once you have all the cards in a set, you can start building houses and hotels on them, but in order to do that, you may have to start mortgaging the ones you don’t need for the extra cash.

‘I’m developing much more quickly this way, but putting more of my eggs into one basket.

‘If it does work, because the returns are far greater for developed properties, I’m going to win, and I’m going to win quick.’

Don’t forget your emergency fund

It’s all well and good throwing your cash around to buy as many cards as possible, but don’t forget to save yourself an emergency fund for paying rent on your opponent’s properties.

The chances of landing in jail are high

According to Martin, the chance of landing in jail is well over any other score on the board.

And if you do end up behind bars – going back to Martin’s probability pyramid – you’re probably going to land on the oranges, making it the prime set to buy.

He handed out all his ‘power moves’ (Picture: ITV)

The ‘biggest power move’ is the number of houses to buy

Martin’s golden rule is to buy three houses on all your properties, before boosting to hotels.

He said: ‘This is probably the biggest power move. When you buy one house, on average across all properties, return on investment is 26%.

‘When you buy two houses, the return on investment is 56%, but with three houses, it’s 110%.

‘A massive jump between two and three. After that the incremental gain isn’t as good, so my strategy is you push up your three, then you develop your other properties up to three, and only once they’re all up to three do you start thinking about boosting it up to a hotel.’

Of course, using his tips, Martin won the game in the documentary against his producer.

‘It was utterly humiliating,’ she sighed. ‘His strategies are so strong.’

This article was first published on December 17, 2024.

Martin Lewis: How to Win at Boardgames is available to watch on ITVX.

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