Had a game of Monopoly last night with my cousin Simon and his girlfriend, Gemma. It was the updated Here And Now edition, so the places and amounts will look a bit mad. Through strategic deal-making and a lot of bloody luck I was in a pretty good position with control of the half of the board from the orange (Marlborough/Vine etc) to the green (Bond Street etc) with hotels on the richer properties. I also had a handful of millions. Gemma had a scattering of properties and a largely undeveloped yellow set. Simon had all of his eggs in one basket with the Mayfair set each with a couple of houses but no cash.
Simon and Gemma were just about to head into my alley when on my turn I landed on Community Chest.
Pay £100k or take a chance.
Now the £100k fine is the equivalent of £10 on the old game and the Chance deck is loaded with "upgrade your properties" fines and so I should obviously have played it safe. But in my mind the only thing I could imagine was turning over the Go To Jail card and sitting safely collecting rents miles from the only dangerous area of the board.
I took a chance and picked a card which advanced me straight to Simon's most lucrative card. The rent was £14million (about £14,000) on the old game.
I'm not moaning, it's only a game. But there is a lesson there about taking a massive thoughtless risk with little reward. And about thinking before you act.
A lesson that I really should have learned before I reached my mid-thirties!
