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How to Play Monopoly Deal

Collect property, charge rent, and dismantle your opponents' sets before they finish theirs. A game usually takes 10-15 minutes.

Objective

Be the first to collect three complete property sets, each in a different color.

Setup

  • 2 to 5 players
  • Everyone starts with five cards in hand
  • The rest of the deck becomes the draw pile in the middle
  • The table starts empty, with nothing banked and no property down

On Your Turn

  1. Draw two cards. Start your turn by drawing from the pile. If your hand is empty, draw five instead.
  2. Play up to three cards. Bank them as money, lay down property, or play action cards in any combination.
  3. Drop to seven cards. If you end your turn holding more than seven, discard down to the limit.

Playing fewer than three cards, or none at all, is perfectly fine.

Card Types

Money

Bank these for cash to cover rent and other players' demands. Denominations run from 1M up to 10M.

Property

Lay these in front of you to build sets. Each card belongs to a single color group.

Wildcards

Property cards that count as more than one color. On your turn, you can shift them between sets to wherever they help most. A set can't be built from wildcards alone — it needs at least one standard property card.

Rent

Charge rent based on a color you own. Most are tied to two specific colors; the wild ones let you name any color and target a single player.

Action

One-off plays like Pass Go (draw two), Sly Deal (steal a loose property), Forced Deal (swap a property), Deal Breaker (steal a whole set), Debt Collector (demand 5M), and It's My Birthday (collect 2M from everyone).

Payment Rules

  • Pay with banked money and property on the table, never from your hand
  • There's no change. If you overpay, the difference stays with the player you paid
  • Property handed over as payment joins the recipient's sets, not their bank
  • If you have nothing on the table, you pay nothing

Special Cards

Just Say No

Cancels any action played against you — a rent demand, a Sly Deal, even a Deal Breaker. It doesn't count toward your three plays, and another Just Say No can cancel yours, chaining back and forth until someone runs out.

Deal Breaker

Steals a complete property set from any opponent — including any House and Hotel stacked on it. The strongest card in the deck, and the one most worth saving a Just Say No for.

House & Hotel

Stack onto a completed set for bonus rent. The House (3M) goes down first, then the Hotel (4M).

Double the Rent

Play it alongside a Rent card to charge twice as much. It uses one of your three plays.

Winning

The instant you have three complete sets in different colors on the table, you win, even if it lands in the middle of your turn.

Still have questions? Read the Monopoly Deal FAQ or jump into a game.