Morgan Hill
– It’s not very often that Steve Rea of Gilroy purchases
properties with fake money. From one day to the next he became a
millionaire along with 59 others that attended an 11th annual
Monopoly tournament last weekend in Morgan Hill, but this year he
did not win the first-place trophy.
Morgan Hill – It’s not very often that Steve Rea of Gilroy purchases properties with fake money. From one day to the next he became a millionaire along with 59 others that attended an 11th annual Monopoly tournament last weekend in Morgan Hill, but this year he did not win the first-place trophy.
It all started a decade ago when 30 friends got together to play a game of Monopoly just for fun. Rea is a good friend of Roger Malech, the man who started the annual competition,
“It’s all for my friends,” said Malech, who organized a New York steak dinner for 100 people, a raffle, and prizes for the best dressed according to the years theme.
This year’s theme was “The Best from the West,” and as the years progress the event gets better organized, Malech said.
Now, he fills four rooms with round tables to accommodate 60 players. Forty spectators joined the party. As the games proceeded, the room bubbled with excitement. People yelped out of joy as they collected assets, and green, pink, and blue paper money.
Linda Tarvin of Morgan Hill has attended 11 tournaments.
“This is a fun event, I always look forward to it,” she said.
Tarvin was ready to win the prize for the best dressed in the West as she wore a pink T-shirt that read “Every girl loves a dirty cowboy.” She wore a leather mini skirt, and a red cowboy hat.
“Roger just loves Monopoly,” said Tarvin who remembered when Malech’s kids were too young to be servers. Now they walked around with platters serving their guests grilled sausages on a toothpick.
Other guests wore different colored cowboy hats, others sipped on bottles of root beer.
“Roger is one of my best friends, and I like big parties, and I love Monopoly,” Rea said. Last year he took home the first-place trophy, but this year his luck ran out.
From 60 players, only three take home trophies and earn bragging rights. Two 90-minute games were held, and the six with the most money points competed at the final game. Other activities included raffles and events.
“I’m glad my husband is not winning this year,” said Barbara Rea, who only attends the event as a spectator.
One thing that most attendees had in common is the love for this board game. Monopoly is the best-selling board game in the world, and is sold in 80 countries and produced in 26 languages, according to monopolycollector.com.
At the height of the Depression in 1934, Charles B. Darrow of Germantown, Pa., showed Monopoly to the executives at Parker Brothers who rejected it. However Darrow produced it on his own and sold 5,000 handmade sets to a Philadelphia department store. He could not keep up with the orders, so he obtained the help of the Parker Brothers, and in its first year of production, the Monopoly game was the best-selling game in America.
Though Rea did not win any trophies this year, his love for the game, and his friendship with Malech keeps him coming back for more.
