When it comes to playing board games, I'm very competitive. As a teen, I played Scrabble and Monopoly with my older cousin - and it was intense.

Yesterday, my daughter (age 10) wanted to play Monopoly. I told her that I didn't want to crush her because she's too young. We tried to play Monopoly Junior, but we were missing the property cards...so...I asked my wife if she wanted to play Monopoly and we started playing the classic version.

In 'normal' fashion, I did a little trash talking, but I couldn't back it up. Within the first three times around the board, my daughter owned Park Place, Boardwalk, Baltic Avenue, and Mediterranean Avenue - with a house on each! I've never seen ANYONE collect these properties so quickly!

As for me, I had a handful of properties hoping to make a deal to stay in the game longer. My daughter didn't know much about Monopoly, so my wife was her assistant-in-arms (mainly to play against me).

As the game lingered, my wife became tired and wanted to stop playing. She gave me all of her money (about $200). Instead of turning her property over to the bank (to put it back on the 'market'), she gave them all to my daughter. Well, the extra money did help when I landed on my daughter's newly acquired property.

For the entire game, I managed to stay away from Boardwalk, but Park Place became a dear friend. By this time, my daughter also owned another street of properties (with hotels), so I became a good customer.

My end was near. It was hard seeing my finances dwindle and my properties mortgaged to stay alive. With my trash talking a distant memory, I decided to lose humbly. No angry looks, comments, or gestures. I wanted my daughter to be proud of her accomplishment and to be inspired to play again (...I'll get her next time). I did not want her to be discouraged if I acted as a sore loser.

I played until I had no money or property left. I thought it would be fitting for me to land on Boardwalk before the end, but Park Place had that honor. She was happy to bankrupt her Daddy and I was happy to lose humbly.