Glossary of baseball terms

Can you always win a game with one strategy?

Imagine you're playing a card game with a friend. You both want to win, but you can only choose one card to play each round. You wonder if there's a card that will always help you win, no matter what your friend chooses.

Think of a card that, no matter what your friend picks, you can always beat it. This card is like the best move you can make in any situation.

Example

If your friend picks a 3, you pick a 4. If they pick a 5, you still pick a 4. In this game, picking a 4 is always the winning move.

Remember this

A dominant strategy is like picking a 4 card; it's always the best choice, no matter what the other player does.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

a dominant strategy is: optimal regardless of what other players do

Can you always win a game no matter what others do?

Game theory

Why do players in a game sometimes settle for less than winning?

the minimax theorem says: in zero-sum games, there's a saddle point strategy

Can you win a game without knowing your opponent's moves?

Zero-sum game

Zero-sum game: one player's gain equals another's loss

Prisoner's dilemma

Prisoner's dilemma illustrates how individual rationality can lead to collectively worse outcomes

Nash equilibrium

Nash equilibrium: no unilateral gain

Swipe through 100 ML concepts daily

Open Pocket Polymath