Reddit reviews The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy (Dover Books on Mathematics)

Try "The Compleat Strategyst" by JD Williams. This was my introduction.

http://www.amazon.com/Compleat-Strategyst-Primer-Theory-Strategy/dp/0486251012

A great primer that's lots of fun: "The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy"

Nah. I think I'll just compute it by hand... jk! But thanks! I had never heard of gambit before. I know there is the pivot method where you can use control sums and such, but I always find it to be a pain in the ass on paper.

Edit: And actually, I meant two different things. I watched the playlist, and read this.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Compleat-Strategyst-Strategy-Mathematics/dp/0486251012

Here is the book

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/commercial_books/2007/RAND_CB113-1.pdf

I really liked The Compleat Strategyst by J.D. Williams. It's several decades old, but it's short, very light reading, and probably the best place to start.

The Yale open video course itsred mentioned is also quite good.

If you're looking for applied game theory, especially with games of inperfect information, there are two really good poker books

• The Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen and Jerrod Ankenman (This is a recent book. The authors solve a number of small games related to no-limit texas holdem.)
  
• Poker strategy: Winning with Game theory by Nesmith Ankeny. (This is quite old and out of print, but a pretty fantastic book. It's specifically about multi-player five card draw)