There is a lot written about whether you should play the game or the player you are playing against.
You see it in many sports games, where a player realizes the instant that they can’t win the game, so they start playing the player.
Here’s the thing, when you play the player, you are no longer playing the game, you’re playing something else completely different, but it’s not the game.
If you can’t beat them at the game you are in, create a new one that they don’t know they are in.
This can work, this can be a strategy.
But it won’t work in the long-run, because while everyone else is figuring out how to play the game better, the one game better, you are busy trying to come up with a different set of games for every player on the field.
Play the game, know you aren’t always going to win but keep pushing, because one day you will and it’ll be that much more worth it.