One great model of "players" and their decision making process is John Boyd's OODA loop. It tells a story: the more you come to understand your opponent, the more predictable their decision making becomes. The more you can get into their observables the more you can control them.

Once everything about an opponent is known, and once their options/ability to surprise you disappears, the game theoretic formulation begins to dominate. Just as in that last round. And that's where the most important concept from warfare comes into play: The death spiral.