Just learning about Nash Equilibria. The pure strategy one is explained as an outcome where both/all players feel like they couldn't have done better given what the others were doing. Mixed strategy is one where even after announcing your strategy openly, your opponents can make any choice without affecting their expected gains. Is there a relationship between the two ? Is the pure strategy one some sort of special case for the mixed strategy one ? (I doubt it, since there can be multiple pure ones, while the linear equations of the mixed one can only give one or infinite number of results). I'd like to intuitively understand the relationship. Thanks !
[Math] Pure vs mixed strategy Nash Equilibria
game theorynash-equilibrium
Best Answer
If you like, you can think of a pure strategy as a mixed strategy in which a player has a 100% chance of picking a certain strategy.
The equilibrium definition is the same for both pure and mixed strategy equilibria ("even after announcing your strategy openly, your opponents can make any choice without affecting their expected gains"). The difference is that in a mixed equilibrium, you are announcing your probability distribution, not the strategy that it randomly produces.
Example: Rock-Paper-Scissors. There are no pure strategy equilibria: If I announce "I'm going to play definitely Rock!" then clearly my opponent will choose Paper; if I know they're going to play paper then I don't want to play Rock anymore, so this is not stable. However, if I announce "I'm going to secretly roll a die, play Rock if it shows 1-2, Scissors for 3-4, and Paper for 5-6!" then my opponent is equally happy with any choice he makes. If he therefore chooses the same strategy as me, then I am equally happy with any choice I make, so this is a mixed equilibrium.
Also, your statement "the linear equations of the mixed one can only give one or infinite number of results" isn't true - there are many games with an in-between number of equilibria (Chicken, for example, has 3 in a two-player version of the game). As an aside, a randomly-generated game will have a finite, odd number of equilibria with probability 1, but that's about all you can say about the number of equilibria.