Well, this game has kept me up for far too long - and I'm way to tired to follow all the possible moves that johnmcd3 has graceously posted. But I did figure this... If you always go first and take all but two from the bottom row - you'll never lose. If you do it every time, he'll vary on how he makes his first move, but as long as you always get the board down to a 1-2-3 or a 1-4-5 on your second move, you're guaranteed to win.

- trs