Maybe he's been hurt in the past and now before he shows any feelings towards a woman, he will make sure first, that he's never going to be conned again. Women become very frustrated with men when they start playing their mind games. Reading a person's feelings could be a woman's forte but she's simply baffled once a man starts playing tricks on her mind. So why do men play these mind games, anyway? His insecurity makes him do it. This man is probably emotionally insecure and so he's resorting to playing mind games in order to cover his lack of confidence.

Maybe he's not so sure about his feelings at the moment so he needs some self-assessment first. He doesn't want to appear vulnerable. This guy could be uncertain whether he would be taking you seriously or this is just a passing thing. He could get confused whenever you're with him so in order to mask his uncertainty, he would play his tricky mind games. He wants to appear intriguing in order to impress you. While women are asked to appear mysterious all the time, men, on the other hand, want to be conceived as an intriguing person.