[mikechops]

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The starting point to optimal play is correctly putting your opponent on a range of hands.

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You put the opponent on a range of hands because poker is a game of incomplete information and thus your starting point can almost never be "I know exactly what his hand is".



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We agree.

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From there you chose the course of action that maximizes your EV. I'd bet that's what you try to do when you play.

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Of course. How does this contradict the point that I make money when I make my opponents play differently than they would if I flipped my cards over every time before we started a hand?

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I wouldn't contradict that, but I don't think this is a good starting point to getting to optimal play. We make money when we make correct EV decisions, not when we happen to get lucky or our opponents unlucky, as to the actual hole cards.

Trying to analyze poker this way, is too close to results-based thinking. It is only another step before you are saying "I played well because the river gave me a flush." (I'm taking that a step further because you have no idea what the river is going to be. Although you don't know your opponents hand, you can make an educated guess. But a guess is all it is.)