[The Bryce]

[ QUOTE ]
Bryce,

You mentioned that you need to know opponent tendencies in order to get a good grasp of the math. Did you find that getting this information cost you money in the short-run because you were playing against tough opponents?

[/ QUOTE ]

Getting a good grasp of mathematics and finding the best line based on assumptions is something completely independently of what you assume your opponents are doing, but the thing is if your assumptions are wildly inaccurate then having the best lines based on those assumptions still won't be very valuable. The opposite is true, too, wherein if you have very accurate assumptions about what your opponents are likely to do but sub-optimal lines you'll leave a lot of money on the table.

So the math does nothing to determining what people are likely to do, but if I were to go and play a game where I could often easily find the best line based on my assumptions but my assumptions about what people would do were inaccurate due to lack of experience I wouldn't be terribly proficient at that game. For example, even if my NL game were as mathematically developed as my LHE game I still wouldn't be able to play it at as high of a level due to the lack of experience.