If the only thing you know about poker is what you’ve learned in books, then you know nothing about poker.

I’ve read more than a dozen poker books, and I for a long time I played just like the books say — tight (seeing only about 10 percent of the flops) and aggressive (raising my good hands as the math dictated).

I’ve only started to win more consistently since I decided the books were full of it.

I play looser now (20 to 30 percent of the flops). And I play more aggressive (though I think I need to amp this up more), putting more chips in the pot whenever I can.

A winning friend tells me I don’t call enough raises.

No book I know teaches that. However, you can find some articles around the internet that reveal the hidden truth about poker — it’s more a game about reads and decisions than cards.

Here’s a piece on PoketFives.com that is pretty much spot on and describes a player who has gone through the same evolution in thinking I’ve been going through.

I see so many players either unsure or afraid to take the next step. If you are one of those players, ask yourself if the following has happened to you: You are deep in a tournament and have been blinded down to about 10X the BB and you haven’t had a decent hand in forever. You are in the BB, and you wake up with AA. Someone raises it to 3X the BB, and you almost fall over pushing all-in. The player calls and by some miracle cracks your AA, and you are dumbfounded. We all have hands like this, so why are you waiting so long for that perfect hand when it can still be beat? I decided that I will never again be the tight player who’s just waiting for the bad beat or forced all-in.

I have been that player so many times, I hate to admit it. If I had a nickel for every time I busted on the bubble with a big pocket pair …

So, do the books have any value? Of course they do. You can never learn what you need to know to make good reads and smart decisions without being a student of the game. If you’re just starting out, you should read some books, and practice what they preach until it becomes ingrained, but don’t become wedded to the tight/aggressive game plan they recommend. I spent far too long believing in the books rather than exploring different styles of play.

A few years ago, I saw an interview with Howard Lederer. He said something about the progression of poker players that I believe to be true.  Most players start out being tight/aggressive, and it works for a while.  But then they start losing, or they’re not seeing the results they expect, so they get frustrated.  Then they start playing too loose, really loose.  That, too, has its successful moments, and what they do by seeing so many flops is improving their post flop play.  To be a really winning player, Howard said, you’ve got to find that balance and be able to make decisions and make reads.

That’s what I’m trying to do now.

If you’re going to read a poker book, here’s a must read for anybody who aspires to being a winning poker player:  Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play