Books

Its amazing to me how many professionals claim never to have read any poker books. You would think that to become very good at something you would devore every possible piece of information you can find. Now the question becomes, is there an advantage to not having read any these books? Well, lets think about this. Poker is a game of deception, if you and I have read the same strategy books, well we probably have the same idea then about how hands are supposed to be played. Now what if someone had never study any material at all? They have through trial and error developed their own strategies that seem to work for them even if they contradict what some of experts tell us we must do. That player now becomes an X factor, we have no idea what he is playing and how he is playing it. Isnt this now the hardest person at the table to play against?

I dont have an answer as to what the better approach is, because by reading all the books it will save you money upfront instead of having to learn those same lessons at the poker table which could become very expensive. However; in the long run, could the self taught be more +EV than the book learned?