[einbert]

In small stakes games, the math is how you win because your opponents make huge fundamental mathematical errors. So you can have enough edge just from playing mathematically correct to beat the game. And, in multiway pots the math of the situation is going to dictate most of your play, regardless of specific opponent reads.

At higher levels, the opponents don't frequently make fundamental mathematical errors. They aren't going to draw to a hand they're not getting odds to, because they understand the basic math of the game. Of course at these levels simply knowing the math isn't going to give you any edge, and you will have to use other skills to beat them--namely deceiving them into making FTOP errors by convincing them that you have a hand that you don't really have.

So I would say that math does matter at the higher levels, but it's just a fundamental. You can't really beat high level games without the basic knowledge of the math of poker, but at the same time that knowledge alone isn't going to give you an edge at that level.