[benfranklin]

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Why, in your opinion can literally hundreds of thousands of players buy proven how to poker books and not translate the knowledge into consistent cash results?

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I would guess that the majority of people who buy a good poker book (SSHE, HOH, etc.) never finish reading it. They read some of it, they play some poker, they read a little more, and the book ends up on the shelf. I read somewhere that surveys have shown that only about 10% of self-help books purchased are completely read.

There is no reason to believe that it is any different for poker books. Those books take an effort to read and understand. Most people are put off by math and by thinking about general principles. I can just see the average player trying to read a discussion about implied odds, bogging down, putting the book aside, and turning on the WPT.

They are looking for a quick fix, a cook book for winning. There have been a number of posts here by people who have read SSHE, but are convinced that they are not winning because the starting hand charts are not right for their games. Their requests for "better" charts shows they didn't get it. They are convinved that if they just had the right chart for Party 1/2 6 max, or whatever, they could turn pro and retire early.

I'm sure that most of the people who do read books like these get nowhere near the potential benefit. You don't read a book like HOH like you read a novel. You study it like you study a text book in a tough college course. This is tougher than college, because the answer to every test question is, "It depends". You need to read the book, play some poker, study the book, play some more, analyse your results, study some more, and repeat. It takes a lot more thought and work than the average day job.