[AlanBostick]

All other things being equal, players who know the math and can use it will win the money from the players who don't.

All other things being equal, players who are good at reading tells will take the money from the players who aren't.

The edge of the math players over the non-math players is bigger, IMHO, over the edge of the tell-readers over the non-tell-readers.

But when everyone basically knows the math, it is the tell-readers who are going to get the money.

My own tid-bit of tell wisdom:

Good poker players are trying to fool you. When a good player does something that looks deliberate, there is an increased chance that she is doing it to deceive you. (Note that a good player who knows you've read Mike Caro's Book of Tells may do something deliberately strong-seeming to fool you into thinking her hand is weak.)

When you notice a good player does something that seems accidental or unintentional, that signal you're picking up is rather more likely to be truthful. It might or might not be telling the truth about the cards she holds, rather than her relationships or the quality of the food she's eating or whatever. But if you can read her unintentional signals, to the extent you can accurately read them as being about her cards, you can find out a surprising amount.