What do you guys think are the best HU resources on how to play well / closer to optimally? How did people like Dwan, Polk, Dong and others learn so quickly and how do they play so close to optimally compared to the rest of us? If it isn't just experience, I'm curious what resources they read and studied?
Almost done with Tipton' s expert HUNLHE books and were very informative but not sure how practically useful they are. Same with both of Janda's books and mathematics of poker.
I'm sure all those guys played millions of hands and learned by doing. I don't think you need super advanced math to be a great poker player. Barry Greenstein mentions in his book that he doesn't really do much math in his games. Practice, practice, practice. And coaching works too of course, if you find a good one.
Buy the material the guys you mentioned above sell.
For example Dougs HU course where he teaches how he plays. (It might be a little outdated now and you wont crush HS with it but you would certainly do well in softer small stakes environments.)
Flopzilla + Excel for calculating EV on decision trees is very useful. Cardrunners EV makes you specify all the details, but many times you just need approx. calculations.
