I am not a zoologist.

I've been reading the first couple of chapters of Phil Hellmuth's book against J-Z's advice. It was on a shelf at the local library and I said, "What the hey!". Yeah... turns out I am really confused by it. So far, what I've gleaned from it is that if you have some kind of middle pair on the flop or an overpair you should bet or raise depending upon your position to feel out the table. Otherwise, the message is confusing and his advice is something along the lines of "you have to feel it out and trust your instincts". The way he describes how to play involves an analogy to animals. He summarizes different player types by ascribing them to certain animals. For instance, a loose aggressive player is a "jackal" who will have huge swings. To be honest, it gets really tough to follow his advice after a couple of chapters because the usage of the animal metaphors is way too clumsy. He also makes assumptions for each bit of advice like you have a certain pair in a certain position with certain people at the table also in defined positions. I find that that advice is much too specialized and anecdotal to be really valuable. I am anxious to get back to lab to pick up the Lee Jones and Miller books to see what they can tell me.