Also used to be in that world and identify similarly in terms of my lack of love for gambling.
I'd suggest that you're empirically incorrect in saying that there is no perfect approach against a skilled player (6handed games which often reduce to a single heads-up interactions by showdown):
1. we know that a Nash equilibrium exists for every two-player zero-sum game such that it’s mathematically unexploitable
2. Pluribus approximated the Nash well enough (didn’t have to search over 10^161 possibilities) to crush high stakes skilled player over a good run of hands
I'd suggest that you're empirically incorrect in saying that there is no perfect approach against a skilled player (6handed games which often reduce to a single heads-up interactions by showdown):
1. we know that a Nash equilibrium exists for every two-player zero-sum game such that it’s mathematically unexploitable
2. Pluribus approximated the Nash well enough (didn’t have to search over 10^161 possibilities) to crush high stakes skilled player over a good run of hands