Since posting this I have discovered Alexander Baburin's games with the QGA help simplify understanding how the defense must be played. His games boil down to three basic variations and the move a6 keeps the wolf from the door. He also plays the Sicilian Najdorf, so the move a6 for Black is incorporated into his overall chess strategy.
The Queen's Gambit Accepted
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Feb 22, 2017
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#23
GM Akshat_Chandra played a really instructive game as white against Aman Hambleton with white in the queen's gambit accepted, destroying the weaknesses on a6 and b5 with really nice positional play.
Feb 23, 2017
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#24
One of the latest books on QGA "Understanding the QGA" by chess stars, has been reviewed by a GM on chess com. Seems decent, and might be worthwhile for someone who has shown eight years interest in the opening.
Feb 24, 2017
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#26
Have my doubts about the quality of some of the information in last post. For example, after 3e4 e5 4Nf3 exd4 5Bxc4 don't think black wants to play 5...c5, 5...Nc6 is typically played and there is a model Karpov v Anand game illustrating what black is trying to do.
In the 4e4 b5!? line don't think black wants to play 6...Bd7, see some sample lines here
https://www.chess.com/blog/smurfo/review-understanding-the-queens-gambit-accepted
The variation of the 'queens gambit' where black holds on to c4 is not so uncommon actually. It is actually a queens transposed into a slav, but positionally, is the same. This style of play is all about the queenside pawn flurry and makes life very uncomfortable for white (at least when ever I've encountered it)
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 c6 4. e4 b5. (switch move 4 and 3 if the bishop line opens on the pawn early).
or more specifically bookish
2... dxc4 3. e4 b5 4. a4 c6 5. Nc3 b4
A few games following this approach are Deep Fritz v Kranik (2006), or most slav gambit games. plug the move order into google to find more games than anyone has time to read (unless you're one of those lucky few who actually get paid to do this sort of thing).