Should I have folded somewhere?

[PhilipJ]

Thanks for the comments. I was not being sarcastic. I am new to poker so for starting hands I am almost always playing by the book. So completing A2o for 3/5 sb was on the low end of "completing Ax in SB". I know post flop play is much more important than differentiating 3/5sb vs. 1/2sb (correct?).

Tonight I was up 30BB in the first 20min and lost them back in the following 2 hours. In most hands I played I didn't see the turn because the flop didn't hit. In the middle I made some correct lay down. So hopefully it was more bad luck than bad play.

Anyway I am up 180BB for my first 2000 hands. So most likely I am still on a good streak.

[kgrad5]

keep posting hands here, but it sounds like you are playing "fit or fold" and thats a bit weak, pick up a copy of small stakes hold em if you havent yet and you will increase your winrate a lot, and ed's starting hands discussion will answer some of the questions you probably have about preflop play. but really the starting hands charts / guidelines arent always correct, it depends on situations, whereas you would never play k6 offsuit in any position you might want to raise it if its folded to you on the button so things are very situational dependant in poker. the heart of it is, if you make a marginal preflop call and you have good post flop skills the call will generally cost you very little, but if you consistantly play marginal hands out of position etc. those small losses will add up. while post flop play is very important and much more dificult to master, pre flop play is still an important part of the game.

by the way if your Ax was suited its a call no question, the problem with A2 is that if anyone else holds an ace at all, you are losing a kicker war, so you need that extra flush possibility to play it well.