need help playing online poker - i don' understand why i lose this wee

[Cosimo]

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So I played a few hundred hands the other day

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Inadequate sample size. This won't tell you much. A couple hundred hands is about a 3-hour session; my typical results are -20 to +30 BB over this period. This is enough hands to get each of AA, KK, and QQ once each. Maybe you got them extra times; maybe you lost each time. The swings here are going to be obvious with these powerhouse hands. I had one three-hour session tonight where I lost KK to AA twice. Rare, sure, but sometimes I'll lose KK to A7o, or AQs, or whatever. Premium hands are so rare, it should be obvious that it's going to take dozens (or hundreds) of them before your results start to settle out to something close to expected.

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The problem I found was that even if I raise, and with a few callers (say 2), i would miss the flop and not have anything to back it up except for overcard draws, etc.

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Before the flop, who is more likely to win -- AQo, or A7o, Q8o, 86s, K2s, or 22? AQo is way ahead of everything but the 22, and unless he hits trips most likely he'll fold on the flop. You have much more pot equity than the table average. If you raise from EP or MP and get it 2- or 3-handed, chances are those guys have stuff on the crappy end of the range -- 86s, Q8o, and the like. They play crap and they call two cold with it.

Yeah, sometimes one of them has KK and you don't hit your ace, or he hits his backdoor flush draw or inside straight draw or even his Q5o hits another five. You hit a bit more often than they do (mostly because they're more likely to play offsuit A-crap or K-crap), but the big difference is when you both hit -- you'll be ahead, and he need to hit again to win.

If you don't want their money you don't have to take it -- but you are more likely to win than they are. You have more equity than they do.

Raise preflop.