ummm... no. you called a raised pot with A8. That negates all previous advice. lol.

I know this is .01/.02 but I want to tell you something about this. There's a sports analogy. You Play the way you Practice. In other words if you practice sloppy because it's low risk then you'll play sloppy even when it's high risk.

I consider .01/.02 to be a training table. Anytime the maximum table buyin costs less than a Red Bull. Then anything you do there you should consider training.

You should be developing habits that help you play better, not more sloppy. You called a raise with A8. Would you do that at NL10, NL100, NL1000? Why are you doing it at NL.2?

Plus blackjohn never raised you back. He simply hid behind your betting. But people at .01/.02 really don't know anything about poker generally. They are just playing for fun. Bump up to .05/.10. It's not much more but people will play a little better there.

Regardless, don't play A8. This was fairly unlucky. And after the flop you played it fine. You flopped top pair, turned a set with top kicker, no worries. You bet it fine for that table. IF blackjohn had pushed allin, then that would be an example of what i'm talking about.