Proper response to this opening

I'm not familiar with the names of openings but I'm having issues dealing with this opening style where the guys first moves are something like a standard e4, d3, then he moves his rook peons to h3 and a3. I have no idea how I should respond to this

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=787838380

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=787842084

players do that to prevent you from placing your bishops on b4 or g4 thus pinning your knight against your queen/king. You don't have to do anything. I'm a horrible player, but I've heard good players say this is a weakness but I don't know why. I know a guy who plays 40+ 10min games a day who does this everygame and he is really good. So who knows?

In your game against rhetoricalmuse you started as I would have by responding 1...e5 followed by 2...Nc6.  h3 and a3 are bad moves for white here.  You can hit back by continuing 3...Nf6 (don't play g6) then following up with 4...d5.  The idea is to challenge the center.  Even better for you is if he takes immediately (e4xd5).  After you recapture with your knight you'll be ahead in development and with more territory.  If you're interested in learning more about guiding principles in the openings I'd recommend "Ideas behind the Chess Openings," by Reuben Fine.

In the second game your opponent played Philidor's Defense!  The best move for white after 2...d6 is probably 3. d4 - again challenging the center which your opponent has taken a defensive position on.

Yeah I realize that I made some major blunders in that one, missed his hanging queen and then 20.nf5 was just god awful

trying to just learn openings, I have a degree of understanding in terms of the principle of controlling the centre I just can't learn any names for anything or the proper reactions for different openings. It's daunting how much there is to learn, no idea where to even begin

@rockstar:  Yeah, I wouldn't even try to memorize a huge tree of opening lines.  That's why I mentioned Reuben Fine's book.  It gives an overview of all the major openings and their strategic aims without burying the reader with too much information.

It's not really a standard opening. If I had to give it a name, I'd call it a reversed Philidor or a strange delayed Four Knights. 3.a3 and 4.h3 is just nonsense to avoid known openings, but the same opening principles of centralization apply to these offbeat openings. If you want to play more aggressively, then 3...Nf6 followed by 4...d5 is a standard method to seize the center. It would be comparable to playing the Philidor as White.

Your opening play was reasonable until you blundered the queen. 11.Bh6 may have intended a primitive attack down the h-file with h3-h4-h5, but that can be reasonably met with a defensive move like 11...f6. A sample line of play:

12.h4 Rf7 intending ...Qf8 defends against the attack. Once the kingside is safe, Black can expand with ...d5 possibly.

[Some flawed analysis I made earlier:

12...Bxh6 13.Qxh6 d5 (EDIT: bad move (?); better would be 13...Qe7: now 14.h5? g5! works as the bishop is defended.) (Black expands in the center while the queen is diverted. edit: unfortunately there is a tactical flaw in this specific instance...)

14.h5! g5 and the queen is trapped (edit: wrong!), revealing a defensive idea behind 11...f6. EDIT: Actually, it's not. 15.Nxg5! fxg6 16.Qxe6+ wins. I missed the bishop hangs. This is often a solid idea but the tactics have to be checked.]

I'm not saying that I'm absolutely sure 11...f6 is the best move and maybe it could be played a move later, but sometimes solid moves like this help build the position first before expanding. I left up the flawed analysis to show the dangers Black faces against this attack and that general positional ideas have to be checked tactically.

I'm not trying to memorize a huge tree, I think it would be helpful to know at least 2 or 3 though.. Right now all I know is e5 or d5 then develop rooks to c3 or f6.

I'm 8-16 so far today. Ugh

I wouldn't spend any time worrying about knowing something about the a3 and h3 moves.  They waste time, and give you a lever pawn for later attacks.  You might be able to say consider sacrificing a bishop taking the h3 pawn to move the g pawn from in front of the king later in the game.  There are legitimate times to play such moves, but they are (almost) always to avoid annoying pins and checks prophylactically.  Looking at your play, I think you have a bit before any real opening study is necessary.  You opened fine, it was tactics that lost you the game.

That's almost as many games I've played in the past year! Fewer games at a slower time control may be better for improvement. Eliminating blunders should probably have a higher priority than the opening. This is harder to do at faster time controls.