Quote Originally Posted by LuckySlevin
I guess this was the wrong call in hindsight, but I thought in a game of two players pre flop 8-8 would have been reasonably strong.
Your thinking on this is slightly wrong. When you started the hand there weren't just two players there were (most likely) 9 or 10. The chances that one of the other 8 or 9 players picking up a higher PP than your 8's is a LOT greater than if there were just two of you at the table playing heads-up poker.

You can't say you are in a game of "two players" when there are 9-10 at the table.

Quote Originally Posted by LuckySlevin
So if I can't withstand 10 blinds and have a 8-8 or higher pre flop I should go all in.
You can't take a simple statement here and use it globally. With EVERY poker hand there are 4-5 variables that will all generally lead you to the right decision to make.

For example, you are on the button, have an M of 8 and look down to see pocket 9's. By the time the betting gets to you there has been a raise and a push. Barring a read that both bettors are total idiots you should fold your pocket 9's every time in this situation.

Quote Originally Posted by LuckySlevin
Also would you mind answering this... I held my time at the start of the tournament but was soon conscious that everyone else had nearly doubly my chips, and eventually got Q K pre flop and decided to go all in, I was down on chips and thought with a table of about six had a decent chance of getting somewhere.

I did win the hand and got a boost of 6k from 1.9k which was great.

But (1) was that a good hand to go all in pre flop, and (2) should I have been influenced (as I was) by the fact that almost everyone had double my chips?

Thanks again
One of the pitfalls of playing in a Free Roll is that there are TONS of maniacs who will go all-in with any two cards at the very beginning of the tournament thinking that they will either double up or be done quickly (or they are just plain idiots, which is also the case sometimes).

In a tournament like this you shouldn't worry about the fact that there are people who have way more chips than you as it means they were most likely on the positive side of the early shove fests. Just play solid poker and you have a good shot at getting those chips from them.

Regarding the KQ hand it is almost impossible for us to let you know if that was a good push as we don't know the other 4-5 variables that would determine if the push was good or not. Since you won the hand I would say it was a good push at that time .

Also, if you want to stick to tournament play I would VERY VERY VERY highly recommend you go get Harrington on Hold-em and read BOTH Vol I and Vol II. Those two books are a must read for any novice player who wants to play No Limit Hold-em tournaments.

Finally, welcome to FTR. If you stick around and read some posts here I guarantee your game will get better.

One thing you may want to do is to do a search for all of Robb's posts in the beginners forum. He is one of the best posters here at explaining things in a very easy to understand format for new players to understand.

Good Luck and again, welcome to FTR.