Pre-flop lottery?

I just started playing poker about 2 months ago, and of course still have loads to learn about the game. Thus i have been reading alot on poker strategies online, but i find it very hard to apply at the micro stakes i play.

Example: I joined a 2$ turbo nl tourney yesterday. On the very 1st hand there were 3 all-in's pre-flop so i decided to keep track of the all-ins. In the 29 hands i survived there were 24 all-ins and 18 of those were pre-flop all-ins at that. With that kind of all-in% i dont see how you can apply any strategi because you have to expect to be raised all in no matter what you do.

Also i dont get the pre-flop all-in raise, unless you are short stacked and the blinds are starting to hurt you, but perhaps thats just me. My thinking is, why try to double your stack with a pre-flop all in with pocket aa early in a tourny. You risk going out right here and then just to double your stack wich is nice but dont mean alot at this stage in the tourny.

Yesterday i was thinking that with all those all-ins we might aswell have flipped a coin to see who was the winner, but perhaps have just caught the tables with that kinda play going on.

Am i all wrong in thinking that kinda play is mainly a coin toss?

The frustrated

$2 tourneys are like that. I stay out of allin's early in the game. After the crazy ones are out it settles down.

I try to avoid making any moves until the first 2 blind levels are over. By then, the maniacs are either out, or have settled down a bit.

You could do a lot worse than shoving early with AA as well. You will get called way more than you should in these tournies. Some of these donkeys consider themselves pot committed once they put 50 chips in there. For that reason, I find shoving on a table full of limpers with AA will almost always get called. (sometimes by multiple players) Sure, you'll get some bad beats, but more often than not, you'll find yourself leading the SNG early.

Some of these you can actually make the money without playing a hand

With those 2$ games, it is extremely hard to play a true game. Some people just don't care about 2$ and will just move allin any time they see a picture card. It gets very annoying, if you can step up the game to 5-10$ games, you will actually have a better chance to play a true game. The higher money games you go up, the better the game will be. PokerStars: dont go tooooo high if you are new to poker, stick to the 5-10$ games for a while if you really want to get good at poker. Honestly, freerolls may make you a worse poker player.