What to pay attention to as a beginner?

Hey guys, I have read harrington on cash games 1-2 and studied them,memorized etc. I frequently read the cash game hand analysis and most of my observations are on the right track with the more experienced members than me who contribute to that thread, which makes me happy. But I recently played a freeroll tournament and I couldn't do any of the things, I couldn't pick up on anything it was like I knew nothing(I don't know much anyways). My question is what should I pay attention to as a beginner? I could read the bet sizes but that was all I think. Thanks for any input.

What games are you playing? Are you playing online tournaments? Or are you playing online cash too? Or are you playing some live NLHE as well?

Hard to give advice without knowing what exact games that you are playing.

look for weak players who don't buy in max, players who sit down and don't wait to play the blind, but post to opt in.you want to be the big stack to the person to your right. look at whos raising hands, who is limping in. Watch how people play, theyll give you the answer you need. When its time for you to play your hand, just focus on making the best decision possible and consider your options.

Well, in cash game is very difrent play than multi table or sng's. You can find some books for hat or you have here a lot of the threads where you can see how to play on mtts or sng's so read it. Also you can try with some online poker school, I suggest you pokerstars online school.

freerolls are a hard way to learn because people don't play with much of a brain during them half the time. So what tendencies you are supposed to see in player simply won't work early in the tournament since they aren't playing with any logical gameplan. Later in it it gets better though.

First thing to pay attention to? If you are playing cash games I would think it would be the general hand strength needed to stack off with (ie don't stack off with top pair top kicker unless you are against a bluff-o-matic, and be careful of board textures). In MTTs, the first thing I'd learn to do is learn to feel when the blinds become worthwhile to attack and when doing so is profitable. Also how to go into fold-shove mode as a short stack

I haven't read any poker books so I don't know how well they cover things. Assuming you have a decent base to work from, probably good to read some hand histories from here (cash or MTT, whichever one you play). I can't recommend them enough, they are invaluable tools.

Other than that, play some and see how you tend to lose. Then you will know what you need to pay attention to

dont play with the regular players who are multitabling. on full tilt for example there are tables only for beginners, try that and try some teaching videos

Learn to manage your bankroll. Set a goal (for example win from freerolls $5-10-20-100...). Good Luck !

do you guys/gals find that the PSO (poker school online) at pokerstars helps??? is it the lessons or the league itself that helps?

As noted, cash and tournaments are quite different, so if you intend to play both, the sooner you start to familiarize yourself with some of the key differences, the better. As just one example, in a cash game, you can win money every time you play a hand, while in a tournament, you have to survive long enough to get into the money. This means that your tournament life has some value whereas in a cash game, there's no such thing.