Chain of action pre-flop in live tournaments.

[Yuv]

I have close to zero live poker experience. I've played a few cash games in Vegas this summer, where I played very passive and made some money by making good decision against bad players, but nothing close to a decent game.

I play with friends from time to time, but that is not really a serious game, usually played when everyone is wasted.

So basically, I have no clue. I'll probably post a few more questions by late December, to get ready for the PCA, but here's the first one : What do you do preflop?

It's the basic of the basic, but I really don't know. I'm only looking at my cards when it's my turn to play, right? So, what am I looking at, or for? Can I actually spot physical tells on someone on his preflop action?
More importent, what do I do when it's my turn to act? Say I'm in LP and someone opened for X3 BB from MP1. Do I make a range of hands to fold/call/raise before I look at the cards? If I have no live experience and very little chance to find physical tells and a much bigger chance of giving out some, wouldn't it be smarter to look at my cards before, so I won't have everyone staring at me?

It's all extremely newbie questions, but as I said, I'm a total internet donkey, trying to get ready fot a friggin WPT event, so help is very much needed.