Most online poker sites now have the programming to show you what the average chip stack is, but if they dont, you can use this easy calculation:

Average = Total number of chips in play, Divided By, Number of players remaining

While this shouldnt affect your game completely, it does help you in understanding how fast or aggressively you should play and more importantly, how fast your opponents are likely to play.

You’re playing in a tournament and you get deep with about average chip stack. You pick up a big pocket pair (TT,JJ,QQ), how do you play it?

This is a good online poker secret to maximize your play with these hands. If you are in early position it is a good idea to make a bigger than normal raise. You don’t want to see a flop multi-handed and the blinds are normally big enough to make it worth it if everyone folds. If you are in middle or late position with an early position limper or raiser then I would suggest going all-in to protect your hand. If you get called then you probably have to win a race but you put the decision on your opponent to make the mistake of calling with a weaker hand. The last scenarios on how to play these hands are in the blinds. If you yhave a limper or raiser, pushing is the best option, but if you are facing an all in from any position except the button or cutoff then I would suggest thinking about the size of the all in or if it was a reraise all in. You may have to let this one go if it looks like you have a multi-way pot when you may be dominated.