Bought a brand new one. If I give it the gas it dies. It idles fine, but give it the accelarator and it dies?

It sounds like the carburetor needs a small adjustment. The higher end (more expensive) machines are prepped better by the dealers when they receive them for the area (climate) they are sold in. The Big Box Store machines or online sales outlets do not and they are sold as they were when they left the factory. A lot of the Poulan equipment uses Zama carburetors. They are set up and assembled in Mexico for the most part. So, that is that. You have an L (low) and an H (high) speed mixture setting screws on your carb. The L is the one that enables the carb to act as needed to allow the engine to acclerate. These are very difficult for the average user to access as the heads are shaped funny to preclude tampering (EPA rules). A tool to adjust the L and H screws (one tool) is for sale on Ebay. They do not have one at the big box stores or auto parts stores. A very simple home remedy I have found is to use the round end of a #22 wire terminal **** connector or ring terminal or what have you. They are made of plastic and can be lightly forced onto the head of these adjusting screws with a few small taps from a small hammer. Again, the L screw needs the adjustment. Here is a link to exactly how the carb should be adjusted and tuned.
http://www.zamacarb.com/tipspage.html