Expectations are what good poker players are banking on. Expectations are also what torment them.
Tommy Angelo likes to say “the pain equation is way out of whack” with respect to tournaments. It is seldom I find myself disagreeing with the poker buddha, but there is nothing askew with tournaments — it’s just the way we think of them and during them.
Presumably Tommy is talking about how the only time we are satisfied, fully, with a tournament is when we win one, and this happens rarely. But the answer isn’t to avoid tournaments. Nor is it to choose to bear some burden when playing them.