What is the hardest part of tournament poker for you?

What do you struggle with the most in tournaments? Short stacks, bubble pressure, final tables, or something else?

For me, the hardest part is playing with few chips.
At a certain point, you don't have a lot of options, so it's mostly about choosing the right moment to surrender body and soul. And sometimes I hesitate, not knowing if I should wait or simply risk it.
That part is difficult, because one mistake there and you're out of the tournament.

I feel like the hardest part for me is the early stage, up until a bit before the bubble. In structures that aren’t very deep, sometimes you just don’t get many good hands, and it’s tough to maintain a decent stack. That can force you into playing as a short stack pretty quickly, which makes you lose chips before reaching the stages where you can really exploit opponents, like near the bubble or during pay jumps in the money.

Undoubtedly, when you've been playing for 2-3 hours and you reach the bubble and get eliminated, you've already invested time and money and you leave empty-handed

I also don't like playing with few chips... so often nowadays, with the popularity of turbo MTTs, we are in this spots right after getting ITM and/or at the final tables where most stacks are just around 10 BBs and we don't play much poker anymore - just a push/fold game... tbh I especially don't like when after I've played close to my A game, I still have to make this 'correct' plays where luck will be a big factor (to give an example: blind vs. blind/LP shoves where with ~10 BBs stack we have to defend with hands like K8o...), instead of just out-playing opponents... I try to play SNGs to practice for this FTs situations, while doing some study too...

Coolcassv9. said:

you've already invested time and money and you leave empty-handed

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Grinding MTTs can be brutal and it's so important to have a good mental poker game...

The incredible luck of a crazy table player who plays at random and gets everything is what drives me even more crazy.

In tournaments, my difficulties are not tied to a single specific stage, but rather to the transitions between stages, when the logic of the game changes and I don’t always adjust quickly enough.
With short stacks, I sometimes struggle when I start hesitating and drift away from the simple “push or fold” model. In those moments, I lose focus and may miss clear, straightforward decisions.
On the bubble, my main difficulty is pressure. I understand that many players become overly cautious, but I sometimes overestimate the risk myself and become too passive, even when I should be applying pressure instead.
At final tables, I tend to become more cautious due to ICM considerations, and sometimes I avoid profitable but higher-risk spots. This can prevent me from building a stack when it is actually necessary.
Overall, my difficulties are not related to a lack of theoretical understanding, but rather to consistently applying it in real tournament dynamics without emotional deviations or unnecessary hesitation.

the hardest part is when you have low chip and wait for right moment to make a come back.
just need a little time.

What I struggle with is questioning my confidence in my play when that play may knock me out. I'll know that it is the right thing to do, but sometimes have to fight the worry that goes along with making it. When that happens I think about Bill Walsh who was coach of the San Francisco 49ers during the 1980s.

He would start each game with his first 10-15 offensive plays written on his clipboard, He had faith in both his team and his plan, and ended up leading them to three Super Bowl championships. It is a good reminder that I have confidence in myself and my plan. I may not win three wsop bracelets, but I can definitely succeed here in the minor leagues.

SergioV said:

What do you struggle with the most in tournaments? Short stacks, bubble pressure, final tables, or something else?

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The part I don’t like is being at a really good table and then that table breaks and you get moved to a new table. Then you have to start over profiling players quickly again. But that’s the challenge of tournament poker.

Bubble pressure is one of the worst, especially if you're short stack. You'll get bullied around because being knocked out on the bubble is one of the most demotivating

SergioV said:

What do you struggle with the most in tournaments? Short stacks, bubble pressure, final tables, or something else?

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I have more difficulty playing at the final table. I've had many opportunities to win the tournament, but I end up making mistakes that cause me to finish in second or third place.

nelomec said:

I have more difficulty playing at the final table. I've had many opportunities to win the tournament, but I end up making mistakes that cause me to finish in second or third place.

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Final tables can definitely be the toughest part because every decision becomes much more important with the pay jumps and pressure. I think many players become either too aggressive trying to win, or too careful because they don’t want to bust. Do you feel your mistakes come more from pressure and emotions, or from difficult strategic spots like short stack and ICM decisions?