People play poker for a lot of different reasons. Some play for the competition, some for the social aspect, and some play for the pure fun of the game. When these players sit down an play poker they generally don't mind much if they loose a few bucks. This is the price of entertainment for some players. Other players play strictly for the money. This group of players is all business and have only one goal in mind. The reality of it is that most of play the game for some combination of reasons and money is on most of our minds to some extent or another.

If your main motivation at the poker table is money, you should be looking to improve your poker at all times and move up to bigger games. Bigger games are where the bigger money is at and if that is your motivation, you need to stay focused. With the higher stakes generally comes tougher competition. If you continue to evolve as a poker player you should grow as a player along with your bankroll so that you will be ready when you get to the bigger games. Unfortunately there are some traps for online poker players that often stunt the growth of a player and prevent them from ever making it to the big game.

An easy trap to fall into as an online player is what I refer to as "The MultiTable Trap". This is when a low limit player continues to add more and more tables to his daily routine instead of focusing on moving up the ladder to the real prize. Low limit grinders may find that they can beat 1/2 limit holdem for 1 big bet or more per hundred hands. They start to think about playing 6 tables at once. How about 8, 10, or 12 tables at a time. Before long they have 4 monitors hooked up to their computer and they're playing 16 tables at once. While this may be a decent income, I guarantee you're not improving your poker. There is very little time to think when you play this many tables and zero time to learn anything. You are playing ABC poker against very poor opposition. Your bankroll will grow and you will have the money to move up in limits before too long assuming that you can maintain your winrate with that many tables. Unfortunately your skill level will not be ready and you will find yourself back in the kiddy pool trying to recoup your losses over and over.

Another related trap is the rakeback trap. While rakeback is great and should be taken advantage of by every serious online poker player, you should treat it as what it is; Something extra. Players often get caught up in earning as much rakeback as they can rather than trying to get better and move up. I often see players playing online who stop moving up when they get to 3/6 or 5/10 limit hold'em. These limits will allow you to make good money just in rakeback if you play enough tables, but, again the real money is in the big games.

So remember, if you want to make the real money it isn't in playing sixteen tables tables at a time at the micro stakes. It's in the bigger games. Rakeback and multitabling are great ways to increase your winrate. Just make sure that you don't go overboard and stop improving your game.