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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.

Most online players play more than one table at a time. This is fine as long as you keep in under control. A lot of online poker players find that they can double their win rate by playing 2 table at once. Why not quadruple your win rate and play on 4 tables at a time? This is probably fine too but some players take it way too far. There are players who play 16 table at once at the micro limits and make decent money. The only problem is they never seem to get any better. This what I call “The MultiTable Trap”. Your bankroll will grow but you will not continue to learn and improve as a poker player. This means that when your bankroll is ready to move up to the next limit you probably will not be. Players who fall into this trap often spend years bouncing between the micros and small stakes getting pounded every time they try to move up to the tougher games. This is a tough place to be and in the long run you will probably find that you’ll make more money if you focus on becoming a better poker player.

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.

If you play poker to make money, real money, than make sure that you keep your goal in mind and remember where that real money is being made. Its being made in the big games. Not by playing 16 tables of 1/2 limit hold’em with a 30% rakeback deal.

The author is a full time online poker player and makes the majority of his income from his online play and rakeback at PKR Poker. To sign up for a Rakeback account of your own visit Rakeback Solution.

Tags: Casino, entertainment, Gambling, games, hobbies, online poker, Poker, rakeback, recreation

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