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The phrase a trap for young players, and its variants, designate a hazard for the unwary.

This phrase occurs, for example, in the following from Amid the Plenty (Sydney: Australian Book Society, 1962), by the Australian author Gavin Casey (1907-1964) [page 80]:

“You look out for the hire-purchase, that’s a trap for young players, these days. Don’t let ’em get their teeth in too deep.”

The earliest occurrences of the phrase a trap for young players and variants that I have found are as follows, in chronological order—the first two refer to the game of draughts:

1-: From the column Draughts Corner, published in The Blyth Weekly News and Northumberland Advertiser (Blyth, Northumberland, England) of Saturday 1^st October 1887 [page 6, column 2]:

Game No. 1,285.—Bristol.
Two games played between Mr. James Miller, of New Herrington, and Mr. David Dooby, of Hetton-le-Hole, with notes by Mr. J. Reavley.
MILLER’S MOVE.
11 16   6 22   11 16 […] 10 14†   10 17   6 10‡   20 27 [&c.]
(†) 8-11 a very good trap for young players.
(‡) 7-11 would lose by 18-15.

2-: From the column Draughts, by Jos. Abernethy, published in The Otago Witness (Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand) of Thursday 12^th June 1890 [page 33, column 2]:

Game 1566—“Old Fourteenth.”
Osborne’s move.
11 15   11 18   6 22 […] 21 17-a   27 23 [&c.]
(a) A very tempting and well-thought-out trap for a young player. Had Black played 9 13 White could win by—
9 13   18 14 [&c.].

3-: From an account of a cricket match, published in The Evening Journal (Adelaide, South Australia, Australia) of Tuesday 6^th March 1894 [page 3, column 4]:

A. E. Trott went in, saw McLeod give Hill a chance of stumping, which was not taken advantage of, took a maiden ¹ from Jones, and then facing Giffen fell into one of the astute bowler’s traps for young players, a drooping ball being driven back to the trundler ².

¹ In cricket, the noun maiden designates an over in which no runs are scored off the bowler. (In cricket, the noun over designates a sequence of balls bowled by a bowler from one end of the pitch, after which another bowler takes over from the other end.)
² In cricket, the noun trundler designates a bowler.

4-: From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Thursday 9^th January 1896 [page 2, column 3]:

Snapping cold weather did not prevent the assembling of a large audience that nearly filled the Academy of Music last evening, on the occasion of the January entertainment of their friends by the Gilbert Dramatic association. Avoiding melodrama of the startling variety, a temptation and often a trap for amateur players, the Gilbert dramatic committee chose a double bill, each of the plays being so short that the audience could get to their homes before midnight and both so entertaining and lively at the same time that the evening was filled with enjoyment that had scarcely a blemish from beginning to end.

5-: From an account of a cricket match, published in The Otago Witness (Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand) of Wednesday 6^th November 1901 [page 52, column 2]:

Hamman made his first appearance in senior cricket, and batted nicely for 15, making some nice strokes; but he will never make tall scores in senior cricket until he is content to wait patiently for the right ball to hit, as he got out attempting a hit on Saturday, and the wily bowler can soon set a trap for a young player who is keen to have a hit.

6-: From an account of a cricket match, published in The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) of Wednesday 4^th March 1903 [page 567, column 2]:

Ellis fell into Giffen’s trap for young players, the bowler catching him.

7-: From the column Chess, published in The Falkirk Herald and Midland Counties Journal (Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland) of Wednesday 4^th October 1911 [page 7, column 5]:

“The Australasian” shows some traps for young players to know, and to avoid.

8-: From an account of a cricket match, published in the Brighton Southern Cross (Brighton, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 24^th April 1915 [page 7, column 2]:

Neville again came to the fore with 22 well-made. “Diamonds” shone brilliantly for 29, Francis put together 29 freely, Mal-de-Mair hit well for 19, as did Grieve 14, until “a trap for young players” brought him down, and a useful dozen was made by Danks.

9-: From the column The Passing Show, by ‘Oriel’, published in The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Saturday 25^th December 1915 [page 5, column 1]:

A woman who taketh thee with her when she shoppeth is like unto a bunker across the fairway: she is a trap for the young player.
For she taketh thee into an expensive bazaar; she picketh up a fan of pink silk with silver sequins thereon, she fingereth it lovingly, saying, “Lo, this is the very thing I want.”