[jeffnc]

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to break even you Must play very good [everyone thinks they do]you cant ever tilt,you must play in good games,you must have a big enough bankroll to carry you thru losing streaks which you will have.To be a winning player you must do the above and be a great player[everyone thinks they are]..

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Come on. I understand that an average player will lose money, but that can also be misleading depending on the game. And you have to be "great" to win? Hardly. Not at $1/2 NL in Las Vegas live games, no way.

OK, a little math. Average might be "mean", "median", or "mode". Typically people mean "mean". But it doesn't have to be. A player who "breaks even" to the other players will lose a little to rake and tips. But breaking even against the competition doesn't necessarily mean "average".

Consider being at a 10 player table. In one extreme case, there could be an absolutely horrible player, call him number 10 out of 10. You could be the next worse player, at 9 out of 10. But you could be way better than #10, and almost as good as #1 through #8. #10 could lose $900, and that could be split up among the other 9, with you winning $90 and the #1 player winning $120. You are worse than the average player, but higher than the median player (the median EV in this game is -$500).

So there are many variables, and you don't necessarily have to be very good to win. You do need to be better than at least some players at your table, but not necessarily better than the majority.