[Innocentius]

First of all, thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread; its been excellent reading, with lots of interesting points.

I think one point is missing in the whole discussion about whether the sites want winning, high-volume players or not. The fact is that winning players ARE advertisement. Thousands of people hear every day about a friend or a friend of a friend who has made thousands online. I know I wouldn't have started playing if it wasn't for a friend of mine telling me that you could actually MAKE money while at the same time having fun playing.

This of course doesn't make it self-evident that the sites want lots of winning players taking money away from the tables, but I think it must be a factor they consider.