Quote from: gjarreau on September 09, 2014, 02:24:06 AM

First I am not completely new but by the time I got into bitcoin, I was under the impression that mining is too difficult to be profitable unless you have asics or a server farm.. Is this correct?

Yes.

Quote from: gjarreau on September 09, 2014, 02:24:06 AM

I mean you have to be the "winner" or in a pool to receive bitcoin, right?

Yes. If you are solo mining, then you need to be lucky enough to solve the next block before the rest of the entire world. If you a mining in a pool, then you will be paid a fraction of the block rewards of the blocks that the pool soves based on the fraction of total pool hashing power that you provide. Unless you have a very large amount of hashing power, the odds of solving a block through solo mining result in the very high likelihood that you will be mining for months, years, or decades without earning any bitcoins at all. At current difficulty, if you are mining in a pool, you will earn approximately 0.0000000000000000000089447602 per hash that you provide to the pool (actually a bit less than that due to fees that the pool may charge for letting you participate). However, if your computer is too slow and doesn't reach a minimum threshold of hashes in a given time (can't complete a share before a block is solved), then you won't receive any bitcoins at all.

Quote from: gjarreau on September 09, 2014, 02:24:06 AM

Do all miners receive transaction fees,

With solo mining, the miner receives both the block subsidy, and the transaction fees from the block when they solve the block. This is called the block reward. With pool mining, it is up to the pool to decide how they will pay the participants. They each have their own rules. Some pools include the transaction fees in their calculations, and some don't.

Quote from: gjarreau on September 09, 2014, 02:24:06 AM

and is it worth it just for that if you try to cpu mine with one pc?

No.

Quote from: gjarreau on September 09, 2014, 02:24:06 AM

I doubt I could make anything with trying to out mine anyone.

I'm afraid I don't fully understand transaction fees (I know they would be small but not sure how they are earned).

A transaction becomes confirmed when it is included in a block that is mined. The miner (or pool) that solves the block receives both the block subsidy and the sum of all the transaction fees of all the transactions that they included in their block.