Hi everyone.

What chance do you think my first paper that i really want to get published has of being accepted after an initial revise and resubmit (major revisions) that will be sent back to initial reviewers will have of being accepted? Has anyone had revise and resubmit rejected? Why?

If you make all of the changes exactly as the reviewers ask the paper has a good chance of being accepted.

It also depends on how many times the paper is sent to other reviewers. Sometimes a revise & resubmit is sent to someone new the second time round; then they suggest further changes & so it keeps going. The speed and method of reviewing seems to vary significantly between journals.
I'm sure if, as metaB says, you do all that is asked you have a good chance.
Good luck!
Mog

That's the situation I'm in and I've been told the norm is for your paper to either be outright rejected (which happened to me as well) or revise/resubmit. I just sent my revisions 2 days ago and followed the reviewer's instructions to the letter. They will send it to the same person so if you follow his/her instructions you'll get it published for certain.

Sam it depends very much on how competitive the journal is. Top journals in my social science field routinely insist on two rounds of R&R and then still reject. On the other hand with less competitive journals this is rare.