[Nomad84]

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To file as a professional, the IRS believes (and has argued this position in court) that you must be a full-time gambler. If you are working at a job, and you also file a Schedule C as a professional gambler, there's a strong likelihood that the IRS will challenge you.

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I'm not very familiar with the process of paying taxes and the paperwork involved since my mom's CPA (and mine too, I guess) has done mine every year I've worked thus far. I don't plan to file as a professional this year, even though I have treated it like a business and I have not had another job for the majority of my playing. Even so, I plan to look into it for next year. How does it work if you are a "professional" for part of the year? I am still in school now and poker is my only job. This will remain the case until sometime after I graduate. If I get a job after I graduate in May, can I claim that I was a professional gambler for the first half of the year? Or will this no hold up given that I only started playing for money early this year? Until I get another job, poker will be my only source of income, although I could get by on my savings without earning any more money if I had to, so poker is not the only way I'm surviving. Even so, it improves my standard of living. I will discuss this with my CPA, but I seriously doubt he's very familiar with tax laws related to professional gamblers. There just aren't many pros in southern Oklahoma.