[justaPlayer]

I'm glad I found this thread, because I have several questions of my own I'd like to address to those who might be able to answer them in this thread. Hello Engineer, Skallagrim, obg, by the way, and thank you for your continued insights and advancement of our cause.

I am sort of "just starting out" as a full-time (professional) player, and early this year I had a few crap jobs, but I've been playing as my only income since July. Next year I will be a full-time professional and will file as such. However, my plan for THIS year is to just meet with a CPA around when I get the W2s from the grinds and explain my situation and let them do my return and help me plan a strategy for filing in future years as a pro. Will this be acceptable in the eyes of the IRS, since I had the jobs earlier in the year and thus could not rightly file as a professional this year?

Also, the method of accounting I am using is a spreadsheet I designed myself which is very in-depth and will cover all aspects of my future Schedule C earnings. I do not use Pokertracker; the IRS does not stipulate it by name as the only accepted record-keeping instrument, I hope? In my own spreadsheet, every session on every table is recorded complete with buy-in, stakes, and final amount, and netted to show a profit or loss, which is also recorded. I just keep a notebook beside me and record all my activities by hand and transfer them later to my database. If anything, I would think this would actually be preferable to the IRS, as I will be able to produce not only a computerized record of my quarter's profits, but also a hard (handwritten) copy which will match it to the cent. Does this sound legit?

Anyway, if anybody has even read this long post, I'd appreciate any useful comments or criticisms from any more experienced professionals (or any serious players well-versed in the tax issues associated with winning play) in this forum, or any helpful ideas generally. I'm going to bed now, but I'll check back in later, prolly with some more long-winded questions. Thx everybody. Peace.