Some advice a CPA gave me

[Zele]

For the whole of 2005 I didn't have a job, and I played poker basically fulltime. I was planning on filing as a professional gambler; not because I was looking forward to a lot of juicy deductions (I have almost no poker-related deductions other than losses, and I have a mortgage and am therefore itemizing anyway), but because I thought I had no other choice.

My CPA suggested I file as unemployed, and report all the poker money as "other income." Indeed, this will save me a ton of money on the self-employment tax. Has anyone else gotten similar advice? To those that know something about the IRS: does this look kosher or am I asking for trouble later on?

Cheers,
Zele

[SinCityGuy]

This is perfectly OK, as long as you accurately report your winning sessions as gross income, and your losing sessions as an itemized deduction.

You will not have to pay the SE tax, but you will lose out on all of the deductions that are available by filing as a professional under Schedule C.