Find a legit accountant and ask them. Do you really want to trust this to a bunch of rando's on the Internet?

My guess would be that filing as a pro allows many tax write offs because you can essentially write off like everything in your life. If you aren't a pro, not sure you can deduct all those things

Lol what are you going to write off?

I'm not having some randos filing my taxes... I already know how I am going to file my taxes this year.

I was wondering if any full time poker players have any first hand experience on filing as an amateur to avoid the extra SE taxes and whether or not the IRS disputed their claim.

There arn't enough business deductions that a professional poker player that only plays cash games can make to outweigh the extra 15.3% SE tax. He can lower his income tax liability by investing in an IRA and 401k but he'd be better off just filing as an amateur and investing in a taxable account for retirement.

Not really a choice if you follow the letter. If you derive all or most of your income from poker IRS would say you are a pro. Ofc you can file however you like but as you state the Service could disagree with your position and you could ultimately be subject to interest and penalties


Yes


I'm not sure that blanket statement re: business deductions is true. Items that could be written off include travel, mileage, parking, coaching, etc.


See above




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$60-$300. There are quite a few people buying for $60-$100 which is another excuse I got why 1/2 cant be beaten at a high rate. Nonsense. Those short stackers dump money so fast it makes my head spin.

Other items, in addition to what slim wrote, that we write off (wife is self employed), home office (part of mortgage), storage unit, computers/cell phone/other tech purchases, Internet and cell bills. The list goes on and on if you can justify it for your work, which is why we have an accountant, because he knows all this **** so I don't have to. Saying that you don't want a "rando" doing your taxes is kinda lol (not to mention the irony in asking an Internet forum for help). Do a little due diligence and they're not rando's. Thats akin to saying youre not gonna hire any professional in any aspect of life because you don't know them and can't trust them. Have fun with that



It would be nice if you could. I keep asking my accountant why I can't claim my dog as a dependent. It's dependent on me just as much as my kids are

Correct

I highly doubt haircuts or clothes are tax deductible. I believe my wife has asked our accountant about both and he said no,

The only way I could see clothes being acceptable is if you were something like a marine welder and your "clothes" are like wetsuits or something so different than what any normal person would wear. I'm pretty sure suits don't even constitute, even though it's not normal attire

The general line of conversation here is fine: Taxes and their implications on playing.

But this is turning into a pissing contest.
So stop talking about it for now.

Go find somewhere else to post something constructive.

Pretty sure when I buy logo'd or embroidered clothing for myself or my employees it's tax deductible.

(This seems like the best thread to post this question.)

At what winrate and hours played of 1/2 & 1/3 would you take a shot at 2/5? Assume bankroll is fine.

Like just about every other question, answer is it depends on so many things.

Standard advice for this particular question I believe is that you should get to 2/5 as quickly as you can.

What games run in your area? Is 2/5 the biggest game in your room? Does the money matter to you? Do you have other sources of income?

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7bbs hr for 400hrs at either stake.

Understand it's highly dependent, looking for general baselines/guidelines. I'm in NYC, so I have access to 1/2 & 1/3 in private games and make the occasional trip to AC (Borgata). Usually play 1/3 there but am thinking about moving to 2/5. I have a steady income, so financially speaking taking a shot at 2/5 is not a big deal. But want to gauge if I'm ready from a winrate perspective.

I used to play seriously online pre-black friday, and am now averaging just $15/hr at 1/2 over 110 hrs.

If losing 4K at 2/5 isn't a big deal then taking shots is cool

Your sample size is pretty much worthless and will be for a little while but if you have the funds, who really cares? Like VolumeKing said, just take the shot.

110 hours is absolutely nothing.

agree w/ them. Game is unlikely to be much more difficult. Go for it.
Most put in a lot of hours at smaller stakes in order to build their finances to handle a slightly bigger game -- but if you already have the $$$ and you are confident in your game, play it. Since you dont play full time it will take you far too long to get even a moderate sample size of 500-1khrs

My sense is that most NYC 1/2 or 1/3 games play like 2/5 in a casino because players usually have money and buy ins are uncapped. Heard most 2/5 games play like 5/10 or bigger. I play 1/2 in NYC and am perfectly comfortable at a 2/5 table at borgata.

I play mostly 2/5. After running my mouth about how easy 1/2 is, Im currently in the middle of a prop bet and playing a lot of 1/2. I have direct experience in the two stakes right now and the differences between them and I will tell you that 1/2 is so much easier its hard to put into words.

Thx for the feedback.

Mike, I saw your prop bet thread, and agree. I used to play 2/5 back when I was good, and disagree with anyone who says 1/2 and 2/5 play the same.

I know that financially I can take a shot at 2/5, but that's not really my question. Trying to get a better sense of if my winrate and sample size at 1/2 alone indicates I should take a shot, not factoring in bankroll. And it sounds like my sample size isn't big enough. I thought the rule of thumb was 100 hours for live poker, but I guess I was wrong.

Well, it depends a lot on your local room and player pool how different the $1/2 and $2/5 games are. If it's the same guys in both they'll play more similarly than a room/town where there's a clear distinction.

100 hours is effectively nothing in live poker. Little more than noise from a pure results standpoint. You may have a good feel for the player pool and how well you can exploit them after that, but I wouldn't put much weight to any sample smaller than 500 hours. Then anything larger starts to take so long that the game conditions aren't comparable anymore.

That depends how often you play. If you put in 125 hrs a month, you get 500 hrs in 4 months and the conditions are pretty much the same. Same regs every day.

If you play 10-30 hrs a month, then yeah, it could be 2 yrs later before you hit 500 hrs and who knows how much is changed by then.

Still ignoring the level of variance in a 500 hour stretch whether over 2 months or 2 years. I think that was his point

But sure you are going to know ur player pool better in the first example you gave


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In the last 500 hours I've won a $900 pot (at 1/2) a $1100 pot, and a $700 pot.
All 3 of these I was a ~coin flip to win.

So in 3 hands I've won enough money to bump up my short term win rate by over $5 per hour. Anyone claiming that 500 hour samples are meaningful are just kidding them selves.

Well if you are playing uncapped games or even if not, if you are getting yourself into coin flips for 200-250BBs each, then yeah, your variance is going to be a lot higher and you will need a lot bigger sample size.

In 1400 hrs of 2/5, Ive played 1 pot that was 200BBs each.