Well, I've decided to do some consolidation. I will changing my template on the top right soon; but I am going to take out my money on the sites that I just am not playing at. Presently, the plans are to leave money in only Party Poker, Poker World and BoDog. BoDog not so much for poker but for sports. I am really big into college football. In fact, I have my own rankings where I rank all 117 teams and then based on my ratings predict what the spread should be for the games and compare that to the actual spreads and make bets accordingly. I wouldn't say that they are rock solid but usually around 58-60%. It takes a few weeks before the rankings really mean anything in my spreadsheet so I usually don't start betting until around week 5. Professional Football is my favorite to watch; but I typically stay away from it betting wise. I just have not been too successful on those.
Now, back to consolidation. Leaving everything else besides the three above in neteller is obviously not the best thing. As I said from the very beginning (http://will-wonka.blogspot.com/2005/06/intro.html), I am not really in this for the money. More for just the fun of it. That is why I have never withdrawn even a penny from neteller. Now, with my bankroll closing in on 14K, I feel I should be putting the money to work.. either by investing, interest, or even buying something. Taxes is another thing. Right or wrong, I have not been paying taxes on any winnings. My thoughts being that when that money reaches the US and into one of my accounts, then I would be obligated to pay taxes on them. So I'm torn.. Do I want to do the right thing and withdraw the funds and put that money to work (again.. I'm an accountant) and give Uncle Sam what I owe... or just continue on the status quo. Any thoughts? Has anybody else gone through this process?
Well, I did play a little poker last night... exclusively on Poker World. It was a really strange night. As I mentioned before, they have a very limited selection of games and really the only thing going with more than 4 people were two 2/4 tables... so I sat down to them and was getting clocked. All the big hands weren't coming in. I was down $75 on one table (not easy to do in 2/4) and down just $20 on the other. Then.. almost at the same time, I won a $100 hand on the one table (again.. not easy to do in 2/4... I wish I could remember the details. ) and I won and $30 hand on the other. I then played another orbit on each until the blinds got to me and walked away... because.. As I have also said, they have a very sweet 1K guarantee tourney. I decided to play in it last night and things were very loose as usual. Typically, when I go out, I stay out (don't rebuy)... last night I did. I went out on a bluff and rebought.. I then even added on during the break. It was just one of those good nights as I had my chips in at least twice while being dominated and I got the card that I needed (AQ vs AK and 99 vs TT). Yes, you read that right... AQ actually came through for me. Anyway, I didn't win the thing but I did get second for a $342 payday. The last hand nobody did anything wrong. I raised with 66. He re-raised with A4s and I went all-in. He had me covered about 3-2. He caught his flush on the turn and it was over.
One final thing.. ScurvyDog asked if I was going to continue my SNG fest. The short and lame answer to that is I don't know. I will continue to play SNGs; but it won't be exclusive for a little while as I do want to get back into my ring game and try to improve that. I am still a little negative on my 5/10 game and I want to try and get that figured out. I enjoy the SNGs too much not to continue playing them. They have so many things going for them. First and foremost, they are typically short and sweet... so if I don't have a lot of time or am getting extra pressure from Mrs Wonka, I can just say give me an hour and I will be done. Now saying that on a ring game can be dangerous because you have to be prepared to play a while to make for a good session.
That should do it for today.
Final level 4
4 months ago
3 comments:
I'm biting the bullet and being a good monkey, as far as making quarterly payments for the IRS' rake on poker/gambling profits, and doing so regardless of whether the money has been moved from Neteller to a banking account of mine in the US. As I understand the legal side of things, the location of the money doesn't matter, and you're technically supposed to note and record the net profit/loss from each and every individual session, regardless of whether the money sits in a poker site account, in Neteller, or is transferred to a bank account in the US.
Some people don't declare online gambling winnings at all and pray they don't get audited. Which workks perfectly fine for some people. Others take winnings out as a lump sum at the end of the year, report it, and pay any penalties for not making estimated quarterly payments as they should (depending on the size of profits and their previous year's withholding, etc.)
I've been regularly investing poker profits in stocks and ETFs for the last few months and it's been a really good thing for me, aside from the obvious benefits of investing in general. I was having a hard time getting excited by smaller monthly profits, especially on the casino bonus side, as I was spoiled by a few months where I booked big wins. I started being sloppy and not really caring about a easy $25 bonus here for 15 minutes of work, etc. I was also less and less pleased with "only" making $400-$500 a month from poker, as it wasn't budging the overall bankroll that much.
So I started investing anything I made over a certain point each month, leaving a decent size bankroll for all my gambling needs. Pretty simple idea but it has helped me a lot, as I'm a hoarder by nature, and it made small wins that much more satisfying, knowing that I was re-investing it into a high-yield bond fund that pays monthly dividends, etc. It's much easier for me to stay focused and disciplined on the poker side of things, knowing that the profits produced are getting put to even potentially better use.
On the plus side, an audit won't turn up much, which you probably know. This is especially true of winnings which are not transferred back into your account. I can't imagine they'd have any way of telling you had $14,000 in your Party Poker (IGM?) account.
The moral thing to do is to pay your taxes. I've been claiming my gambling winnings and losses in my yearly tax filing with no complaints from my accountant. Technically speaking, it's income... though it's a bit retarded since income tax has already been paid once on that money.
Though I'm always a big fan of civil disobedience when it comes to taxes... I don't practice it because I'm a bigger fan of not being in jail.
I defintely know it is the moral thing to do and that is the whole reason that I am torn. As you say, there is no way for the IRS to know where that money is or where it has come from. Now that I'm to the point of deciding to take money out, I will now have to right thing and pay the tax on it. Whether or not I do the whole thing down to the session is another story. I do have daily records (and that is close to satsifying the IRS as long as you are playing the same game... on multi tables). Time will tell. Thanks for the responses.
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