Poker Taxes and Records (US, 2026)

The IRS treats gambling income as fully taxable, and that includes winnings that aren't on a Form W-2G (Topic 419). A $900 night at a $1/$3 game counts the same as a tournament cash with paperwork attached.

Winnings go on Schedule 1 of Form 1040 (line 8b on the 2025 form). Losses go somewhere else, on Schedule A. Publication 529 is direct about it: you can't reduce your winnings by your losses and report the difference (Pub. 529).

A W-2G is the form a casino or card room files when a single win crosses a reporting threshold. The 2025 tax law raised the base threshold from $600 to $2,000 for payments made in 2026, with inflation increases from 2027 (Pub. 1099 (2026), W-2G instructions, 01/2026).

Losses are an itemized deduction on Schedule A, and you can't deduct more than the gambling winnings you reported. Take the standard deduction and your losses don't count at all (Topic 419).

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (July 2025) adds a cut for tax years starting in 2026: only 90% of your losses are deductible, still capped at your winnings. The 2026 Form W-2G now says so in its instructions to the winner (Form W-2G, Rev. 1-2026), and Treasury has proposed matching regulations (REG-113229-25). The upshot for a grinder: a year where you broke even can still leave you with taxable income.

Publication 529 says to keep "an accurate diary or similar record" of your winnings and losses, and lists what goes in it. For a poker player that looks like this:

You don't report every pot you win. A 2008 IRS Chief Counsel memo on slot machines (AM 2008-011) says a casual gambler's gain or loss happens when they cash out, so $100 in and $300 out is a $200 gain, however many spins went each way along the way. The same memo says you can't net the whole year into one figure.

Players and preparers commonly apply the same idea to cash games: a session runs from your first buy-in at a room until you cash out, and its result is cash-out minus everything you put on the table. Add up the winning sessions for the winnings line and the losing sessions for the losses line. The memo is about slots and isn't binding precedent, so ask your preparer how they want sessions defined. For a tournament, each event is its own result: prize minus buy-in, rebuys and add-ons.

Almost everyone is a recreational player for tax purposes. The test comes from Commissioner v. Groetzinger (1987): gambling counts as a business when you do it full time, in good faith and with regularity, to make a living, and not as a hobby.

Everything above is federal. Your state return is separate: states set their own rules on whether gambling winnings are taxed and whether losses can be subtracted, and they don't all follow the federal treatment. A big win in another state can also mean a return there. Check your state revenue department's site, or ask the preparer who does your state return.

PokerLog is a session tracker, so it already records most of a gambling diary. Each cash session saves the date, start and end time, the room (374 rooms are built in, or add your own), game, stakes, every buy-in and rebuy, and the cash-out. The notes field is where the names of people with you and a table number go.

The CSV export is free. Pick This Year or Last Year and you get one row per session (date, start, end, duration, location, game, stakes, buy-in, cash-out, tips, profit) with a total at the bottom, ready to hand to a preparer. Cash games are free to log. Tournaments are part of PokerLog Prime.

It's a record you keep, not a tax form. It doesn't replace W-2Gs or receipts, and it doesn't decide how your sessions are counted. For the money side of a session, see how to track your results, and for bankroll size, the bankroll calculator.