Poker players filling out U.S. federal returns may notice one big change this year. You still have to report "gambling winnings" as income. But it's harder to deduct the losses, because the threshold for itemizing deductions has increased sharply. Unless your deductions top $12,000, it doesn't pay to itemize them at all.
That means the wins stand out more on your tax form - and while that might cost you money, it also might make you feel a bit better. Don't you wish everything worked this way?
But they don't always work this way. In fact, you could be losing and not realizing it....
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? - Luke 9:25
You could grind away at cash games for hours, hoping to strike it rich. But in exchange, you could actually lose a lot of money. You might even lose your family or a sense of empathy toward other people, by becoming addicted or detached.
The better approach is a balance between the "work" of poker with its physical gains and something higher - something ultimately better:
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. - Luke 9:24
The "me" here is Jesus Christ. He said these words. And He wants you to change your focus away from big wins at the table, to a focus on Him. Put another way....
The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. - John 12:25
Few poker players love to lose. For that matter, few of anybody loves to lose. Yet trading your priorities for a relationship with Jesus can win you eternal life in the kingdom He soon will bring. In fact, your "won-lost record" in terms of sin can be changed completely:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.... not counting men's sins against them.... - II Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus was a big winner, by living a sinless life and overcoming the devil. He wants to help you win the game of life as well.
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