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First, definitely check out Russ Fox's blog on the subject:
http://www.taxabletalk.com/gambling/
Fox knows this stuff as well as anyone I've met.
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Thanks very much for this link, and also for the book suggestions. I'll check them out.
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I plan to file recreationally this year, but probably as a pro next year, if that matters. Thanks.
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I'm not a tax professional, but my understanding is that there are both positives and negatives to filing as a pro. On the plus side, a pro gets to net wins and losses and can deduct reasonable expenses. On the down side, you have to pay self employment taxes. Without seeing numbers, there's no way anyone can say for certain whether filing as a pro would make sense in your case or not. These are probably the sorts of things you seek to learn.
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This is part of what I'm trying to learn. I am a student right now and I expect to make a good amount of money throughout the spring semester (compared to median income in OK, anyway...nothing huge). I am still debating about what I'll do after I graduate in May. I may get an engineering job, I may go to grad school, and I may not do either. Even if I get a job, I expect my poker earnings to exceed my earnings from my job for the year. If I don't get a job, then poker may be my sole source of income for the year. I certainly don't know much about the tax implications of filing as a pro, but I suspect that if it is my sole source of income, filing as a pro probably will make more sense (educated guess). I don't want to turn this into a tax thread since I'm really looking for suggestions on reading material rather than specific tax advice, but that's some of what I'm trying to learn. Thanks for your help.