So I need to accept this job offer this week....

[JohnnyHumongous]

Why don't you just say you were an entrepreneur? If people really want to get into it you can explain what you were up to. Poker has really become a great deal more 'acceptable' in society to the point where I don't think that saying you took a year off to make 200K or something playing poker would look bad at all.

Based on my (limited) experience in the work world it could even look quite positive especially if you're going to work in a heavily-analytic field, where half the people in the office probably already play poker.