This is my understanding of it too. My accountant look into this for me in detail a few years ago, and basically came back with a shrug of the shoulders for what I'm SUPPOSED to do, since the tax code is so outdated. When I showed her some PT stats and how I planned to group them by daily session and the numbers that resulted from that, she strongly believed that would be fine. She said if I was ever audited and pulled out all that data, she thinks the IRS would basically be fine with it and move on quickly.
It just irks me so much... I'd much rather report a "session" as like the net at the end of a given month or something, but I know that's not right, so I do my day by day thing. If anything, I'm actually too conservative with it, since I split out cash games and tourneys and HU SNGs, etc, potentially resulting in multiple sessions per day and thus higher gross numbers (the same net number, of course)... But without going insane trying to combine everything into exact daily totals, this is the best method I've come up with.
As for old threads, follow the link I posted in the OP and you'll find some of the old stuff, including a link to the thread from the year before when I explained everything in detail (and I think answered Zy's question) and so on.
But yeah, in a nutshell: Unless you lost EVERY session you played, you are required by law to report your total wins and your total losses (even if the net number is 0 or negative) to the IRS. Will they ever catch you if you don't? Realistically, probably not... but you need to ask yourself if this is a risk you are willing to take. I for one would not like jail time, so I try to avoid it at all costs.
Last comment: If the shit ever hits the fan, don't think pleading ignorance will get you off the hook, because it won't.
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