ESPN has been covering the World Series of Poker for several years before things like hole cameras, the Rio being built, and electricity. A few years ago as a newer addition to coverage at the crown jewel of poker events is the hard work by several dedicated bloggers to report live from the activities on the Rio convention hall's floor for mearly the excitement of hitting refresh on a web page and having several hundred comments on your blog.

Now, the concept of live blogging poker tournaments has become more and more widely accept as seen on Pokernews.com and Pokerstarsblog.com's recent EPT coverage of the Monte Carlo event.

Paul McGuire, or Dr. Pauly in most circles, will be taking up the reins for ESPN.com as he brings his live blogging experience to the "worldwide leader in sports". True, he will be doing feature writing versus the blogging about whom standing next to him at the Rio's urinals, but with the flair he brings to the tedious job of reporting live chip counts, I'm sure poker is about to become even more exciting to read about at ESPN.com

Here's the announcement from Pauly's website about his latest gig:

I have good news. I'm the newest feature writer for ESPN.com. Yes, it's true. Andrew Feldman hired me to cover the 2007 WSOP for ESPN.com. I have huge shoes to fill... following in the footsteps of legendary sportswriter Steve Rosenbloom who provided the content for ESPN last summer.

I guess this makes it an official announcement. I'll be covering the WSOP for ESPN.com and writing feature articles for their poker section. I'll be focusing on writing features and not blogging... which is something I really wanted to do.

The official media guidelines have not come out yet, so I have to wait and see which other outlets that I will be working with. Rest assured that I will be posting on the Tao of Poker and contributing to LasVegasVegas.com as well, I just don't know in what manner or frequency yet.

The ESPN gig is a major milestone. Aside from getting a book published, selling a screenplay, and writing for Rolling Stone... landing the ESPN gig is one the four major goals I wanted to accomplish as a writer. ESPN has published some of my favorite writers including Hunter Thompson, Chuck Klosterman, and Steve Rosenbloom. I'm still a little dazed and confused over the good news.

This has to be of the most humbling and exciting moments that I've ever experienced. I was dreading the WSOP and now I can't wait for it to get here. By the way, check out the 2007 WSOP Schedule.

I never could have made it this far as a poker writer without the support and friendship of my brother and so many of you... friends, readers, and bloggers alike. Special thanks goes out to Flipchip and the Poker Prof for being the first organization to hire me to cover the WSOP back in 2005. Without their initial support, I never would have been in a position to be hired by other outlets and get recognized by ESPN.

And an extended thanks goes out to people who had faith in me and hired me to write for them over the last couple of years. That list includes Flipchip and Poker Prof at LasVegasVegas.com, Wilko and Mickey, Stan Sludikoff at Poker Player Newspaper, Otis and everyone at PokerStars, Trey at FoxSports, Lou Krieger, John Caldwell at Poker News, Johnny Quads at Poker Pro, and last but not least.... Feldman at ESPN.

My first featured article will be published in a couple of weeks. Now I just have to come up with something to write about.