So I'm supposed to be doing NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.com) this month along with a lot of poker/journalist friends.

Let me be frank. It's going very, very badly. Seven days into November and I've written a grand total of 344 cliches words.

In my defence, I wasn't planning to actually start writing until after the WSOP coverage was finished on the 8th, so I'm not technically 'behind' yet. Working on the near-Live ESPN coverage is a pretty big deal for me and I didn't want to split my focus by writing at the same time. It turns out that today (the day off between the two sections of the Final Table) I actually have a bit of free time so I tried to make a start on my writing. I don't know if it's just tiredness or preoccupation or what, but I'm pretty sure that everything I wrote was shit. Like, really shit.

I know this is the point where you're supposed to just push through and keep writing but I'm actually boring myself so much that I'm finding that kind of impossible.

I'm going back to my original plan of waiting til the 9th to start writing. I'll deal then with the disturbing thought that I'm actually a lot less interesting than I thought I was.

For now, my head is pretty full of November Nine stuff. It's great to be back on set with my colleagues and having a post-work drink at the Hooker Bar with my friends in the media. Tomorrow we play the final 3 players down to a Champion and it's going basically live (15 minute delay) on ESPN during prime time. Yowzer! It's a pretty incredible atmosphere in the Penn & Teller Theatre and I love getting to be part of this spectacle. It's one hell of an experience and such a fairy-tale story that one person is going to win nearly $9 million tomorrow.

Now if only I could figure out how to use my words to throw some of that excitement onto paper.