California has one of the most prestigious regional poker championships in the world. People have compared it to the World Series of Poker in past years and indeed there are many top players in the world that try to play both the $10,000 no limit hold ‘em event at the WSOP as well as the $5,100 no limit hold ‘em event at the CSPC in the same year if they can. For that reason, the tournament directors of the CSPC have decided that it might be a good idea to allow players the chance to use the event as a warm up for the big fish that they will be attending during the summer in Las Vegas.

With that particular goal in mind, the CSPC has been moved up to the spring in 2009 and will be starting on April 30th. It will run through to May 22nd, giving players ample opportunity to finish the events in California and then head over to Vegas for the opening rounds of the World Series of Poker.

As was previously mentioned, the main reason for doing this was to give players a chance to warm up and really get their poker skills and sense going before they get to Vegas. One of the main complaints on the part of the people that participate in the World Series of Poker is that there are very few actual meaningful tournaments available before the WSOP begins and then when it does start, players are tossed into the ring and forced to play dozens of different tournaments in a high-intensity setting. CSPC 2009 tournament director Matt Savage mused that moving up the prestigious CSPC slate of tournaments so that they start and end before the WSOP should ease the pressure on some players and even allow them to get in a significant amount of high-intensity tournament poker before they ever sit down at a World Series poker table this year.

In order to make that even more of a reality for more people, a number of different tournaments have been added to the CSPC slate. These tournaments include a $200 NLHE re-buy tournament as well as two separate HORSE tournaments that will give all around poker players a chance to strut their stuff. The lynchpin event is still the $5,100 NLHE event however and that will be taking place starting on the 22nd of May when the rest of the CSPC has been completed.