It’s almost the end of summer in California. As the Bay Area’s youth return to school and the weather begins to become more hospitable, the Napa Valley Casinoin American Canyon, California is gearing up for Labor Day. In fact, its poker room will host the first ever Labor Day Midnight Memorial Tournament on September 2nd at Midnight. Yes, this is a tournament that starts at Midnight on a Sunday and carries into Monday morning. Breakfast will be served at 6:00am.

The buy-in for the Labor Day Midnight Memorial Tournament is $150 and players will get a starting stack of 5,000. The blinds will bump up every 25 minutes and $30 rebuys will get you another 3,000 in chips. “It’s super deep stack,” Napa Valley Casino’s Poker Room Manager Chris Henderson told PocketFives. “You’ll start with 10,000 in chips, which allows a lot of play.”

Many would-be poker players in the United States don’t have to work on Labor Day. As such, they can play poker until the wee hours of the morning. “Labor Day is a national holiday and most people don’t have work on Monday, so why not play a poker tournament together,” Henderson rationalized. “People can play at night, have a long tournament, and not have to worry about work in the morning. You can also relax the next day with your family.”

The Napa Valley Casino is located within a short drive of San Francisco and has had a presence on PocketFives for quite some time. Henderson’s room caters to players by dishing our freebies galore, but consistently needs to innovate in order to survive. Henderson rehashed the brainstorming session that went into the Labor Day Midnight Memorial Tournament: “I put the concept together and ran it by the owner to make sure he was okay with it. He liked it.”

Henderson is gunning for between 40 and 50 players in the Labor Day event, which could mean a pretty exciting tournament: “I’ll open registration earlier in the day so people can register, leave, and come back at Midnight. I’d love for people to come play and enjoy it. They’ll be breakfast as well. If you last long enough, you’ll get food and money.” The Napa Valley Casino is also hosting tournaments all Labor Day weekend. You can click over to NapaValleyCasinoOnline.com to see the full schedule.

Henderson donated a tournament entry package to the most recent U.S.-facing PocketFives Open that was awarded to the highest finishing player from the Golden State. Interestingly, PocketFives received e-mails from players in states like Oregon and Nevada asking if they could be eligible as well, reflecting the tremendous reach the casino has.

“We get people from border states like Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon,” Henderson told us. “Those are the main people we get who travel to California. Sometimes we get people from the East Coast who are traveling to Napa for the wineries and they stop by and play. It’s cool to see.”

Besides events like the Labor Day Midnight Memorial Tournament, the Napa Valley Casino is also potentially adding a major annual tournament. Henderson revealed, “That’s in the works. We’re thinking of putting together a six-week poker league once football season starts. We’re also solidifying the Labor Day tournament.” Henderson is a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys, but we’re relatively certain that the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders will be well represented jersey-wise.

As we just alluded to, football is a major activity at the Napa Valley Casino. Last season, the casino invested in NFL Sunday Ticket much to the delight of its patrons. Henderson recapped, “Last year, we had the NFL package. Football itself was exciting last year. The room had a buzz to it every time a football game was on. We had Tebow-mania and the 49ers were good too. I can’t wait for that to happen again this year, especially with the word being spread that we have the NFL package.”

Finally, the Napa Valley Casino is raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project by selling card protectors for $10. Henderson explained, “Our owner is very patriotic and that’s one of the organizations he’s helped before. He likes to give back to the community and to veterans.” Anyone interested in purchasing a heavy-duty card protector can call 707-544-8851 or e-mail Chenderson@bvkgaming.com.

Visit NapaValleyCasinoOnline.com for more details.