If you’re in the Bay Area or are traveling there from out of state, make sure to check out Napa Valley Casino in American Canyon, California. You can make a pit stop at In-N-Out Burger and then migrate to the casino, which spreads high-stakes No Limit Hold’em and hosts the area’s only steady Pot Limit Omaha game.

Napa Valley Casino is in the final stages of a special cruise giveaway. PocketFives sat down with Poker Room Manager Chris Henderson to review the promotion and learn more about the No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha games that are running.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. Tell us about the cruise promotion. Who is leading right now and how much time is left for people to take part?

Chris Henderson: Our leader right now has 64 hours of cash game play between 9:00pm and 9:00am, which are the eligible hours for the promotion. The 50th person on the leaderboard has 12 hours. By October 17th, you have to be in the top 50 in hours to get a seat into the final tournament. The winner of that tournament gets a cruise prize package. There is a wide range of people competing, from females to retired people to young players. These people have come in, played, and want to win a cruise.

PocketFives: Since the cruise leaderboard only takes into account play during the overnight hours, who did you expect to take advantage of it?

Chris Henderson: Anybody who normally plays around those hours would be interested in winning such a nice package, especially tournament players since there is a tournament entry included in the prize package and you have to win a tournament in order to go on the cruise. I wanted to create an incentive for players who normally play tournaments to come out every week and sit in a No Limit Hold’em cash game and grind for a few hours.

PocketFives: Are there any plans to repeat the cruise promotion?

Chris Henderson: Probably. We’re working on different things for next year, including adding money to tournaments, more freerolls, and more prize giveaways. This will probably be done again too. The Midnight tournament will also be run again in the beginning of next year on another holiday after it was such a success when we held it on Labor Day.

PocketFives: What high-stakes No Limit Hold’em games do you spread at Napa Valley Casino?

Chris Henderson: Our big No Limit Hold’em game is $3/$5 and starts at a $300 buy-in. There is no maximum buy-in right now. With it, we’ve added a promotion such that if you get quads, depending on which day, you’ll get $599. It goes from quad deuces to quad eights, with one hand each day of the week qualifying.

The stacks in the game are pretty deep. I would say it starts around 3:00 in the afternoon and once it gets going, several players have over $5,000 or $6,000 in front of them. Pots can be huge. In those games, you can run it as many times as you want to and do things like Mississippi Straddle, which means you can straddle from any position.

PocketFives: There’s no maximum buy-in?

Chris Henderson: Because the game, as it gets going, gets so big, we don’t want to put a cap on the buy-in. We want to give players an opportunity to buy in for as much as they want to and play their game. The $3/$5 game offers itself to the higher and bigger players anyway.

If you’re looking to buy in for $400 or $500, we have our normal No Limit Hold’em game, which would be more suited to that type of player. We have $2/$3 No Limit Hold’em that runs from a $50 to $300 buy-in when the game starts and $50 to the highest chip stack after it gets going. $3/$5 is more for players who want to play bigger pots and bigger hands.

PocketFives: Tell us about your regular Pot Limit Omaha game.

Chris Henderson: In the Bay Area, we’re pretty much the only place that regularly spreads Pot Limit Omaha. Our Pot Limit Omaha game is as big as our $3/$5 game, maybe even bigger. It has a $200 minimum buy-in and a $2,000 maximum buy-in. After the game gets going, you can match the biggest chip stack.

On Tuesday night, for example, we had two tables of Pot Limit Omaha going and had a pot of over $2,500 two weeks ago, which is huge. In that hand, we had a couple of wild players. They got into a pot with huge hands and huge draws. They’ll put their money in. We also have people with deep pockets who play. That was one of those “perfect storm” hands.

PocketFives: Why do you think Napa Valley Casino has been able to offer Pot Limit Omaha steadily?

Chris Henderson: Pot Limit Omaha is a game for the future. If you’re a poker player and you’re looking for a return on your bankroll, Pot Limit Omaha is one of those games you want to look into playing. It’s relatively new compared to regular Omaha High-Low and Hold’em, which has already had its boom. Strategies, how to play the game, and the overall methodology are all fairly new. If you can play it well, you can be successful.

PocketFives: What have been some of the hot topics of conversation at your poker tables?

Chris Henderson: The biggest discussion topics around here have been the San Francisco Giants and 49ers. People are excited about the 49ers and the ongoing season. Anything they do that’s positive you’ll hear about. Some players are getting geared up to play big tournaments in Reno as well.

PocketFives: What other changes at Napa Valley Casino are in the works?

Chris Henderson: Our kitchen is done and our menu will change soon once we get everything situated. We’re working on building a new cage now. Once that’s completed, we’ll knock down the old cage and add one or two more tables. There will be major changes in our service and other positive things for players.

Visit NapaValleyCasinoOnline.com for more details. And if you head to the card room, make sure to relay any feedback you have in our Live Poker forumhere on PocketFives.