Poker News

Barbara Fielder Prather Route 66 Poker Room Manager

When I phoned Barbara Fielder Prather on September 9 to interview her, it just happened to be her 62nd birthday. Barbara was born in Center, Texas and graduated high school in Houston, Texas in 1961. After high schoolBarbara enrolled in business college to further her education. When she graduated from business college she took a position with a Houston bank. She left her banking position to take a job with the Dentler Potato Chip Company.

In 1971 she left Texas, moved to Las Vegas and took a cashier’s position in the poker room at the Golden Nugget. Barbara received her introduction to dealing poker while working at the Golden Nugget.

Poker Room Manager, Murphy Breedlove was short a dealer one day and told Barbara to go in and deal the pineapple game. With no dealing experience whatsoever Barbara sat down in the box and proceeded to deal pineapple.

That was the beginning of Barbara’s career in the world of poker. In 1986 Bobby Baldwin decided to close down the poker room and put in slots so Barbara was out of a job.

When Jim Albrecht heard the news he phoned Barbara and asked her to work the floor in the poker room at Binion’s. Barbara was delighted and apparently so was Jim because shortly after that Jim asked her to assist him in opening the California Bell Club in Bell, California.

In 1992 Barbara left Las Vegas and moved to Tunica, Mississippi to deal poker at the Splash Casino. In 1993 Gene McCarley, part owner of Splash, sent Barbara and her husband, James to Biloxi to train 150 dealers for the Gold Shore Casino. That task lasted about a year.

In 1995 Barbara left Splash and accepted the Cardroom Manager’s position at Bally’s Casino in Tunica.

In 2000 Barbara left Tunica to manage the poker room at Aztar Casino in Evansville, Indiana. In 2004 they sent her to the Aztar Casino in Crothersville to train their poker dealers.

Barbara left Aztar in March of 2005 with the thought of retiring from the world of poker. Two month’s later, in May of 2005 she received a call from Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico and couldn’t resist the offer to manage their cardroom. She admitted, the weather, the beautiful view of the mountains and the valley was a big draw.

Barbara now oversees a 12 table cardroom with a staff of 30 dealers and floorpeople.

In addition to Barbara’s impressive list of experience in the world of poker she also worked the World Series of Poker during the 70’s and 80’s. Her career reaches back to the days when they thought 100 players in the main event was a big deal. She is also the first woman to have dealt the high limit poker games at the Nugget.

DB: What was it like to work with some of the biggest names in poker?

BP: You can’t buy that kind of education. I worked for Bill Boyd at the Nugget and he was just wonderful. I’ve worked with Bobby Baldwin, Jim Albrecht, and Jack Binion, to name a few, and they all were great to work with and I learned a lot from all of them.

DB: Does Route 66 have a hotel?

BP: No, we don’t have a hotel but we have plans for one in the future. There are several nice places to stay in Albuquerque.

DB: Where is Route 66 Casino located?

BP: We are right on I-40 just west of Albuquerque. The view of the valley and the mountains are simply beautiful as you approach the casino.

DB: What live games are offered at Route 66?

BP: We spread $1-$2 blind no-limit hold’em with a minimum $50 buy-in and a $200 maximum buy-in. We also spread $2-$4, $3-$6 and $4-$8 limit hold’em. We offer higher limit games on the weekends.

DB: Are you running any daily tournaments?

BP: No but we spread sit and goes on demand everyday. We also have one hour no-limit shootouts every Monday and Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. with a $7.00 entry fee. Route 66 puts up the prize pool with first place receiving $500, second place receiving $300 and third place receiving $200. The tournament is limited to 50 players and we are usually sold out and turning players away.

DB: What incentives does Route 66 offer their players?

BP: Bonus that starts at $50 and increases $50 per day to a max of $1000. We have a Bad Beat Jackpot and at this moment it’s up to $33,000. It takes aces full of jacks beaten to win. We give promotional items for daily high hands. Players are rated by a point system for food comps. We also give one ticket to each player for every four hours of play for our casino drawings every Sunday. One of our poker players won a motorcycle in August.

DB: Is your poker room well equipped? BP: Yes, along with being one of the most beautiful poker rooms I’ve ever seen, all our tables have shuffle masters. We also have six TV screens for sports viewing. The room was picked for the background of a Christmas scene in the movie The Three Wise Guys starring Tom Arnold because it’s so pretty. And our room is a non-smoking room.

DB: Are most of your players locals?

BP: We have a lot of locals but we also have big clientele of truck drivers that stop by on a regular basis so they have really become regulars too.

DB: Beat Wishes on your Birthday, Barbara!

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