Male wins “All Ladies” poker event!
Abraham Korotki
Whilst the controversy around the gender test of 800 m runner Caster Semenya from South Africa is hitting headlines all over, it has come to light that the recent winner of an “All ladies event” at the Borgata in Atlantic City is a man! Abraham Korotki (65) from Ventnor City, N.J., will however not be subjected to any gender testing since he is undisputedly a man! He took home the trophy and $20,982 first prize.
40 year old Nicole Rowe (New Windsor, NY) outlasted just over 260 other ladies to be the last woman standing in event No. 7, a “ladies-only” event at the Borgata Poker Open on Sep, 13 2009 with a buy-in of $300. Unfortunately Korotki, a semiretired real-estate developer kept her from winning the tournament – she was placed second and won $11,889 in prize money.
Nicole Rowe
Rowe was also unhappy that he would not allow her to take the title if they agree to “chop” the pot with her. In poker tournaments, the remaining 2 players in a heads-up situation can agree to split the prize pool. This would have meant that both Korotki and Rowe would have claimed more than $16,000 each. Korotki was prepared to do so since the money was not important to him but he wanted the title and the trophy. Rowe could not agree to this. She said: “I’m a competitor. And I was competing not just for me, but for every woman in the tournament.”
Korotki was chip leader by about $200,000 chips and did not feel it right that she gets the title without playing for it. He did not mind sharing the prize money. After only a few hands had been played, Rowe found herself all-in with A-9 against Korotki’s pocket tens. The pocket pair held.
Nevertheless, both players claimed that there are no hard feelings. In fact, each acknowledged that earlier in the contest Korotki, after hearing from Rowe about her illness, purposely played a weak hand against her in hopes of helping her build her chip stack (she doubled her amount by winning the hand).
The question then needs to be asked – what was a man doing in a game clearly meant for ladies only?
Abraham Korotki, a professional with over $650,000 in winnings to his name (including a gold ring in a World Series of Poker Circuit main event in Atlantic City, decided to enter the ladies only poker tournament claiming that he was “tired of going home early” after just being knocked out of event No. 6 and feeling that he “hadn’t had enough poker time”.
From the casino’s standpoint, there was no option other than to seat Korotki.
In a statement by Joe Lupo, the gaming hall’s senior vice president he explained that “Borgata offers specialty tournaments, including the Ladies event. In the spirit of this event, it was our hope that only women would have participated, as has happened in the past. . . . However, given legal requirements, we must allow anyone who is over the age of 21 the opportunity to participate.”
Many of the ladies in attendance objected to Korotki taking part in the tournament but with recent sexual discrimination legal disputes in the area it appears organizers were unwilling to stop the Delaware pro’ from buying in. Organizers and players were less than impressed. Alyson Parker spoke for many when she said “Any gentleman that comes to play, on the face of it, is doing it with disrespectful intent.”
Rowe who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, had hoped that the top prize in the Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament would pay for her living expenses while she recuperated from the mastectomy she expects to have at the end of the month. This was Korotki 3rd career win announced that he was going to donate a third of his $20,982 winnings to cancer research and Rowe was pleased with his move, saying, “That’s very nice of him. Even just to think of that is very nice”. Rowe had no problem keeping it all in perspective. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “It was 16 hours of being cancer free, a diversion from my reality.”
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