Korotki (left), Playing in Ladies EventBorgata strives to put on the best tournaments, and has successfully incorporated specialty events in their series, including the highly anticipated and well-attended Ladies No Limit Hold'em tournaments.
Here's a Borgata first, someone other than a female has entered this event, much to the dismay of Borgata and to the field of 269 women. And while this specific individual, who's known as Abraham Korotki (Ventor City, NJ), must have some reason for playing in the Ladies event, Borgata management is less than thrilled with his participation.
"I got tired of going home early," says Kortoki after getting knocked out of Event #6 ($1,000 +$90), "I hadn't had enough poker time."
Despite the fact that there were two other tournaments running later in the day, along with a myriad of continuous sit and goes, and a full 85-table poker room for cash games, Korotki opted for the Ladies Event, causing quite a stir.
"Any gentleman that comes to play, on the face of it, is doing it with disrespectful intent," says Alyson Parker (Planesboro, NJ), who's seated at Kortoski's table.
"He wasn't just there for fun, he was obnoxious," says one anonymous player, who started at Kortoki's table. "Every hand he needled people."
While a bulk of the players are upset and disappointed with Kortoki's presence, not everyone takes offense, including Shalanda "Diva" Nix (Newark, NJ), who's one of the chip leaders. "We all feel that we should have a secluded event for the ladies, but if he's going to play, tell him to bring it on because we welcome him."
Kortoki is also an unofficial chip leader and the deeper he goes in the tournament, the more frustrated some players are getting.
"If there weren't other men's events that he could enter, that would be a different story," says Nancy Martin (Washington Crossings, PA).
"I think the important thing is that had I been knocked out already, they would've been happy to have my 300 bucks in the kitty." says, Kortoki.
Professional player Lacey Jones (Manhattan Beach, CA) adds, "the more people in the tournament, the more money I get."
Whatever Kortoki's real intentions are, he says that if he's fortunate enough to win something in the Ladies event, he'll donate it to charity.
We'll see.
The Ladies Event is on dinner break.
Parker Feels Disrespected by Lady Korotki
I've played this tournament a few times. I don't think I would've felt disrespected. I think it's pretty funny honestly. If he can take down a field of ALL women, that's impressive.
ReplyDeleteI bet if it were Brad Pitt and not some ugly dude they'd all be thrilled to give him their chips...
ReplyDeleteWhy did Borgata let him enter the event in the first place? It shouldn't have been allowed. It's bad publicity for Borgata and it would have made for a better story if he wasn't there and Nicole Rowe (who finished second and has breat cancer) had won.
ReplyDeleteobviously this guy ships the event. its like usain bolt entering the special olympics
ReplyDeleteThere shouldn't be any gender discrimination in poker anyway its insulting to think that women need to play only with the women.
ReplyDeleteThis has all been said and done before, move on.
ReplyDeleteI know Nicole Rowe. He only got lucky - she's a top notch player and a tough woman to beat. Maybe this was the only way he could get women to pay attention to him?
ReplyDeleteNot only was this guy disrespectful to the other players, he slowed down the tournament having the floor called over to every table and explaining the situation 100 times. This tournament was devised to open the field for women players in a relaxed setting so that less experienced woman wouldn't feel so apprehensive. And it's been extremely successful respectfully. And now this guy has opened the field to destroy it. I hope Borgata realizes that this is only going to drive away such a successful tournament with vast new players everytime. Not only was this guy rude, his corny pick-up lines and distasteful desperation of trying to hit on us made me want to vomit. It was demeaning and HE was being the discriminating one the whole damn time. I have to deal with that every tournament I play in, and this tournament was always a nice change of pace. Thanks for f-in it up, buddy. And get some game, cuz you suck at it -- in the poker field and the player field. I promise you if you pulled half of the crap you did in another tournament, like needling people every hand, and asking to see every called hand, you'd get the snot knocked out of you. Anybody can get hit with the deck,
ReplyDelete...but our final table ladies are thick in the player rankings every year, so don't let your ego get too big, you have some catching up to do...
This guy knocked me out of the deep stack for the summer series on day 2. He was pretty obnoxious after sucking out, calling my all in kk with his ak send me to the rail. I couldn't believe it when I read this post....
ReplyDeleteI don't like it. Doesn't "Ladies event" signify it was designed for women. I think his motivations were not the best.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the issued of the man playing in a ladies tournament was addressed and they were told they can not discriminate. It is sad that he felt that he needed to play in this tournament to win.
ReplyDeleteHey Jen ,whats wrong with asking to see a called hand?????
ReplyDeleteOk folks just to set the record straight I would like to clarify a few things that were miss quoted.I am Nicole Rowe and thanks sis I love you! Anyway first off I never had a problem with a man playing in the "Ladies event". Actually I kind of like the guy he and I sat next to each other for hours and he was very nice. Abe I am sorry about the bad rap you are getting none of it is coming from me and I hope you know that from talking to me in person. This is crazy and took on wing of its own. I did not go to play in this event to support myself in any way! The money will come in handy since I have no sick time left from work and it has been a very rough year since my husband is in the auto business. The entire reason I went to play in this event is to keep my mind off of my reality which is breast cancer right now unfortunately. I just wanted to play as long as I could to help me be cancer free in my head for as long as I could, since when I'm playing poker I am not thinking about anything else. As far as the chop "controversy" I asked Abe if he would like to chop the money and play for the win. At that time we were almost even in chips he had about 100,000 roughly more than I did with a total of 3 million in play. Not much of a lead they actually had to count it out at the end to make sure I was actually out. Anyway he did refuse to chop unless i forfeited first place and gave him the title. I had played for 16 hours straight and came in 2nd 2 years ago in the same event, I also would have netted about 3000 bucks minus taxes and I am a competitor at heart. I was also playing for all the women in that tournament not just myself. I would never take a title I didn't earn so the only option was to play I had a very good chance of winning the full 21,000 dollars why would I give up that for 3000 bucks and a 2 time at runner up. Also 12,000 bucks is great money believe me I am fine with everything that has happened because my main goal is to get the word out about breast cancer. Poker is just a "side pot". LOL Th only thing that has bothered me in the least about this is that some of the girls said they won't come back for another ladies event and I really enjoy them and don't want one bad decision by a nice man to ruin it for all of us in the future! Thank you for listening and caring.
ReplyDeleteIt was every called hand...every attempted muck, he asked the dealer to flip.
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