Male Player Lands on Top of the Ladies… at Womens Only Poker Tourney

Abraham Kortotki was not a very popular guy amongst the ladies on September 15, 2009. Why’s that you ask?

Mr. Kortotki, along with 250+ women, paid a $300+ entry fee to be a part of a women’s only poker tournament at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. You read that right – it was a Texas Hold’em tournament meant for FEMALES ONLY. And what happened when a man dared to cross the pink line?

Abraham Kortotki, showing the women who's the boss

Kortotki, a 65-year-old male from Las Vegas, Nevada took down the $20,982 first place prize. You can only imagine the excitement of the rest of the players. It’s fairly safe to say Abraham was not going to make any lady friends at the conclusion of this tournament.

So this leads us to a couple questions. First, was it legal for Abraham to play in the first place? The answer is YES. Even though the tournament guidelines were specific about restricting the game to women only, federal law says it is illegal to prohibit men from entering and playing in such tournaments. Anyone over the age of 21 could play and keeping people out on the basis of gender would be considered legal discrimination.

But the second question that arises: Did Kortotki do the right thing?

In our opinion, absolutely not. This was a woman’s only tournament, dude. There were dozens of other Atlantic City tournaments available. No barriers were broken down, no advancements for mankind were made by barging into this game. Mr. Kortotki: You may have won the ladies’ tournament but your lack of etiquette makes you a LOSER.

The second place finisher in this tournament agrees with us. Nicole Rowe of West Windsor lost heads up to Kortotki and had this to say after the fact:

“Competing in an all-women field was something I had been looking forward to, why did he have to ruin it for us?”

Kortotki didn’t seem to have any regrets. Some suggested that he split up the winnings with the top lady but he was having none of that. Supposedly, he is donating some of his winnings to several charities fighting against breast cancer, but who really knows.

The last thought we have on this is how in the world did the only man win this tournament? Does this prove anything about the poker skills of guys vs. girls? This tournament featured 260 women and 1 man, and the man took it down. We are not suggesting that this means men are superior poker players to ladies. But it creates some humorous news and surely will be the subject of talks for months to come. What’s going to happen when the next women only tournament is announced? I’ll guess 10+ guys will join the next one since they have seen a guy win this in the past. These types like money and they don’t care if they are taking it from ladies, kids or men. A win is a win in their books!

Tags: Abraham Kortotki, Male, only, player, Poker, tournament, woman, women

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 8:18 am and is filed under Poker News, Tournament Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.