She was among more than 260 women who each put up $300 to play in the tournament, but when the dust cleared, Abraham Korotki, 65, of Ventnor City, N.J., took home the trophy and $20,982 first prize.
"When you're a woman and you play poker, 99 percent of the time you're at a table with nine men," Rowe, who won $11,889, said yesterday during a phone interview, adding that playing against a field of women is "something I look forward to.
"Why did he have to ruin it for us? Why would he do this?"
So what was a man doing in a game clearly meant for the XX chromosome set?
Korotki - a semiretired real-estate developer who said yesterday that he's donating his winnings to three charities, including one dedicated to breast cancer - said his motives were purely innocent.
He explained that he entered the women's competition after quickly being eliminated from another, more-expensive tournament in which he went "all-in" with a pair of aces against two pair.
He said that he simply "wanted to get back on the horse," and signed up because he had earlier seen "five to 10" other men in the registration line.
Borgata officials said that they were not aware of any other male participants, nor were any other men pointed out by female players.
Korotki insisted that Borgata staffers never told him that he couldn't play in the tournament and insisted that he wouldn't have made a fuss if he'd been asked to stay out of it.
"I have great respect for the people at Borgata," he said.
"If someone had said, 'Abe, you can play, but please don't,' I would have said, 'Fine,' and gone home and been bored until the next tournament."
From the casino's standpoint, there was no option other than to seat Korotki.
"Borgata offers specialty tournaments, including the Ladies event," Joe Lupo, the gaming hall's senior vice-president, said in a statement.
