Rowe, who is scheduled to undergo a double mastectomy at the end of the month, urges women to get a sonogram in addition to an annual mammogram.
Two years ago, before being diagnosed with breast cancer, Rowe, a veteran gambler who plays poker about three times a week, came in second in the Borgata tournament. This time, she was determined to win it.
But Korotki, a 63-year-old semiretired real estate developer from Ventnor, took home the top prize of nearly $21,000 last Saturday, and a trophy. In a field of 260 players, each of whom had put up $300, Rowe came in second, winning just under $12,000 after taxes.
Korotki said he thought he saw other men signing up for the women's-only tournament and, besides, he wanted more practice time to get ready for when the World Poker Tour (WPT) rolled into town this week. That event attracts hundreds of top gamblers from around the globe, who come to participate in more than 40 WPT-sanctioned tournaments in Atlantic City casinos through Thursday.
"I didn't do this for the money," Korotki said. "I'm preparing to go into a main event this week, and I needed some practice time. I hadn't played in tournaments in a while."
Korotki, who doesn't describe himself as a professional poker player, has pocketed more than $650,000 in poker-tournament winnings in his lifetime, including a gold ring in a World Series of Poker event here.
Rowe said she took Korotki's presence in the tournament in stride, and even struck up a kind of friendship with him. But other women who had been seated with him as the competition became narrower and narrower over a 14-hour period left the casino angry, feeling a man had muscled his way into a place he did not belong.
