Here we have one Abraham Kortotki, 65, who as you can plainly see is not a woman. (Also not a woman). After being eliminated from a regular poker tournament in Atlantic City, he decided, for whatever reason, to enter a ladies-only tourney. I see no way anything could go wrong with that plan.

(Kortotki will collect his winnings as soon as he passes a gender test)

He won. Now the chicks are pissed off, and would like to scratch his eyes out among other things. Especially peeved is the second-place finisher, who was hoping to use the prize money to help defer the cost of a mastectomy. Yep, just another day in Jersey.

The problem is that this particular tournament, the Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament at the Borgata, was held more or less on the honor system; participants signed up online, and no one really checked for Adam’s Apples. Nicole Rowe, 40, of West Windsor was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and intended to use her winnings to cover living expenses as she recovers from a mastectomy scheduled for later this month.

Rowe, along with 260 other women, shelled out more than $300 to enter the competition. The New York woman admitted to a local publication that she was upset that Kortoki didn’t want to split the winnings ($20,982) with her.

Kortoki claims he is using his prize money to donate to three charities — including one dedicated to breast cancer. He said he entered the competition after seeing more than five other men register online.

(Nicole Rowe)

As expected, the comments on this story at WPIX-11 are more entertaining than the tournament:

Let’s face it, if a woman had won an all-men’s poker tournament, she would be considered a national hero. But this guy’s gonna get made fun of everywhere. — Andrew @ 9:33 PM EDT, Sep 17, 2009

It was a public casino so they can’t make it “Ladies Only” just like they can’t make it “Men’s Only”. It’s the law! But to expect the man to split his winnings? Nonsense. Is she going to split hers with other survivors that lost? — Jenn @ 10:35 AM EDT, Sep 17, 2009

he must be proud, I can’t even imagine wanting to enter there are plenty of coed games to enter — minka @ 10:31 AM EDT, Sep 17, 2009

So, Wendy and Donna, it was okay for you uber-feminists to force your way into men’s only organizations such as the Rotary, and Moose Lodge but now that the shoe is on the other foot you aren’t happy? You started this whole “non-gender-bias” war, now you have to live with the consequences. — Tom @ 10:15 AM EDT, Sep 17, 2009