Scott Kowalske: Playing With Pain -- One Year Later

Update: A Card Player reader has teamed up with poker professional Brett “Gank” Jungblut to set up an online charity poker tournament for the Scott Kowalske Fund on PokerStars. Along with Jungblut, fellow World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Scott “BigRiskky” Clements has also registered to play in the event.

The tournament will take place on Sunday, July 27, at 9 p.m. Eastern time. The event can be found under the “PRIVATE” tab in the PokerStars lobby. The tournament is listed as the “Scott Kowalske Fund” and the password for the event is: scottw. The buy-in is $22.00, and half of all the prize money will be donated to the Scott Kowalske Fund.

I first met Scott Kowalske at the World Series of Poker in 2007. He loves to play poker, like all of us, and like many, he uses the game to escape the daily grind and enjoy some entertainment on the felt. The pain and frustration that Scott escapes by playing the game he loves is of such a large magnitude that it is hard to define. Scott has been infected with chronic wasting disease for seven years, and during that time, it has destroyed his life as it destroys his body — his life now hangs in the balance.

You can read more about the debilitating effects of chronic wasting disease and the treatment that can save Scott's life in a CardPlayer article from July '07.

But that is just the first part of the story. Over the last year, Scott has fought through further deterioration of his health, as well as setbacks to his financial prospects for finding the money he needs to save his life. The pain he has had to suffer through is terrible, but the frustration he has felt after coming so close to finding the money for a cure, and then all of a sudden having it pulled away, is cruel and unusual. Scott continues to hold out hope when others would have given up, and he continues to dream that he will find a cure and achieve the most fundamental human desire — to survive.

"I've had a good attitude … but this December I've had really bad thoughts, and I've never had them before; I've always been like, somebody is going to help me, somebody will be there for me," said Scott. "I don't want to give up, because everybody says to hang on, but this is it, I can't fight anymore, I really can't. It's gotten to where my body is so tired from fighting this disease, and it's so damn bad, that I get up in the morning with tears because of the pain."

When Scott's story first appeared on CardPlayer.com one year ago, he still had a few of his fingers left, but that is no longer the case. He now has just one finger on his right hand that extends to the proximal interphalangeal joint (the second knuckle on the finger) and no fingers on his left hand that extend past the metacarpophalangeal joint (the first knuckle on the finger). If those final amounts of his withered hands disappear, he can no longer function — and the clock is ticking. More importantly, the disease has increased its internal attack on his organs, and this is why doctors have told Scott he needs to find help, now.

"It's hitting my organs now; it's really eating me from the inside," said Scott.

He also said that doctors told him his liver is functioning at 30 percent, while his kidneys are functioning at 18 percent. If the functioning levels of his kidneys drop much lower, they will need dialysis treatment, and when that happens, well, that was where Scott's voice trailed off on the other end of the phone.

The levels of testosterone, Vitamin C, and Iron in his body continue to plummet, and he needs injections almost daily to sustain his levels at a non-life-threatening level.

"All of this treatment, three bottles of infusions Monday through Friday … it's just rough, it's like a job. I go in at eight in the morning and I don't leave until 5 or 6 o'clock at night," said Scott.

Blue Cross has provided Scott with much of the treatment he now receives, which includes sessions in a hyperbaric chamber that is filled with 100 percent oxygen. "Without Blue Cross, it would have been over a while ago. They've gone out of their way for me; they've been great. They've been really good for me," said Scott.

Throughout the last year, a number of people have come to Scott's aid. They include Clay Sikes from Hinesville, Georgia, who has donated money to Scott numerous times during the year after seeing his story. He has donated thousands to help Scott with his personal and medical expenses, and he has never met Scott — not once. Another person who has helped Scott is a friend he has had for many years that has settled in the Las Vegas area. That friend chooses to remain nameless, but it is because of that friend that Scott found himself halfway to his goal of raising the final $30,000 he needs for life-saving treatment.

Scott found himself in the San Diego area at various points of the past year to receive medical treatment, and that led him to play poker at the Ocean's 11 Casino in Oceanside, California. He did it to pass the time and cope with his pain between treatments. It was there that he met Bob Moyer and Suzanne Carter, who reached out to Scott after he made a personal connection with many employees and customers in the poker room.

The staff at Ocean's 11 Casino knew they wanted to help Scott by hosting a charity poker tournament, but they also knew they did not have the floor space to host it there. Moyer reached out to the Harrah's Rincon property a few miles away and offered his dealers and tournament staff to work the tournament if they would agree to host the event. Sikes then pledged a sponsorship check from his company, The Sikes Group, to cover the operating costs of the tournament. The staff at Harrah's Rincon got on board, and the approval process that would be needed to allow the event to take place began. The Rincon Band of Mission Indians that own the property approved the tournament and a date was set for June 1, 2008. The charity no-limit hold'em tournament was going to feature a $175 buy-in, with all of the proceeds going to the treatment that would save Scott's life. That was when disaster struck. The final approval for the tournament was sent to Harrah's corporate staff, but no word was ever sent back, and the charity tournament died as a piece of paper sitting on someone's desk.

This renewed all of Scott's fear and anxiety that he might not make it out of his battle alive, and some bad thoughts began to set in once again.

"You can only hang on for so long … I don't want to go, because I want to be here for them [his parents], I want to fight because I've fought so long for them. So, when I wake up and hear my mom crying, it just kills me," said Scott.

He continues to hold his head up and keep hope alive, but his time is growing short. Scott still needs $12,000 after Moyer and Carter promised $1,000 each when the tournament fell through. "I'm asking now, I'm begging, if you have the means to help, I'm begging for the help now. I've never begged for anything in my life, but that's what it comes down to … I just don't want to die," said Scott, his voice as anxious as it had ever been. He continued, "People keep telling me it's not a lot of money. Well, you know, it's a lot of money when you don't have it. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is."

Scott's last statement is correct; $12,000 is a lot of money, especially in the current economic downturn that has affected the United States in multiple ways. But $12,000 isn't that much money in the poker world. Thousands of players won that much and more over the course of this summer, and $12,000 is just $2,000 more than the amount players commit to a major tournament buy-in every week on the tournament trail. That is why many people who know Scott, and see him struggle while his character soars, hold out hope that the money will come.

It is true that $12,000 is a lot of money in the real world, but it is not a lot of money in the poker world.

Those who wish to help Scott can donate to the Scott Kowalske Fund at the Fifth Third Bank in Traverse City, Michigan.

Scott Kowalske Fund
Fifth Third Bank
630 W. 14th Street
Traverse City, MI 49684
231-922-4334

You may also e-mail or call Scott directly.

E-mail: [email protected]
Home: 231-933-8494
Cell: 231-499-4941

Most Viewed Articles