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Nikita Luther does it again; makes WPT500 Aria Final Table

It was the summer of 2017 when Delhi’s Nikita Luther first turned poker pro and made the journey to Las Vegas in search of big live scores. In just her first year at this new profession, she created headlines by making the Final Table of the WPT500 Main Event at the Aria Resort and Casino. Eventually, she busted in 5th for $65,000.

The very next year, Luther became the first Indian woman to win a WSOP gold bracelet in Las Vegas and since then, she has plenty of other live cashes around the world including a title at the Deltin Poker Tournament in Goa. It was just a couple of weeks back that Gutshot launched its print magazine and Luther was among the two Indian pros to be featured on the cover.

She told us that while she won a bracelet in the 2018 WSOP Tag Team Event, the experience at the Aria was one of the highlights of her career and also how she will be going back to try and repeat her performance there once again. Turns out she wasn’t lying as Luther has reached the Final Table of the Zynga Poker WPT500 Las Vegas for the second time in three years!

The $570 buy-in tournament began on 21st June and saw a number of Indian participants across the eight starting flights that were held. Some of them cashed on the starting flights itself while those to bust on Day 2 today included Sanjay Taneja – 93rd for $1,500, Meherzad Munsaf – 83rd for $1,500 and Dhaval Mudgal – 54th for $2,700.

As for Luther, she was among the top chip stacks on Day 1B of the tournament and she managed to keep building her stack today on Day 2. The Adda52 Pro managed a few eliminations and ensured she was among the top stacks through most of the day’s play. The original field of 1,932 entries has boiled down to just the final 9 players and Luther is third in chips among these players.

Luther had the chip lead for a while towards the end of the day before she lost a 3-way pot, ending the day with 6.7 million chips, behind only Ben Farrell (7.35 million) and Sung Joo Hyun (7.27 million). Play resumes at 2pm PDT tomorrow (2:30am IST on 28th June) and when they return, the minimum prize everyone is guaranteed is $14,000 (~INR 9.69 Lakh) for 9th place.

Luther will be looking for nothing less than the WPT500 Aria title which comes with $155,000 in prize money, but there’s some stiff competition she will have to outlast. For all of you around the world thinking poker is a male sport, let’s remember that Luther has been the only woman in the field since a few levels now. Action continues tomorrow at Level 31: 75,000-125,000, 125,000 ante.

Day 2 chip counts:

1. Ben Farrell – 7,350,000
2. Sung Joo Hyun – 7,275,000
3. Nikita Luther – 6,700,000
4. Min Ji – 4,000,000
5. Trey Morris – 3,775,000
6. Ritesh Shah – 3,675,000
7. Eduards Kudrjavcevs – 3,200,000
8. Jakub Wojtas – 1,875,000
9. Jim Pennella – 775,000

Will Nikita Luther manage to go on and win the event? For all latest updates on the WPT500 Las Vegas, stay tuned to GutshotMagazine.com.

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