Nikita Luther wins India’s second WSOP gold bracelet

What a fantastic time Nikita Luther is having at the 2018 World Series of Poker. After India won their first ever piece of gold at the last year (Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java in the Tag Team Event), Luther has brought home India’s second WSOP bracelet, by winning the same Tag team Event one year later.

Yesterday, we reported news of Luther finishing 17th in the $3,000 NLHE Event, picking up $18,495 for her efforts. She was multi-tabling while playing that event, as she also registered to Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em, having progressed to the next day in both tournaments.

While we all thought a 17th place finish was pretty impressive, Luther took to her Twitter account to express her disappointment, as a gold bracelet is the goal. She busted her chip stack in the NLHE Event, but continued her impressive run in the teams event, having partnered with German poker player Giuseppe Pantaleo, who has over $1 million in live cashes.

She then progressed to Day 3 of the teams event with a decent chip stack, the pay-outs having begun and only 28 teams still in play. After long hours of grinding, the duo of Luther and Pantaleo reached the final table, with the team of Kazuki Ikeuchi-Hiroki Iwata-Sho Mori building a commanding chip lead. Here’s Luther’s tweet on reaching the FT:

Nikita Luther wins India’s second WSOP gold bracelet 1

The pair kept putting pressure on the other teams on the final table, eliminating the team of Alex Rocha-Megan Milburn-Joanne Milburn in 4th place and from there, slowly increasing their chip stack to eventually take the chip lead in three way play. Pantaleo then called an all-in bet to knock out the team of Manig Loeser-Joelle Parenteau-Daniel Weinand in third place, going into heads-up with the chip lead.

Pantaleo kept applying the pressure in heads-up, as the team’s stack increased along with their lead. It was only a matter of time before the Pantaleo-Luther pair won the title and eventually they did. It was history made as Luther brought home India’s second WSOP bracelet and the first India woman to win a bracelet. She also took home a career best cash prize of $87,902 (~INR 60.16 lakh), as the team was awarded $175,805 for first place. Luther has cemented herself in Indian poker history, while Panteleo won his first ever gold bracelet too.

In the final hand, Pantaleo went all-in with pocket twos and Iwata called with A-9. The latter hit a pair of Aces on the flop but then a deuce on the river completed a set of twos for Pantaleo, as the rail exploded and the duo of Pantaleo and Luther had won!

Final table results:

Giuseppe Pantaleo-Nikita Luther – $175,805
Kazuki Ikeuchi-Hiroki Iwata-Sho Mori – $108,608
Manig Loeser-Joelle Parenteau-Daniel Weinand – $76,797
Alex Rocha-Megan Milburn-Joanne Milburn – $55,016
Gabriel Neto-Carlos Caputo – $39,936
Adam Lamphere-Ao Chen-Yijie Zhang – $29,380
Salah Levy-Frank Mariani-Cord Garcia – $21,910
Bon Koo-Bienvenido Caballero – $16,565

Gutshot congratulates Luther on this fantastic and historic performance and we hope that this is the first of many more to come in the future. Until then, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com, where you will get all updates on Indian players at the World Series of Poker.