2019 is turning out to be a break-out year for India’s most accomplished female poker player and Adda52 Team Pro – Nikita Luther. She has been making headlines right from the beginning of the year. She had started 2019 in style, winning the 15K Deep Dive Event and finishing 26th in the Main Event at the DPT February 2019 edition. Keeping her momentum going, she recently finished 2nd in the WPT500 Aria in Las Vegas and took her live earnings to a hefty $333,041. Currently ranked 13th in India All Time Money List, Delhi girl is again in the news, this time for her deep finish in the Event #81: $1,500 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only, which is meant only for bracelet winners.
Kicking off on July 10, this special event attracted a total of 185 entries and generated $277,500 in prizepool, which was to be shared by the top 28 finishers with min-cashes starting from $2,520. Luther had ended Day 1 of the event as the chip leader with 538,500 (215 big blinds) among 51 survivors out of the 143 entries. The Delhi girl, who became India’s first female poker player to win a WSOP bracelet last year, was chasing her second bracelet and she was in a good position to do so.
However, Day 2 did not turn out to be a good one for the former PSL COO and she exited in 13th place, taking home $3,584 (INR 2.45 Lac). It was her second WSOP cash and third score in Vegas this year, with her best cash till date coming from the recently-concluded WPT Aria ME where she finished 2nd for $109,300, thus narrowly missing out on the title, which was won by Ben Farrell.
Luther had begun Day 2 with a massive stack of 538,500 but she lost some crucial pots and her stack had come down to 180K at one point of time. Her stack kept coming up and down during the day. She first got a double through Tommy Nquyen when her Ah Qh won on the run-out of 4h Jd Kh As 8d and took her stack to over 250k. Later, she again lost some chips but managed to make a comeback when her pocket fives went on to beat K-J of Nguyen. Luther’s stack had reached 430k during level 18 when she won a pot from Cord Gracia. However, she then lost some pots and she was eventually eliminated by none other than Nguyen who had lost several pots to her. Luther’s Kc Kh ran into Ad Ah of Nguyen and the board ran out 5h 10c 8h 10h 4s, bringing no help for Luther.
Day 2 of the event is over with just 8 players remaining. Leading the way is Canada’s Tommy Nguyen with 2,910,000 in chips. Nguyen eliminated William Kakon, Nikita Luther, Cord Garcia, and Upeshka De Silva to eventually take the lead for the final day later tonight. Following him in second and third places are Shankar Pillai (2,425,000) and Michael Gagliano (1,500,000). While each of the remaining 8 is guaranteed a $7,032, they will be eyeing top prize of $71,580 and the braclet.
Chip Counts of Final 8:
- Tommy Nguyen – 2,910,000
- Shankar Pillai – 2,425,000
- Michael Gagliano -1,500,000
- Brett Apter – 995,000
- Andreas Klatt – 440,000
- Kevin Gerhart – 370,000
- Thom Werthmann – 370,000
- Scott Bohlman – 260,000
