After Indian poker pros Aditya Sushant and Nipun Java opened the account for India at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2017, the second bracelet didn’t take too long. India won its second WSOP bracelet the following year, and this time it was India’s poker queen, Nikita Luther, bringing it home. Interestingly, she won it in the same event won by Shusant and Java.
Notably, with this, Nikita not only grabbed the second WSOP bracelet for India, but she also gracefully carved her name in history becoming India’s first female poker player to win a bracelet. It was an incredible feat, given back then female participation in the game was much thinner compared to today. To date, Nikita still holds her throne as India’s only female to have a bracelet to her name.
ALSO Check: FLASHBACK – REFLECTING ON INDIA’S FIRST WSOP BRACELET WIN
Nikita along with her German companion Giuseppe Pantaleo took down the 2018 WSOP Event #55 – $1,000 Tag Team NLHE. The duo outlasted more than 1,000 teams on their way to victory, a first place prize of $175,805 (INR 1.20 Crore) and the shiny WSOP bracelets for their efforts.
Twitter to Tag Team
Unlike most teams in the event who were either couples or groups of friends, Luther and Pantaleo shared no relationship before the event started. Revealing how their partnership came into being, Luther says that they hadn’t planned for it. “I just randomly hit him up on Twitter, I said we should be the teams, we met once last year, and we didn’t know each other well, but now we know each other well. “
Although the partnership was unplanned, the two pros made sure their plan for victory was in perfect sync. Luther says, “He almost wasn’t going to play the Tag Team as he had plans to play other tournaments.” Similarly, Pantaleo reveals, “She [Luther] was multi-tabling the $3k here, which she got seventeenth in, and she would run back and forth in breaks. She mostly wanted me to play, but it worked well when we tagged in and out.”
2018 WSOP Event #55 – $1,000 Tag Team NLHE Final Table
On the final day of the tournament, it was mostly Pantaleo grinding at the final table. The two revealed that although they did not have a set strategy as to who was going to play when their main aim was to keep the chips flowing in their direction.
The Luther-Pantaleo team managed to make it to the coveted final table, which had Kazuki Ikeuchi-Hiroki Iwata-Sho Mori chip- leading. However, by the time the heads-up was set between the two teams, Pantaleo and Nikita entered with a marginal lead. They continued to dominate heads-up and quickly turned it into an 8-to-1 advantage.
The game ended dramatically with both Iwata and Pantaleo getting all in preflop. Pantaleo flipped pocket deuces against Iwata’s ace-nine of diamonds. The flop brought an ace, placing Iwata ahead, followed by an insignificant turn. Finally, the river brought a deuce handing over victory to the Luther-Pantaleo team.
Talking about the final hand, Pantaleo says, “All of her friends were screaming for the deuce of spades and it really came. I don’t know. The Indian people have a sick vibe.”
ALSO READ:NIKITA LUTHER CONTINUES TO LEAD IN GPI INDIA FEMALE RANKINGS
Luther found herself rushing back and forth between the Tag Team Event and Event #54: Big Blind Antes $3,000 NLH, where she finished 17th for $18,495, and she also carried that momentum forward to clinch her first career bracelet in the Tag Team Event.
A Little About Nikita Luther
Currently ranked 1st in GPI India (female) rankings, Luther is one of the most respectable pros in India with an impressive $535,583 in live earnings. She is an inspiration for female players, not only in India but all around the world. Apart from the WSOP bracelet, she has several other prestigious live titles to her name. He first title came in 2015 when she won the IPC Ladies Event. She followed that up with a Teams Event title at the Macau Poker Cup in 2017. The following year she picked up her first WSOP bracelet in the Tag Teams Event, which was followed by her victory in the DPT 15K Deep Dive in 2019. Her most recent victory was in 2023 when she won Super Hold’em Hyper Turbo (Event #22) at APT Honoi. After being associated with Adda52 and Spartan Poker as a Team Pro, Luther is currenlty serving as the Natural8 India Ambassador. We wish her all the best for this year’s WSOP set to start from May 28.
Keep following PokerProNews for flashbacks into historic moments and victories from the world of poker!
