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An exemplary poker professional, a successful businesswoman, and an inspiring role model, Nikita Luther (cover image) has worked up quite the reputation!
Continuing with our series of post-WSOP interviews, we now bring you excerpts of an interesting conversation we had with arguably India’s most accomplished poker player, Nikita Luther (cover image).
For the last three years, Luther has been at the top of her game, and that is clearly reflected in her glittering poker resume. If 2017 saw Luther final table numerous events, then 2018 was a breakout year for the Adda52 pro who won a WSOP gold bracelet for Team India. With an incredible runner-up finish in the Zynga Poker WPT500 Las Vegas this year followed by another deep run in the 2019 WSOP $50K Annual Bracelet Winners Only, Luther has undoubtedly matured into a poker powerhouse!
2019 began with a bang for Luther who took down the series opener ₹15K Deep Dive at the DPT February edition for ₹6.80 Lakhs. Reaching Las Vegas mid-June, Luther opened her summer scorecard in Event #44: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty where she finished 172nd for $1,603 (~₹1.11 Lakhs). Though Luther failed in her attempt to make it from Day 1B of Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights NLHE, she came close to final tabling Event #81: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only, ultimately finishing 13th for $3,584 (~₹2.45 Lakhs).
However, Luther’s biggest score this summer came outside of the WSOP. For a second time in three years, Luther made it to the final table of the WPT500 Las Vegas. This time she looked determined to take down the title, and better her fifth-place finish from 2017, and she came close! She had entered the heads-up against Ben Farrell as the chip leader and all but had the title in her grasp before a brutal bad beat denied her the glory. That was the turning point of the match-up which ultimately ended with Luther finishing runner-up for $109,300 (₹75.32 Lakhs) – her personal-best score till date.
Underlining Luther’s remarkable success story is the hard work she has put into her game. From memorizing innumerable GTO charts and understanding the nuances of ICM, Luther has poured hours of study in polishing her poker expertise.
PokerGuru recently caught up with the poker diva, and in a candid conversation, Luther spoke about experiences in Las Vegas this summer among other things. Check out excerpts of our discussion with Luther in the audio blog below or read the entire transcript of the conversation in the interview that follows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHMcbUELHpc
This is now your third great year at WSOP – 2017 you came 5th in the WPT500 – 2018 was the bracelet year – and this year you once again final tabled the WPT500 almost winning the title not to forget your 13th place finish in the 50th Annual Bracelets Winners Only. How are you doing this?
It feels pretty good to have three successful, three back-to-back successful years at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). I mean I couldn’t have asked for anything more being a tournament pro and representing Adda52 who have sent me three years in a row now, and I have not let them down. I have not let myself down, in terms of like the amount of preparation I have put in, I put in a lot of hard work and studies, especially in the last one year. I have really – I mean exponentially expanded my knowledge – put in a lot of work, memorized tons and tons and tons of GTO charts. And I guess it’s all paying off and its really satisfying and fulfilling to see your hard work coming to fruition and obviously it takes a little bit of luck to get anywhere so I feel very grateful for that.
The 13th place finish in the Bracelet Winners Only event was very special as it was competing with past tournament champions, like the best of the best, and there were some big sickos on my table every day, like really famous names, people you see on interviews and TV’s, people with multi-million dollars in earnings and I am playing you know shoulder to shoulder sitting at their table and crushing that, so that was one really special. It was actually more rewarding and fulfilling to do well in that tournament more than it was to do well in any other tournament.
It feels pretty amazing to have final tabled the same event twice in three years. I had actually mentioned very recently in an interview with Gutshot that it was actually one of my most special moments of my poker career to have final tabled the WPT500 in 2016 because there were about 3,700 runners, and I made the final table with the chip lead and I was just starting out in tournament poker, I was just learning, and I made this deep spectacular run which was so special and so close to my heart to have had that achievement, I was on top of the world and to come back and defend the final table two years later and go all the way to heads up, I cannot even describe in words how special this entire experience has been.
Now coming to the event that we are obviously going to talk to you a lot more about – the Zynga Poker WPT 500 Las Vegas. 1000+ field and you final tabled the event two times in three years! Wow! Tell us about the key hands or situations that were relevant along the way until you reached heads-up.
I finished Day 1 with a very healthy stack. I was fourth in chips going into Day 2 from my flight. Day 2 I was off to a very rough start. I got into a few cooler spots and couple of annoying beats and maybe one or two mistakes here and there, and I saw myself bleed to about 20 big blinds by the middle of Day 2. But at this point, I was obviously, I mean I am never ready to give up, and I keep playing. I fight till I am down to my last one big blind. So it doesn’t matter, I believe that you just have to refresh, re-orient and just play your stack no matter what big blinds it is because that’s what it is.
So I kept my head down, and I kept fighting. There was this one hand where obviously I got very lucky to pick up aces against kings and so I doubled through the guy who had kings. My aces held. I doubled through this guy, and after that, there was no looking back. Then it was just like slowly chipping up and once I covered the table at a point like I was just chipping up winning a few hands here and there I reached a point where I was covering the entire table, and once that happens then I think I…one of my strengths that I really believe are how to put pressure on stacks…once I cover the table I know how to pressure the stacks, which spots to take, when to keep pounding away…when to take a backseat.
And so from there I just kept expanding, expanding and I kept expanding my table chip lead and I guess that’s how I managed to make it to the final table and on the final table I literally couldn’t have played a single hand better than I did…I was so zoned and focused, obviously, I was nervous, but I didn’t let my nervousness show for a single second, it did not reflect in my game at all. I broke down every hand after the tournament was over and I was very very happy with how I played…I discussed it with some of the top tournament pros, and they all said that ya they would have played exactly the same way, so it was great obviously and heartbreaking in the end but cannot complain I guess, after my biggest career score.
Losing ace-king to ace-queen heads-up for a WPT title, how brutal was that bad beat?! I mean we don’t want to remind you of that but what according to you would have changed if that had not happened, I mean you would have won a major WPT title had that queen not landed on the turn.
If there was one way to describe bittersweet it would be this exact moment -because to go heads up with the chip lead, I won a bunch of hands back to back, big hands, heads up, and so I was chipping away at my opponent, and then I ran ace-king into ace-queen and I 4-bet jam. I opened, he 3-bet and I 4-bet jammed, yes I 4-bet jammed, and he calls off with ace-queen, and the queen turns on the land for the trophy title and 50K US dollars, so that was a pretty pretty harsh blow to take. I kept saying that I will be alright in a few days, but at that moment I was just gutted and heartbroken, they keep telling you that you cannot get attached to the results in tournament poker as long as you did your best which I definitely did.
I think I went through each and every hand I played on the final table, and I couldn’t have done anything better, I think, I was so proud, because ICM is something I have learned like the nuances of ICM I have studied very recently and applied them perfectly so I am quite proud of how I played and that I could not have done anything better and not to get emotionally attached is what every poker pro tells you to do but it’s just so hard to take a blow like that at a crucial spot like that when you are like 71- 72% favorite to win everything, you know. And so I kept saying that I will feel better in a few days, but I did not end up feeling better for weeks till the Bracelet Winners event and that kind of put life back into me and so I was like okay fine.
So obviously now that the dust has settled on the summer I am very proud of my run in Vegas, and I hope that this is only the beginning and you know, and I’m just gonna finish this year strong now!
Moving along to the other deep run of the summer, the 50th Annual Bracelet Winners Only. You bagged the Day 1 chip lead and then fell out at 13th place. What happened?
So I go into Day 2 with a massive chip lead, I almost have double the amount of chips than the person in the second chip lead, and that’s such a huge advantage but I still fell out in 13th place, I mean the way my Day 2 went, this is one of the most brutal Day 2’s I have ever played, the way it went. I am really happy with the 13th place result – to be honest. I really fought there in the end because early on, this hand happens where I lost 40 BB from my stack, Jacks to ace-king and basically he rivered an ace or king – I don’t remember- basically I lost the flip in a 100 BB pot and then few orbits later there was this other hand I played where it was just such a funny spot that, I don’t know I think anyone would have played it in the same way I think, I mean most people would have, you have to play it like that.
So I ended up losing 60 BB from my stack, so I took that hit in a 140 BB pot, losing that once I took that hit, I think it was just a struggle after that, I was on the ropes and fighting and trying to keep my head above water throughout the rest of the tournament.
So running deep enough to finish 13th eventually is still a result that I’m proud of especially since I got my money in with kings and got into aces and there was nothing else I could have done, and I was so close to get on to the final table but it’s poker’s worst cooler to get into Kings vs. Aces and there was really nothing I could do, I managed to like keep grinding and keep a stack in front of me, but it’s the way it goes right, and especially considering that I’m playing with the best tournament players, some of the best tournament players that are out there with such huge accomplishments, they have multi-million dollars in earnings and such accomplished names such as Kristen Bicknell, Liv Boeree, Cord Garcia, Upeksha Di Silva, Steak Addict, and I played with all these people. You know it was such an amazing experience and am proud that I could hold my own, you know really give them a tough time, so I really enjoyed that, and I am just happy with how I played., getting with Kings vs. Aces you can’t do much, so that is how I fell out in 13th place.
But this is the hand that happened that really crippled me in the first place. I opened either low jack I think, either low jack or high jack, I opened ace-king off, the blinds are 2000/4000, I opened 8000, with ace-king off that’s my standard size, the guy in the cutoff calls, flag calls , now button jams 14 BB and cutoff has about 60 BB, I cover him by a huge margin, and so I open, cutoff with 60 BB flats, button jams 14 BB, I re-jam with ace-king off and the guy who was in the cutoff was an older man right, so he is I don’t know 80-plus, he had basically flatted pocket kings pre-flop, and so that was really surprising. So obviously he calls off, and I lose that 135 BB – 140 BB pot and so after that it was just a huge struggle to keep my nose above the water, but I gave them a good fight, and it was actually the longest bubble that I have ever played, or anyone has ever played. The stone bubble went for about 2 hours, we were playing hand-for-hand, and I kept hanging in there, when you are on a short stack on the bubble it’s like the worst thing because when they are such good players around you and they are gonna exploit the bubble a lot. But I kept fighting, I didn’t give up so finishing 13th was I think a decent enough result, I am very happy about it.
You are also the first and to-date only female bracelet winner of the country. Recalibrate for us your bracelet win. How has life changed for you since you won the WSOP bracelet?
Winning a bracelet is everything that you could imagine it to be, I feel on top of the world, amazing, exhilarating, I can’t imagine I just won a bracelet, male or female, I mean I might be the first female to win a bracelet, there are not many bracelets in India and this year Abhinav Iyer has got us one and made us proud and this is a first solo one, which is just amazing accomplishment which cannot be put into words but only be felt.
And…how is life changed for me? To be honest, life hasn’t changed at all, it has just motivated me to work harder towards my game and made me realize that you know it’s an amazing game we play for a living, and there’s so much you can do with it if you are really sincere and focused and put in sincere effort and study really hard. There’s always scope for improvement right, so it just motivated me to work harder and harder and become a better version of myself.
Talk to us more about your collaboration with Adda52 and how has that been going.
Adda52 has revolutionized the poker Industry in India, they were the first ones to recognize that there is an online space that they can tap into and really propagate the game of poker. They’ve been monumental in changing the perception of poker, and it has been amazing because you know a few years back if I would tell people I play poker it would be frowned upon, you know there was a lot of judgments surrounding the game.
But today if I tell people that I play poker, it is something cool, and people are so fascinated and they pretty much you know, I mean they look up to me now instead of judging me or frowning upon me, so I think Adda 52 has had a major role to play in changing the perception of poker in India and my collaboration with them has been exactly that.
Together, like, as a team pro, as a company we have been trying to legitimize the game of poker and show that it’s a game of skill, and you know we do everything transparently, we pay our taxes, representing Adda52 has been a huge privilege, especially because, of how particular they are, how transparent they are, how they take legality, and everything very seriously and how sincerely they are promoting the game as a mind skill, as a mind sport.
What excites Nikita more – playing or business, and why?
I have my days, you know sometimes it’s playing, you know, immediate adrenaline rush of beating people with your intellect and you know making correct decisions. In poker it’s like very immediate, the risk to reward, the return on investment the results, everything is very immediate. And business is more of a long term gratification where you work towards a certain goal when you achieve milestones, and there is fulfillment and sense of achievement in the long run.
So they’re two very different highs of life, and I enjoy both of them and in for different reasons, and I can’t really put my finger on which one is more inspiring because both of them are exciting in their own ways.
You are by far the most accomplished Indian female poker player. What message do you have for aspiring female players who look up to you as a role model?
Message for aspiring poker players is that poker is a gender-neutral game. One of the things that I really dislike is when people start categorizing me as a female poker player because I’m a poker player, period. There is no male or female as the game is gender-neutral, it doesn’t require an athletic build or physique, which differs for biological reasons appearances are different or whatever but that does not factor in the game of poker because the game is sheer brains and women really can have a lot more control over their egos, and you know over their discipline and we are as equipped mentally, emotionally to handle the challenges that come with this mind sport and so I don’t see any reason why it should be a male-dominated sport.
Go out there, learn the game but my number one advice to you is study study study study study study and learn from your mistakes. Do not stop studying and keep learning from your mistakes, keep applying the concepts that you have learnt, and obviously start really small and build up from there, do not spend outside of your bankroll ever and spend only as much as you would spend on entertainment on an evening out with friends, and you can really do it, but it requires commitment, it’s a full-time commitment, it’s not something you can casually learn and hope to excel in.