Cherish Andrews Ends “Downswing” With U.S. Poker Open Win

A total of 115 entries flooded the PokerGO Studio at ARIA on the Las Vegas Strip on Monday and Tuesday as Event #3 of the 2026 U.S. Poker Open continued in Sin City. The third event of the series saw Cherish Andrews win her first title of 2026 as she outlasted stars such as the content creator Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau and her heads-up opponent, the 2025 WSOP Main Event finalist Adam Hendrix.

* after a heads-up deal.

The Poker Prophecy

On Sunday, Brock Wilson was celebrating his own victory in the opening event of the 2026 U.S. Poker Open (USPO). In doing so, he praised his girlfriend Cherish Andrews, saying that his fellow elite poker pro would soon be joining him in the winner’s circle. He wasn’t wrong, with just a single event between his declaration that Andrews would win big too and it coming to pass.

Andrews did all the hard work at the felt, of course. In doing so, she won her first major title of 2026 in the U.S. Poker Open Event #3 for $117,407. Only 17 players of the 115 total entries made profit in the $5,000-entry event, as ‘Bubble Boy’ Jesse Kertland busted in 18^th place when his king-queen was no good against Michael Berk’s ace-queen. That bust-out led to plenty of players getting their money in the middle, with Andrew Lichtenberger (15^th for $11,500), Alex Foxen (14^th for $11,500) and Dylan Linde (10^th for $17,250) all cashing but falling short of the seven-handed final table.

The chip leader at that stage was Yifu He with 4.6 million chips, but the eventual winer Cherish Andrews got off to the perfect start, eliminating David Stamm in seventh place for $23,000 when her ace-queen bettered his ace-five to reduce the field to six players and send players to their beds for their last sleep before the last day of the event would play down to a winner.

The Deal Decides It

With half a dozen players coming back to the purple felt, the final day began as it ended, with Andrews taking out a player. All-in with ace-king, Michael Berk was very unlucky as he lost to Andrews’ ace-queen, which turned a Broadway straight to reduce the field to five and send Berk to the rail with $28,750 in sixth place.

Next to go was the Global Poker Award content creation winner Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau. The vlogger won $37,375 when his pocket threes were no good against the pocket tens of Cherish Andrews, a flop of Q-Q-T giving the eventual winner a full house. Sam Laskowitz departed in fourth place for $48,875 after losing a coinflip with ace-queen to Adam Hendrix’s pocket nines Yifu He busted soon after losing with two pair against the made straight of Andrews for a result worth $63,250.

Heads-up, Hendrix was close to 2:1 up and a deal was discussed between the last two remaining players, with Hendrix winning $115,468 and Andrews taking home $108,407, leaving just $9,000 and the USPO trophy to play on to win.

“What will you spend the extra money on?” asked Hendrix as Andrews started to get herself back in the match by winning some pots without the cards going to showdown.

“Pay my taxes?” Andrews quipped back.

The Latest U.S. Poker Open Champion

“I actually told my friends over the weekend I wasn’t coming to play.”

Cherish Andrews ground herself into the lead and before Hendrix moved all-in with pocket eights. Andrews called it off with pocket nines and held through the board to take win a top prize worth an amended $117,407. She was delighted with the win and paid tribute to her support team after the final card hit the deck.

“Having people like Brock and my friends and family in my corner still rooting me on and knowing I can do it means a lot,” she said. “I’ve been on a really big, sad downswing to where I actually told my friends over the weekend I wasn’t coming to play the last $5,000 [event]. I was like ‘I’m retired. I’m not coming back.’”

Winning the event, Andrews has now overtaken Event #2 winner Clemen Deng (208 points), Brock Wilson (181), Peter Mugar (155) and Yifu He (146) at the top of the USPO leaderboard on 242 points in the race to win the bonus $25,000 PGT Passport and U.S. Poker Open Golden Eagle trophy. She’s also improved her lot in the overall end-of-year series standings, although she has some way to go to catch both the leader Yuri Dzivielevski and her own partner Brock Wilson, both of whom sit in the current top 10 and in pole position to make the top 40 and play in the $1m PGT Championship Freeroll on PokerGO at the end of the PGT 2026 season.