Cherish Andrews Wins At U.S. Poker Open For Second Career PGT Title

Cherish Andrews has enjoyed considerable high roller success in recent years, with over $5 million in career live tournament earnings to her name. One item missing from her trophy case, however, was a PokerGO Tour trophy won inside the PokerGO Studio.

Andrews solved that particular issue in event no. 3 of the 2026 PGT U.S. Poker Open. She bested a field of 115 entrants in the $5,300 no-limit hold’em event, eventually defeating Adam Hendrix heads up to secure the golden eagle trophy. This was Andrews’ second career PGT title, adding to her 2025 NAPT Las Vegas $10,300 mystery bounty victory.

After a heads-up ICM deal with Hendrix, Andrews pocketed $117,407, the trophy, and 216 PGT points. That made her the early leader in the U.S. Poker Open player of the series race and improved her standing on the yearlong PGT leaderboard, where she now sits inside the top 50.

Andrews also earned 480 Card Player Player of the Year points. That increased her total for the year to 549 points, in the yearlong race presented by CoinPoker.

Strong Start For Andrews

With 115 players in the mix, 17 players finished in the money to earn a share of the $575,000 prize pool. The seven-handed final table was set late on day 1, and David Stamm went out in seventh before the bags came out. Sam Laskowitz carried the overnight chip lead, followed closely by Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau and Hendrix.

Andrews was in the middle of the pack when cards got in the air, and soon found a moment of good luck against a short-stacked Michael Berk.  Her A♣Q♥ was trailing A♥K♥ preflop, but she made a straight on the turn of a J♠10♠8♦K♦J♣ runout to end Berk’s run in sixth place ($28,750).

Andrews lost a few pots from there, but quickly recovered when she doubled through Yau with pocket kings against A♥J♦. She then claimed the rest of Yau’s chips when pocket tens flopped a full house to annihilate Yau’s pocket threes, eliminating Yau in fifth ($37,375). The bracelet winner and popular poker content creator now has nearly $4.6 million in career tournament cashes under his belt.

Closing Out The Win

Laskowitz couldn’t get much going at this final table, and he lost the last of his chips when his A♠Q♣ failed to connect and overcome Hendrix’s pocket nines. After putting Laskowitz out in fourth ($48,875), Hendrix busted a short-stacked Yifu He ($63,250), with Q♦10♥ against He’s J♠5♠. This was the second final-table finish of the series for He, who also placed fifth in event no. 2.

Hendrix started the heads-up showdown with a solid lead over Andrews. The final two soon agreed to an ICM deal, leaving $9,000 and the trophy to play for.

🏆 Only 2 remain from a field of 115 in Event 3 of the USPO at @PokerGO! @CherishAndrews and @AdamHendrix10 are battling it out heads-up for the title! @PokerGOTour pic.twitter.com/9pLjLko577

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) April 15, 2026

Andrews steamrolled the heads-up match, quickly climbing into the lead. The tournament concluded with Andrews’ pocket nines beating Hendrix’s pocket eights in a preflop cooler. Hendrix took home the $115,468 he negotiated for as the runner-up. The 2025 World Series of Poker main event sixth-place finisher now has nearly $10.9 million in lifetime scores.

With this win, Andrews joined Brock Wilson and Clemen Deng as early winners at the 2026 U.S. Poker Open. There’s a full week of action still to come from the PokerGO Studio, culminating in the $25,000 championship event that begins on April 21.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: PokerGO Tour.