Cherish Andrews wins US Poker Open Event #3, takes down second career PGT title

Cherish Andrews won her second-career PokerGO Tour title, winning Event #3 of the US Poker Open, defeating Adam Hendrix in heads-up play. After a heads-up ICM deal, Andrews took home $117,407 after topping the 115-entry field.

Hendrix took home slightly less, $115,468, having been the chip leader during the ICM deal. The two played for the trophy and roughly $9,000.

US Poker Open Event #3 final table results

For Andrews, this was just her second-ever win on the PokerGO Tour, having won the $10,300 Mystery Bounty at NAPT Las Vegas, where she took down $111,300 for the victory and $220,000 in bounties.

Andrews is now ranked tied with Patrick Leonard in 42nd on the PGT leaderboard with 245 points, having earned 216 points for the win.

Andrews was able to rise above a stacked final table that included the likes of Sam Laskowitz, Ethan “Rampage” Yau, and up-and-coming poker star Michael Berk.

Bad downswing over

After her US Poker Open triumph, she explained how she had been in a horrible run of form and nearly didn’t return to play. Fortunately, with the support of her friends and boyfriend, fellow poker pro Brock Wilson, she came back and binked it off for six figures.

“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 $5k,” Andrews told PokerNews. “I was like, ‘I’m retired. I’m not coming back.’

“It feels really good because poker’s hard. It is really hard to win. And having people like Brock and my friends and family in my corner, still rooting me on and knowing I can do it, it means a lot.”

With the win, Andrews has now taken over first place on the US Poker Open leaderboard. The festival will continue to run through April 22nd, with seven more events left to play. Waiting for the overall leaderboard winner is the famous US Poker Open Golden Eagle trophy and a $25,000 PGT Passport.

Andrews’ boyfriend, Brock Wilson, was the winner of Event #1, where he won $120,900 and his fifth career PGT title for topping the 93-entry field. He has also made the final table of the first $10,000 buy-in of the series in Event #4 and will be looking to grab a stranglehold on the leaderboard points. He’ll be up against Jeremy Ausmus, Sam Soverel, Kristen Foxen, and Michael Rossitto.

Clemen Deng emerged victorious in Event #2, breezing past the 98-entry field to win $127,400 and his fourth career PGT title.

Events #4 through #7 will all carry $10,000 buy-ins before Event #8 and #9 come with a $15,000 price tag. The crown jewel is, of course, the 10th and final event, which comes with a hefty $25,000 buy-in.

Moving up the charts

The two-time GPI Female Player of the Year enjoyed the ninth-largest cash of her career on Tuesday night, taking her career live tournament earnings to well over $4.4 million.

Andrews is now the seventh-highest earner all time amongst female poker players, having recently surpassed Annie Duke. However, she is still more than $10 million behind Kristen Foxen, who continues to pile on large scores as she crushes Triton Main Events.

Women’s all-time money list