With the World Series of Poker around the corner, two players looking to win bracelets in Las Vegas are Cherish Andrews and Brock Wilson. Each of them has won big already this year, crushing PokerGO events such as the U.S. Poker Open, where Cherish won one event and over $255,000 in winnings in April. Brock claimed not only the USPO series title but the PokerGO Cup too, winning two events on his way to the first of his back-to-back series wins in 2026.

The pair not only compete against each other felt but they support each other off it, so we spoke to one of poker’s most popular power couples to find out what makes them tick.

The Emotional Center

Playing against any player in high roller series is hard work but taking on the person you are sharing your life with away from the felt is something completely next level. We started by asking how both Brock and Cherish approach things.

“When we play each other, I think both of us feel a mixture of competitive spirit and empathy for the other,” says Cherish. “We obviously feel each other’s wins and losses and root the hardest for one another. Hands are always very interesting because we know each other’s game very well so there are definitely levelling wars if spots come up that we have discussed. It’s not totally clear who deals with it better, but we definitely have some of the more interesting dynamics given we are very aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

Every player who faces another across the poker felt has the opportunity to pick up poker tells. Knowing each other as deeply as they do gives physical tells an added layer.

“Cherish has picked up on my tells on and made me aware of them, which is very appreciated!” Brock laughs. “Cherish generally feels stronger at this aspect of the game and is very helpful.”

Every poker player has a different method for dealing with the aftermath of a tough tournament session or busting out of a major event. When you live together, however, those methods have to merge, and most importantly, match.

“This is always a balance! Brock is always ready to break down a hand and discuss it for a while,” says Cherish. “I enjoy this sometimes but not when we are trying to unwind and go to sleep!”

“We definitely discuss hands on breaks and dinner break but try when we go home to just be a normal couple and keep the conversations to more normal topics.” Brock agrees.

Upswings and Downswings

Recently, Brock has been on a big upswing and Cherish said in days prior to her USPO victory that she’d considered not playing the tournament. We wanted to know how hard it is on the couple if one of them is winning big and the other is being dealt a bad hand by variance.

“I think it always is nice to see one of us win since we feel the wins of one and another and it can give comfort,” says Cherish. “It is a bit sad when one is just out of the tournament right out of registration and the other playing super late, but we know poker has plenty of ups and downs and soon enough we’ll go deep together!”

“Yeah, we both try our best to be supportive and have felt all sorts of swings,” Brock says. “We know what to do to cheer the other up, so it’s nice to have that depth of understanding that is attainable when together with someone in the same industry.”

To some, the idea of having a partner who is at their level in the game is a dream; that person will understand strategy, emotional balance, and motivation naturally better than someone who has limited or no knowledge of poker’s unique challenges. So is Brock and Cherish’s shared profession an edge, or does it add pressure?

“It definitely is a huge advantage to being with another winning professional,” says Brock. “Poker is a hard game and being with someone who constantly loses and sort of just doesn’t have ‘it’ can be tough since we both love it and want to play a lot.”

Cherish agrees, and says it is one of the couple’s great benefits to be able to share in each other’s joy of playing poker for a living.

“It’s nice, whether when one of us is winning or one of us is losing but if one of us was slowly going broke, that would be difficult as telling a loved one they aren’t good enough would be very hard. Luckily we don’t have that issue.”

Risk and Reward

When anyone approaches poker as a profession, they must learn how to juggle a bankroll. As a player flying solo, this means splitting your money into a ‘life roll’ and the money you set aside to play poker with. As a couple, this can be more complicated, but as the pair explain, they again have an advantage in this area.

“Brock comes from a finance background so he’s pretty helpful to me on ways to balance our life roll and bankroll,” Cherish tells us. “These are definitely separate as you reach a certain age in life – you can’t exactly go broke like you could when you are 20.”

“It is definitely nice to be able to have the same hotel room when traveling obviously,” says Brock. “We therefore get two ROIs in the tournament for a given hotel cost.”

“Brock has been a full-time player for longer, so is more used to balancing the ups and downs and adjustments that need to be made to bankroll when appropriate.”

Poker is a game of judgement and risk and the rewards that come with that are both many and varied. Judging those risks as a couple is something that both Brock and Cherish work hard at.

“Brock has more experience as a professional given a few years extra playing full time, so he is more used to risk.” Says Cherish.

“I definitely balance a few different things, backing a few people and buying more pieces, so I guess I feel more comfortable swinging big – it is generally diversified and can help to have other pieces if I’m currently bricking tournaments myself,” Brock says. “It is rough, though, when everyone is losing. You’ve got to think long-term and assess each piece independently with an open mind and hope for the best.”

The Lessons of Poker and Love

In poker, taking a break can sometimes be the wisest move to make. It can help even the best of players, who regularly detach themselves from the game in order to come back stronger. It is naturally harder to do that if you’re one half of a poker couple who might be witnessing the other cleaning up at the felt when you want to step back.

“As things have gone, we tend to travel a bit less,” Cherish says. “We play a lot in Vegas, typically always go to Florida, and going to Barcelona in the summer with the occasional California trip or Borgata trip when we’re on the east coast, but it seems it wouldn’t affect things too much.”

“We have so many similarities and bond over a lot of different things, so outside of just sometimes being in different locations, it wouldn’t hurt us that much,” says Brock. “We are both very supportive of each other to follow different passions so it would be a change, but nothing we couldn’t adapt to.”

Life is full of lessons and poker can often reflect life in that sense. Certainly, both Cherish and Brock have learned about each other as they have travelled the world playing the game they love.

“Poker has taught us that there are ups and downs but it’s about how you deal with them,” says Cherish. The edge in poker comes from dealing with the beat better than someone else and not tilting off the rest of your stack. Edges come from this as everyone is going to endure big hits to one’s stack and you must persevere.”

“Exactly. The same exists in relationships as fights or disagreements happen but realizing that and coming up with healthy ways to deal with conflict and hear the other out on issues, is really important for the long-term health of the relationship,” Brock says. “If you say things you can’t take back, or don’t act empathetically in disagreements, these are not productive ways to have the strongest relationship we can.”

Pride in Each Other

Both Cherish and Brock have enjoyed victories at the live felt that the other has been there to celebrate with them, and it is these moments which bring the pair together, making memories in poker to treasure.

“The biggest source of pride I felt was in late 2022 when Cherish went back-to-back at the Wynn where she had a real breakout series of scores at once,” Brock tells us. “Cherish got sixth in this big field $3,000 for a nice $80,000 score where she suffered a few beats after having the chip lead, but then came back and got second in one of her first high rollers in a $10k for $259,000. And to top it all off, she played the final 1k a day later and beat out almost a thousand players to win it for $131k. It was awesome to see the perseverance and watch and see the dominance early in our relationship and really see her talent on display.”

For Cherish, Brock’s talent at the felt is something she loves but sees another side of him that she tells us is something she adores.

“The biggest source of pride for me has been watching Brock go on such a tear this year and going back-to-back at the PGT series,” Cherish reveals. “He also sits atop the leaderboard. Though I am most proud of him for stuff outside of work, watching him evolve over the years and truly just being such a great partner in life and seeing how he is with my niece and nephews, knowing if we choose to have children one day he’s going to be such a great dad.”

Whatever fortune the coming years bestow upon Brock Wilson and Cherish Andrews, the pair have navigated their way so far together with a shared spirit of adventure, support and love. At the poker felt and away from it, that may be the biggest edge any of us can have.

Photographs by PokerGO Tour’s Antonio Abrego and Hard Rock Seminole.