Event #9 of the Midwest Poker Classic at Running Aces featured six return final tablists (Rob Wazwaz, Robert Vansyckle, Wayne Martinson, James Dlugosch, Jeff Taylor and 3 Putts) and two previous winners (Wazwaz, Dlugosch).

Vansyckle outlasted them all to take home the $5,475 first place prize. Combined with his seventh place finish in event #1 ($300 NLHE) Vansyckle has won nearly $7,000 at the MPC.

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In by far the smallest No Limit Hold’em field of the 2009 Midwest Poker Classic, Dennis Petronack from Stillwater, MN took home the $3,495 first place prize, adding to a resume that already includes cashes in a WSOP Circuit event, two EPT events, and the Aussie Millions.

Steve Mohs made his second final table of the series, but eventually stalled out in 5th.

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Tucker Hummel of New Hope, MN turned a short stack into $5,560 in event #7 of the Midwest Poker Classic on Monday night — no small task against possibly the most star-studded field of the series so far.

Among the decorated players were Pete Bigelow, who has final tabled Heartland Poker Tour, Fall Poker Classic, Twin Cities Poker Open, WSOP Circuit, and WPT preliminary events; Ernie Lessard, who has final tabled at Fall Poker Classic and Heartland events, and Everett Carlton, who is most known for reaching the final table of event #14 of the 2006 World Series of Poker.

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Full Results:

Sorry for the lack of posting but I’ve been a little busy lately since PokerStars’ annual World Championship on Online Poker finished up on Monday night (any big Minnesotans with wins/deep runs please let me know) with Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko taking down the Main Event for over a million. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier locked up a couple of WCOOP bracelets for himself adding to his sick run for the past two years with an WPT title and a deep run in the WSOP Main Event this past summer.

Myself? I played in zero events because being the responsible oldest child, I focused on working and covering four events in the last week and did a little live blogging on the Main Event. A lot can be learned by watching these events in the latter stages and thanks to reporting for the last year I’ve been able to take away a lot of knowledge on the end game of a tourney. This should be why you enter the tourney in the first place is to get to the final table with a medium to big stack so that top three big money finish is not only feasible it’s expected.

Last week during my normal Friday slew of tourneys and me sitting with a rare night off of reporting I decided to pull up a bunch of low limit MTTs mostly PLO, O8, and while searching the PokerStars lobby, Badugi. If you’ve never played a mixed game in Vegas/AC, dropped by the Bellagio, or checked out the game online you might not know what this stud-variant is. The basics are this: you are dealt four cards face down; the best hand is A-2-3-4 of all four suits. Badugi is the same as playing Ace to Five lowball except the suits are the important part, a hand with no pairs and all four suits represented is called a “Badugi” and beats any hand that does not have all four suited. There are three chances to draw one, two, three or all four (GAMBOOOOOOOOOOOOL!) cards and betting occurs before each draw. Normally this is a limit game as played in the casinos but online you’ll find a chance to play pot limit, or if you don’t like money no limit.

The crowds are small for Badugi so getting down the basics of bluffing and just being able to read your hand put you way ahead of the curve. I managed to take down the 48 player “MTT” for an amount that most will use while grabbing a few drinks on a Friday night, but the focus on learning the game was more important than winning the happy meal money. Check it out next time you’re finding yourself bored online or in Vegas wondering how $2K got into the middle in a 30/60 game with no board cards and people holding four in their hands.

Rob Wazwaz of Brooklyn Park, MN did plenty of talking in event #3 at the Midwest Poker Classic on Friday night, but in the end it was his poker game and chip stack that had the last word.

Wazwaz held on to a large chip stack as the final table progressed, even in the midst of watching short-stacks linger for what seemed like an eternity. He relinquished his lead heads-up to Jeff Taylor of Mounds View, MN, but eventually persevered to take home the $7,100 first place prize.

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Final Results: