Andrew VanBlair Wins Mid-States Poker Tour For $89k

Andrew VanBlair has won the Mid-States Poker Tour Tama, after besting a field of 348 players over three days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the $88,958 first place prize.
The $1,000 buy-in tournament took place at the Meskwaki Casino Hotel in Iowa and attracted a good sized field just one player short of the largest ever recorded in Meskwaki history during Season 3. Amongst the notables cashing in at this year’s event was Peixin Liu in 34th ($1,678) and Larry Ormson in 15th ($4,700).
By the time the final table of nine had been set, Andrew Vanblair was second in chips only to Kansas construction operator Shane Fuller, and as the table played down to its final few players it would be theses two big stacks who would eventually meet heads-up to decide the event.
Despite the tournament being the longest in MSPT history, the heads-up affair was an all together much shorter affair with Vanblair able to overcome his initial 3-to-1 chip disadvantage to beat his opponent in just 10 hands. The deciding hand was then played at 2:30 a.m. local time, when Vanblair  three-bet shoved with A-4 over the top of Fuller’s A-9. Unfortunately for the Kansas man the board subsequently rolled out K-Q-4-5-5 to relegate him to a runner-up finish worth $48,672, while Andrew Vanblair was crowned the 2013 Mid-States Poker Tour Tama champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Andrew Vanblair  $88,958
2 Shane Fuller       $48,672
3 Derek Dempster   $32,224
4 Sam De Silva       $21,819
5 Nathan Russler   16,784
6 Everett Carlton  $13,427
7 Brett Schwertley $11,749
8 Derek Crooks       $10,070
9 Shaun Decker       $8,392