Dan Hendrickson Wins Mid-States Poker Tour Canterbury Park ($106,182)!
It had to be more satisfying than even one of the Buster Bars sold at one of his Dairy Queen locations. "DQ" Dan Hendrickson, a regular and a "huge supporter" of the Mid-States Poker Tour, according to founder Bryan Mileski, took down the MSPT Canterbury Park Main Event for $106,182, by far the biggest win on his tournament résumé. Hendrickson defeated a field of 430 runners.
The tournament was one of the lengthier affairs in recent memory, stretching over nearly 17 hours on Day 2, testing both the skills and the stamina of the participants.
Seventy-eight players hit the felt on Day 2, and Hendrickson found himself at risk and nearly out the door shortly after the money bubble burst. During Level 22 (8,000/16,000/2,000), Hendrickson got his last 233,000 in preflop against Todd "sharkslayerr" Breyfogle with the 
against the 
. Breyfogle saw a safe enough flop, 
, but the dreaded 
turn gave Hendrickson plenty of outs, and the 
river was one of them.
On the way to the money, notables such as Day 2 chip leader Ryan Tyler, Lance Harris, MSPT team pros Nick Pupillo and Matt Kirby, Ken Pates, and Kou Vang went bust. Players who managed to find their way to the money and grab payouts before their tournaments ended included Judd Greenagel (44th), Aaron Johnson (37th), Josh Reichard (32nd), David Gutfreund (29th), Mike Schneider (21st), Scott Sitron (17th), and Minnesota business magnate and World Series of Poker Big One for One Drop participant John Morgan (11th).
With a long two-table grind that saw short stacks hanging on for dear life and players hesitant to put stacks at risk, most of the players were relatively short when the final table began. Hendrickson had just 590,000 at 25,000/50,000/5,000, but that put him in seventh place, with only chip leader Adam Dahlin (2.035 million) over the 30-big blind mark.
Loki Abboud hit the road first in 10th when Gary Loeffler outdrew his 
with the 
, and Norberto Santamaria wasn't far behind as he shoved with the 
and ran into Dahlin's 
. Shane Nelson lost a flip to Steve Webb to go out eighth, and the time was ripe for Dahlin to push his chip advantage with so many players hovering short. He was able to build up to about 3.5 million, about 40 percent of the chips in play with seven left.
Hendrickson, who had a rough seat draw with Dahlin on his left, picked his spots to shove and reshove preflop to keep afloat until his first big break happened when he picked up aces to bust Loeffler, who jammed with threes. Dahlin then sent a short-stacked DJ Buckley packing, leading to a seemingly interminable five-handed stalemate. The shorter stack survived an amazing seven preflop all ins, including Hendrickson getting lucky with the 
against Dahlin's 
and then against Ryan Hartmann's 
. Finally, a three-outer courtesy of Dahlin sent Breyfogle packing in fifth.
At this point, nobody's stack was safe against the massive blinds and antes, and Steve Webb busted fourth before Dahlin shoved over a button open from Hendrickson with the 
. "DQ" had the goods with the 
, though, and he held on to send the long-time chip leader out third.
With stacks so short, the heads-up battle didn't last long, as Hendrickson raised the button to 600,000 at Level 33 (100,000/200,000/30,000) and then decided to gamble when Hartmann jammed for about 3.6 million. Hendrickson's 
flopped a queen against a disappointed Hartmann, who had the 
.
With that, it's all over from Canterbury Park. The MSPT will be in action for another main event on May 14 in Battle Creek, Michigan, and you can follow more live coverage here on PokerNews.