so i've been mainly focusing on the story and my relationships with the villagers and kinda left strip lucky alone, however I'm at a point where it's important for the story to progress and i can't find anyone level 9 to take on, the next closest level is 10, where is the level 9 guy?

You can win against people above your level, have you tried playing against the level 10 person?

i did and while it was tough i did win, now I'm a little over lvl 30 and i feel like I'm running out of people to play against but i don't think i can take on the trio or the strip lucky tournament yet. Do i get more cards for playing against people more than once?

No, you can only win a card from someone once. But maybe there are people you haven’t encountered yet? I’m at level 48 and don’t think I was going out of my way for it.

i can believe that. I just got into the castle and haven't fixed the bakery yet.