Aaron Benton and Ernst Hermans have played back at each other several times throughout the first level of play.
In a recent hand, Hermans opened with a raise to 100,000 from under-the-gun plus one and action folded around the table to Benton in the big blind who three-bet to 300,000. Hermans laid down his hand, but not without Benton stirring things up a little:
"Last hand I'm going to show (). I'm not going to make the mistake of not three-betting you again."
Moments ago, Leo Boxell was able to double up through American Thomas Slifka.
Slifka opened the pot with a raise to 75,000 from the cutoff and Wayne Carlson made the call on the button. Action then moved to Boxell who three-bet to 200,000. Slifka then reraised all in, Carlson folded and Boxell made the call for about 562,000 more, setting up a preflop all-in showdown:
Boxell:
Slifka:
The board filled out giving Boxell top set, cementing his double up.
After the hand, Slifka dropped to 820,000 while Boxell improved to 1.35 million.
Wayne Carlson limped under the gun and Ernst Hermans completed from the small blind. David Formosa checked in the big blind, bringing the three players to the flop of .
Hermans checked, Formosa checked and then Carlson bet 80,000. Both his opponents folded and Carlson moved to 1.2 million.
There has been a fair amount of limped pots here at this final table.
On the last hand before the last break, Tom Grigg and Ernst Hermans danced a little bit. Grigg raised to 50,000 from middle position and Hermans was the only caller, seated to Grigg's immediate left. Everyone else got up from the table and exited the stage area to go on break while these two players took a flop of .
Grigg took a couple of minutes before laying out a bet of 160,000. Hermans fired back with a raise to 520,000 and Grigg insta-folded.
Ernst Hermans - 2,950,000
Thomas Slifka - 1,477,000
Tom Grigg - 1,330,000
Aaron Benton - 1,300,000
Wayne Carlson - 1,160,000
Barry Forrester - 1,148,000
Andrew Hiscox - 832,000
David Formosa - 813,000
Leo Boxell - 702,000