€1,650 PokerStars Open Day 2 | 2025 PokerStars EPT Malta

After a hiatus of nine years, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Malta is back on the calendar. Hosted at Casino Malta, the most prestigious poker tour on European soil is already well underway on the Mediterranean island, as the opening flights of the $1,650 PokerStars Open have been completed and Day 2 of the event is set to kick off at 11 a.m. local time.

Across the eight starting days, a total of 1,845 players entered. With 15 percent of each flight making it to the money, Day 2 will see 277 players return to the tables, all hopeful for a big slice of the €2,656,800 prize pool.

Leading the field is Jacob Mulhern from the United Kingdom, who amassed 892,000 on Day 1c to grab the overall chip lead. Being the only player to return with a stack over 200 big blinds deep, Mulhern will be looking to improve on his fourth-place finish at UKIPT Blackpool in 2023, the only PokerStars Live final table on his resume. Moldova's Tudor Zapsa is Mulhern's nearest contender with a stack of 712,000, while 2013 WCOOP Main Event champion and 2024 EPT Paris runner-up David Kaufmann is aiming for more PokerStars success as he completes the podium with 644,000 in chips.

Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Jacob Mulhern	United Kingdom	892,000	223
2	Tudor Zapsa	Moldova, Republic of	712,000	178
3	David Kaufmann	Germany	644,000	161
4	Hugo De La Fouchardiere	France	644,000	161
5	Carlo Wolters	Netherlands	632,000	158
6	Modar Alsoud	Germany	628,000	157
7	Nuno Ferro	Portugal	600,000	150
8	Thomas Muehloecker	Austria	584,000	146
9	Leo Worthington-Leese	United Kingdom	553,000	138
10	Mike Alonso	France	547,000	137

Plenty of PokerStars Ambassadors took a shot at glory as well, with Kenny Hallaert (233,000), Benjamin Bruneteaux (221,000), Julien Dupre (160,000), Sebastian Huber (148,000), Fintan Hand (138,000), and Julien Brecard (113,000) all making it through to Day 2.

Day 2 picks up with five minutes remaining in Level 15, which has blinds of 2,000/4,000 and a 4,000 big blind ante. Blinds then increase to 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante, from which point all levels will be 60 minutes long. Day 2 is already in the money, and the official payouts and plan for the day are expected to be announced shortly after the start of play.

Stay tuned as PokerNews provides live updates of the PokerStars Open during EPT Malta's exciting return.

Tags: Benjamin Bruneteaux Carlo Wolters David Kaufmann Fintan Hand Jacob Mulhern Julien Brecard Julien Dupre Kenny Hallaert Leo Worthington-Leese Mike Alonso Nuno Ferro Sebastian Huber Thomas Muehloecker Tudor Zapsa

Player	Chips	Progress
Jacob Mulhern	892,000 892,000	892,000

Tudor Zapsa	712,000 712,000	712,000

David Kaufmann	644,000 644,000	644,000
Hugo De La Fouchardiere	644,000 644,000	644,000

Carlo Wolters	632,000 632,000	632,000
Modar Alsoud	628,000 628,000	628,000
Nuno Ferro	600,000 600,000	600,000
Thomas Muehloecker	584,000 584,000	584,000
Leo Worthington-Leese	553,000 553,000	553,000
Mike Alonso	547,000 547,000	547,000
Gustaf Soderholm	526,000 526,000	526,000
Antonio Alba	519,000 519,000	519,000
David Ballestero Alvarez	514,000 514,000	514,000
Nikolaos Mouroutis	473,000 473,000	473,000
Leonardo Romeo	470,000 470,000	470,000
Dylan Cechowski	457,000 457,000	457,000

Jamie Dwan	453,000 453,000	453,000
Fabian Bernhauser	450,000 450,000	450,000

Gergely Bartos	432,000 432,000	432,000
Rui Bouquet	426,000 426,000	426,000
Gazmend Zela	418,000 418,000	418,000
Marius Pertea	418,000 418,000	418,000
Ferdinand Janssen	411,500 411,500	411,500
Theodoros Ampelikiotis	411,000 411,000	411,000
Gerard Carbo	396,000 396,000	396,000

Player

Chips

Progress