Jianwei Lin Leads the Way Into Day 2 of EPT Malta
It’s time for reunification at the 2025 €5,300 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta Main Event. After the first two flights of the tournament, which drew a total of 852 entrants, 291 players have qualified for Day 2 at Casino Malta in St. Julian’s and are now looking to secure a place in the money.
The exact prize pool and payouts will be announced after the end of late registration at the restart, but making the money shouldn’t be a problem for Jianwei Lin (242,000) and Jason Wheeler (240,000), who both ended their respective flights as chip leaders.
Following in their footsteps, all of the provisional top 10 also bagged more than 200,000 chips, with players like Merijn van Rooij (223,000), Paawan Bansal (221,500), and Ehsan Amiri (201,000).
Day 1s Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jianwei Lin | China | 242,000 | 161 |
| 2 | Jason Wheeler | United States | 240,000 | 160 |
| 3 | Daniel Charlton | United Kingdom | 226,500 | 151 |
| 4 | Merijn van Rooij | Netherlands | 223,000 | 149 |
| 5 | Paawan Bansal | India | 221,500 | 148 |
| 6 | Richard Geyer | United States | 220,000 | 147 |
| 7 | Ferdinand Janssen | Netherlands | 217,500 | 145 |
| 8 | David Rosich | Andorra | 205,000 | 137 |
| 9 | Erik Eisen | Germany | 202,000 | 135 |
| 10 | Ehsan Amiri | Australia | 201,000 | 134 |
Among many others, Dominik Panka (183,500), Alexandre Reard (181,000), Tom Middleton (151,000), PokerStars Open runner-up Gerard Carbo (152,500), Ognyan Dimov (148,000), and Rania Nasreddine (104,000) all qualified with stacks above average.
The defending champion, Aliaksei Boika (72,000), is still in contention nine years after his success in Malta, while Anton Bergstrom and his 68,500-chip stack could become the first player to win three EPT titles.
This year’s EPT Barcelona champion, Thomas Eychenne, also found a bag at the end of Day 1b (54,500) despite bluffing into a royal flush on his first bullet. Finally, three PokerStars Ambassadors made it to Day 2: Kenny Hallaert (63,000), Julien Dupré (52,000), and Fintan Hand (30,000).
Play is set to resume at 12 p.m. local time with blinds of 1,000/1,500 and a 1,500 big blind ante. A minimum of five 90-minute levels should be played today (still to be confirmed), and late registration will close at the restart, so the prize pool and payouts should be announced shortly after, with the bubble expected to burst by the end of the day.
Stay tuned to PokerNews to follow the action as the €5,300 EPT Main Event continues in Malta.