Winner of the last EPT Barcelona, Thomas Eychenne opened to 300 from under the gun. Marius-Catalin Pertea in the small blind three-bet to 1,200 and was called by Giulio Astarita in the small blind. Eychenne eventually made the call as well.
The dealer fanned a flop of 6♦9♣A♠ and Pertea continued for 800. Astarita called, but Eychenne raised to 3,000. Both Pertea and Astarita quickly folded.
With a raise to 300 ahead of him from the player on the button, Rodrigo Cristobal made the call from the small blind.
Action checked through on the J♥5♣5♦ flop, prompting Cristobal to seize the initiative on the 6♦ turn with a bet of 400. This was enough to shake his opponent out of the pot, giving Cristobal an early win.
On a neighbouring table, a similar situation occurred involving Mathew Frankland.
The high-stakes regular raised to 300 on the button, which both the small and big blind called.
A continuation bet of 500 on the 5♦3♥Q♣ was enough to see Frankland take it down.
After an early open, Manel Montalban in middle position raised to 800, but Arturo Fernandez Barge in the big blind raised the bid again to 1,800.
Montalban called and checked back the flop of A♦4♦8♠. Both players checked again the Q♣ turn leading to the 8♣ river that Fernandez Barge checked for the third time. Montalban then bet 2,600 and quickly made Fernandez Barge fold.
After Georgios Vrakas had opened as first to act, Sharon Sade made it 1,100 to go in the hijack. It folded back to Vrakas, who obliged with a call.
Sade continued with a bet of 1,300 on the 5♠4♥9♠ flop, but he quickly folded once Vrakas check-raised to 3,500.
The early birds have taken their seats as Day 1b of the EPT Malta Main Event is underway.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/100
Ante: 100
With Day 1a done and dusted, the second starting day of the 2025 PokerStars European Poker Tour Malta €5,300 Main Event is set to begin today at noon local time. As with every EPT Main Event, Day 1b will be the final of the opening flights, although late registration will remain open until the start of Day 2. Only two entries per player are allowed across all days, so players who have fired twice already on Day 1a will not be allowed to enter on Day 1b.
On day 1a, China's Jianwei Lin needed to buy in only once at Casino Malta to capture the chip lead over the 102 survivors with a stack of 242,000, just over eight starting stacks. Lin has already made the final table of an EPT Main Event in Barcelona last year, and has stellarly kicked off his journey for a second one.
The rest of the stacked top ten of the 319-entry strong first starting flight includes EPT regulars Grzegorz Kozieja, Alexandre Reard, Cesar Garcia, who has booked his third top ten finish in an EPT starting flight for the year, Luka Sorainen, and Ilija Savevski, and is rounded out by high-stakes phenom [Removed:607].
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jianwei Lin | China | 242,000 | 161 |
| 2 | Erik Eisen | Germany | 202,000 | 135 |
| 3 | Jiaming Zhao | China | 194,500 | 130 |
| 4 | Grzegorz Kozieja | Poland | 186,000 | 124 |
| 5 | Alexandre Reard | France | 181,000 | 121 |
| 6 | Cesar Garcia | Spain | 176,500 | 118 |
| 7 | Hugues Mazerolle | France | 172,000 | 115 |
| 8 | Luka Sorainen | Finland | 163,000 | 109 |
| 9 | Ilija Savevski | North Macedonia | 159,000 | 106 |
| 10 | [Removed:607] | Austria | 156,000 | 104 |
Defending champion Aliaksei Boika will not make an appearance on Day 1b, having bagged 72,000 on Day 1a, with fellow EPT champions Ognyan Dimov (148,000), Dimitar Danchev (128,500), Adrian Mateos (67,500), and Pedro Marques (36,000) making it through as well. Meanwhile, Julien Dupre was the only PokerStars Ambassador to survive the first starting flight, doing so with 52,000.
Day 1b will follow the same structure as Day 1a, starting with 30,000 chips and blinds at 100/100 with a 100 big blind ante, and playing ten 60-minute levels before the bagging process begins. Small breaks of 20 minutes are scheduled after every two levels, with a 75-minute dinner break set for after Level 6, around 6:40 p.m. local time.
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | BB Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 min | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 2 | 60 min | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 20 min break | ||||
| 3 | 60 min | 100 | 300 | 300 |
| 4 | 60 min | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 20 min break | ||||
| 5 | 60 min | 200 | 500 | 500 |
| 6 | 60 min | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 75 min dinner break | ||||
| 7 | 60 min | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 8 | 60 min | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 20 min break | ||||
| 9 | 60 min | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 10 | 60 min | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
Day 1b of the EPT Main Events has historically outpaced the numbers of Day 1a, so a packed house is expected today. Be sure to stick around on this page as the PokerNews team will provide live updates throughout the second starting flight.
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