The colorful Tom-Askel Bedell has found a spot at the top of the EPT Malta Main Event counts at the end of Day 3, leading a pack of tour regulars and the defending champ in a chase for the €760,000 top prize.
The fashion-forward Norwegian has navigated a field of 898 entries to lead the final group of 36, all of whom will spend the next two days trying to claim a spot at Sunday's final table. Close behind in second is Aliaksai Boika, who won this event the last time it was held in 2016. Adrian Mateos, who won the 2015 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event to kick start his hall of fame career, finishes out out the top ten.
Boika, who is technically the defending champion, won the Main Event when the EPT last stopped in Malta nine years ago. He's the closest player to Bedell at the top of the chip counts and Roman Stoica is the only other player lurking closeby. Jiaming Zhao and Juan Pardo round out the top five.
2025 EPT Malta Main Event top ten chip counts
- Day 4 starting blinds: 6K/12K/12K
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | 3,718,000 |
| 2 | Aliaksei Boika | 1,987,000 |
| 3 | Roman Stoica | 1,734,000 |
| 4 | Jiaming Zhao | 1,279,000 |
| 5 | Juan Pardo | 1,256,000 |
| 6 | Maxime Chilaud | 1,168,000 |
| 7 | Luis Faria | 1,150,000 |
| 8 | Joao Tomas | 1,057,000 |
| 9 | Tom Vogelsang | 1,051,000 |
| 10 | Adrian Mateos | 1,038,000 |
Pardo, Vogelsang chase more gold
Pardo is already on the board at EPT Malta with a win in the €10K Mystery Bounty at the beginning of the trip. He previously has a seven-figure victory in 2025 with a third-place finish in a Super High Roller at Triton Jeju, and he picked up a final table at EPT Monte Carlo. A win would be his first in an EPT Main Event and his eighth overall on tour.
Further down the top ten is Tom Vogelsang, another player with a PokerStars Spade trophy under his belt on the 2025 Malta trip. Vogelsang won a €20K buy-in for €219K for his fifth six-figure win of 2025. A few other names stick out down the list, like Jans Arends in 17th and Ben Heath right behind him in 18th. Ognyan Dimov was the other EPT Main Event champion hanging around deep into Day 3, but his elimination in 37th place wrapped up the session's play.
Everyone has locked up €16,800 and the lion's share for first is €760K. The plan will repeat for Friday's Day 4 at 12 pm Malta time with four 90-minute levels planned to set up a field for Day 5. The penultimate day will play down to a final table for broadcast on Sunday.
Images courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Eloy Cabacas/PokerStars.
