Even more top name stars took the field for Day 1b of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Dublin event, as 132 players joined the 91 from Day 1a. Among the big names on Day 1b were Surinder Sunar, Ram Vaswani, 2007 EPT Baden winner Julian Thew, 2006 EPT Dublin winner Roland De Wolfe, and WSOP Europe Main Event winner Annette ‘Annette_15' Obrestad. The field was full of local Irish flavor as well, with soccer star Tony Cascarino, 2007 Irish Open champ Marty Smyth, Liam ‘The Gentleman' Flood and Roy ‘The Boy' Brindley.
Top names went to the rail early and often, as was evidenced by Ram Vaswani's early departure. Vaswani made a move at the pot on the turn, going all-in over the top of Florian Langmann's bet on a board of 
. Langmann called with pocket Aces, and Vaswani's 
was drawing thin. No 5 on the river, and Vaswani was busted in the first level of play. Roland De Wolfe soon joined Vaswani at the cash tables when he hit top two pair on a board of 
-x, but his opponent called his all in with 
for an open-ended straight flush draw. The 
on the turn sent the defending champ home on Day 1b.
Other notable players to bust on Day 1b were Thomas Wahlroos, Age Spets, John Magill and Marty Smyth. Anthony Lellouche picked up the chip lead early, but busted before the end of the day when his flopped straight was run down by an opponent with top pair and a flush draw that turned into a runner-runner full house.
Liam ‘The Gentleman' Flood maneuvered his short stack through the perilous waters all day, until he managed to pick up pocket Aces and double through Raul Mestre. Very late in the day, Flood tangled with Roy ‘The Boy' Brindley in a big hand where Brindley check-raised flood on a 9-high flop that held two clubs. Flood thought for a moment and pushed all in over the top of Brindley's check-raise. Brindley had already committed himself, and made the call with 
for the flush draw. Flood tabled 
, and his pocket Jacks held up to send Brindley to the rail.
In her first major live action since winning the WSOP Europe Main Event, Annette Obrestad was relatively quiet for most of the day. On her one notable hand late in the day, she was in the big blind holding 6-7 when the button limped in, the small blind completed and Obrestad checked. The flop came down 6-7-J and both blinds checked. The button led out, the small blind folded, and Obrestad raised. The button re-raised, Obrestad called off her last few chips with bottom two pair, and her opponent turned over pocket Aces. Obrestad's two pair held up, and her opponent was appropriately punished for limping with Aces.
At the end of Day 1b, roughly 75 players remained to join the Day 1a survivors on Thursday. Among the big names still alive were Katja Thater, Juha Helppi , Luca Pagano and Thor Hansen. The top 10 chip stacks at the end of Day 1b looked like this -
Ludovic Lacay - 83,800
Simon Munoz - 52,700
Philip Hardy - 49,100
Surinder Sunar - 47,000
Barry McGrath - 46,250
Guillaume de la Gorce - 41,650
Arshad Hussain - 40,675
Thor Hansen - 37,500
Ziad Kaady - 36,975
Paddy McCloskey - 36,450