Poker Pro Antonio ''The Magician'' Esfandiari Joins World Poker Tour(R) as the Face of the WPT Poker-Made Millionaire(TM)

World Poker Tour® (WPT) today announced that professional poker player and WPT Champion Antonio "The Magician” Esfandiari will join the company as the face of the WPT Poker-Made Millionaire™, an elite group of 84 players and growing who have won at least $1 million playing on the World Poker Tour. At the age of 25 years old, Esfandiari was the sixth player to achieve WPT Poker-Made Millionaire™ status, winning $1.4 million in the Season II Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC)—a feat that also made him the youngest million Dollar prize winner in poker history at the time. Two days after his win at the LAPC, Esfandiari again made history with back-to-back final table appearances, placing sixth at the WPT Celebrity Invitational. In addition to his skill and charisma at the tables, Esfandiari’s incredible journey to becoming a poker-made millionaire and living the poker dream made him the perfect figure to represent the WPT Poker-Made Millionaire lifestyle. In this role, Esfandiari will leverage his experience to provide poker tips, tools and tricks for fans and players while delivering updates and information from tournament stops via WPT Live Updates, web videos and online blogs. Esfandiari will also be the spokesperson for CLUBWPT, WPT’s subscription poker platform for the US, and www.worldpokertour.com, WPT’s real-money online gaming offering for the international market. He will also represent WPT in tournaments and events across the world, including the upcoming WPT tournament at Casino Barcelona in May, which is the first of many regional events WPT will implement in various markets worldwide. "Antonio embodies the excitement that has become the WPT journey,” said WPT Founder, President and CEO, Steve Lipscomb. "This is the only sport in the history of televised sports that allows you to watch it, dream it and be it. Now WPT fans and poker enthusiasts can take the journey with Antonio as he leads the way for the next WPT Poker-Made Millionaire.” Esfandiari’s poker story began at 19 years old, when he began a career as a professional magician while waiting tables in his hometown of San Jose, Calif. Along the way, he found himself performing in local casinos and poker events—including the press conference that launched WPT—where he discovered a passion for poker and learned the game with the help of friend and experienced poker pro, Phil Laak. After a few major cashes and a third place win at a WPT event to bolster his confidence and his bankroll, Esfandiari entered the LAPC, which is consistently one of the biggest WPT events every season—and beat hundreds of players to win his first WPT title and more than $1.4 million. "I will never forget the day Steve Lipscomb hired me to perform magic at the press release party for the WPT,” said Esfandiari. "All I dreamt of that day was winning a WPT event someday. To have actually won a few years later and to now become the official spokesperson for a company that did so much for poker and me personally is an honor I hold very dear to me. It’s great to be a part of the WPT, who has been such an instrumental part of my poker journey.” Bringing Esfandiari’s poker story full circle, the partnership kicks off at the LAPC at Commerce Casino, where he truly began living the dream. For more information or to arrange an interview with Antonio, please contact Lyndsay LaGree at 323.330.9876 or llagree@worldpokertour.com. About WPTE WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:WPTE) is a company engaged in the creation of internationally branded entertainment and consumer products driven by the development, production, and marketing of televised programming based on gaming themes. WPTE is the creator of the World Poker Tour®, a television show based on a series of high-stakes poker tournaments that airs on the Travel Channel in the United States and is scheduled to begin broadcasting on GSN in early 2008. WPT is licensed for broadcast globally. WPTE also offers a real-money online gaming website, www.worldpokertour.com, which prohibits wagers from players in the U.S. and other restricted jurisdictions. WPTE currently licenses its brand to companies in the business of poker equipment and instruction, apparel, publishing, electronic and wireless entertainment, DVD/home entertainment, casino games, and giftware. The company is also engaged in the sale of corporate sponsorships. For show information, tools for improving poker play, and other WPT news, fans may log on to www.worldpokertour.com. WPT Enterprises, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (Nasdaq: LACO). Photos and media information can be found online at: www.worldpokertour.com/media. WPTEG The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release (as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by WPT Enterprises, Inc.) contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to the expansion of WPTE's brand licensing, the development of new television and film projects, the development of WPTE corporate sponsors and other business development activities, as well as statements regarding other capital spending, financing sources and the effects of competition. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of WPTE. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, WPTE's significant dependence on the Travel Channel as a current source of revenue and GSN as a future source of revenue, and the risk that GSN will not exercise its options to air season of the WPT series beyond Season VI; difficulty of predicting the growth of our online gaming business, which is a relatively new industry with an increasing number of market entrants; reliance on the efforts of CryptoLogic to develop and maintain the online gaming website in compliance with WPTE’s business model and applicable gaming laws; the potential that our television programming will fail to maintain a sufficient audience; the risk that competitors with greater financial resources or marketplace presence might develop television programming that would directly compete with WPTE's television programming; the risk that WPTE may not be able to protect its entertainment concepts, current and future brands and other intellectual property rights; risks associated with future expansion into new or complementary businesses; the termination or impairment of WPTE's relationships with key licensing and strategic partners; and WPTE's dependence on its senior management team. For more information, review WPTE's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.