World Poker Tour Names Player of the Year

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Thanks to his two victories on the World Poker Tour, 27-year-old Erick Lindgren of Las Vegas has captured the Tour's first WPT Player-of-the-Year honor. Lindgren won two tournaments in the Tour's second season for a total of $1.5 million in prize money - the PartyPoker Million and the Ultimate Poker Classic. He also made the final table at the Grand Prix de Paris, bringing his total winnings to $1,560,568.

At the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Lindgren was presented with a crystal Player-of-the-Year cup that some of his fellow players joked would be perfect for keeping all of his winnings. He will also wear the WPT Player-of-the-Year jacket at future tournaments.

Lindgren entered and won a $162 satellite tournament on PartyPoker.com, which earned him a spot on the PartyPoker Million cruise in March. At the end of day, it was Lindgren who took home the million-dollar prize.

He also won the $500,000 at UltimateBet.com's Ultimate Poker Classic in Aruba on the WPT's stop there in October, as well as $60,568 for fifth place at the Aviation Club de France. The three tournaments earned him 2400 points in the WPT's ranking system. 1,000 points are awarded for a victory, 700 for second place, 600 for third, 500 for fourth, 400 for fifth, 300 for sixth and 200 seventh.

The runner-up in the scoring was Paul Phillips, also of Las Vegas, with 1700 points for a win at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and a second place finish at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles.

Erick Lindgren Biography

"I feel totally blessed," says Lindgren. "I'm just a really competitive guy and poker satisfies my competitive nature."

Lindgren plays poker just like the All-League quarterback and MVP basketball player he was in high school. Raised in a home of two boys in the remote town of Burney, CA (pop. 3,000) in the Sierra Nevada range near Mt. Shasta, competition was the norm.

Going off to junior college in Chico, CA, to play basketball, Lindgren became sidetracked. After playing recreationally at a local Indian casino, he secured a job as a blackjack dealer. He soon picked some up pretty handy poker skills, which he began to apply in earnest. At 21, he was playing poker full-time and working at a casino in San Pablo, CA as a "propositional player" - a player hired by a property to keep the games lively. Before long, he was off and running as an up-and-coming poker pro, playing tournament poker regularly.

World Poker Tour, LLC is a media and entertainment company principally engaged in the development, production and marketing of gaming-themed televised programming, the licensing and sale of branded products and the sale of corporate sponsorships.

The World Poker Tour is a joint venture between Steven Lipscomb and Lakes Entertainment, Inc., which owns approximately 80% of WPT. Lakes currently has development and management agreements with four separate Tribes for four new casino operations, one in Michigan, two in California and one with the Nipmuc Nation on the East Coast. In addition, Lakes Entertainment has agreements for the development of one additional casino on Indian-owned land in California through a joint venture with MRD Gaming, which is currently being disputed by the Tribe. Lakes Entertainment, Inc. common shares are traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the trading symbol "LACO".