Prahlad Friedman, born on May 20, 1979, is a native of Los Angeles, California. He got engaged to Dee Luong, a poker player by profession, in 2002 and later married her. This vegan is also an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, and has his first name derived from a figure in Hindu mythology. Prahlad Friedman did his major in ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he started playing poker for the first time.
This young American poker player has become famous in both online and live tournaments. Prahlad Friedman plays big no-limit games under the screen names Spirit Rock on Full Tilt Poker, Mahatma on Ultimate Bet, Zweig on Prima Network, and Poopers on PokerStars. He was ranked 1,107th in the Online Player of the Year (OPOY) list in 2008 with 488 points and lifetime OPOY winnings of $82,183.At one point Prahlad Friedman was regarded as an online high-stakes player, noted for his extremely aggressive and unpredictable game, over betting the river with bluffs or nuts being his style of play. He usually plays $25-$50 and $50-$100 No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games online.
Though he mainly plays online, he has also been very successful in live poker tournaments.
In December 2002, Prahlad Friedman won a whopping $101,446 at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic, securing second place. He won his World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2003, winning $109,400 in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event. In the same year, he was placed third in the Festa al Lago Poker Tournament and walked away with $25,260. Two years down the lane, he finished second, bagging $363,165 as prize money at the WSOP circuit event at Harrah's Rincon. He had another win in 2005 at the Five-Star World Poker Classic – Season 3 and took home $30,000. Defeating over 8,700 players in the field at the 2006 WSOP Main Event, Prahlad Friedman finished twentieth to earn $494,797, which is one of the largest single payout.
At some point, Prahlad Friedman slowly disappeared from high-stakes online cash games, only to reappear in 2007 as one of the best players on PokerStars. By dominating the No-Limit cash games with $25/50 blinds, he became one of the PokerStars biggest winners of 2007. 2008 has also been great for Prahlad Friedman as he won $562.00 in April 2008 in the Nightly Hundred Grand Tournament. One month later, he bagged $21,668 at the Wednesday Hundred Fifty Grand Tournament, finishing in fourth place. He also had a win in June 2008 at the Nightly Hundred Grand Tournament, where he earned $23,707 by securing first place.
Prahlad Friedman is also well known for his rap on the internet poker message boards and has rapped for ESPN in a segment of “The Nuts” at the Harrah’s Rincon in 2005, the Main Event in 2006 WSOP, and also for the poker website RakeBreak. Prahlad Friedman has total live tournaments winnings exceeding $1,200,000, as of 2007.
Prahlad Friedman – Poker Results:
- Event: 2006, 37th Annual World Series of Poker Event #39 - WSOP No-Limit Hold'em Championship WSOP FINAL / Finished: 20th / Earned: $494,797
- Event: 2006, 37th Annual World Series of Poker Event #34 - WSOP No-Limit Hold'em / Finished: 29th / Earned: $8,191
- Event: 2005, Five-Star World Poker Classic - WPT Championship Season 3 WPT Main Event – No-Limit Hold'em / Finished: 81st / Earned: $30,000
- Event: 2005, Harrah's Rincon Poker Tournament - WSOP Circuit Event Event #8 - WSOP Circuit Main Event – No-Limit Hold'em / Finished: 2nd / Earned: $361,365
- Event: 2005, Harrah's Rincon Poker Tournament - WSOP Circuit Event Event #8 - WSOP Circuit Main Event – No-Limit Hold'em / Finished: 2nd / Earned: $361,365