Prahlad S. Friedman (born May 20, 1978) is an American professional poker player and rapper from Los Angeles, California.
[1] He has played under the screen names "Spirit Rock" on Full Tilt Poker, "Mahatma" on Ultimate Bet, "Zweig" on Prima Network, and "Prefontaine" on PokerStars.
[2][3] Friedman made his first major cash in the 2002 $3,000 Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic Main Event.
[4] Friedman won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2003 in the $1,500 pot limit hold'em event earning him $109,400.
Many in the poker world criticized Friedman for his actions, including Norman Chad of ESPN and Todd Brunson of Cardplayer Magazine.
A floor supervisor was called over and had enforced the original ruling, stating that "If the guy wanted to make a decision he could have made it at 5, he gave him to 0, it's a dead hand".
Friedman had also confirmed that if he had a winning hand he would have argued the point that he called at 0, but since the ruling stated it was dead at 1 he left it alone to keep himself in the tournament.
[13] When Ultimate Bet was involved in a major cheating scandal prior to 2008, Friedman was one of the biggest victims having lost millions of dollars.
[20] Prahlad Friedman did his major in ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he started playing poker for the first time.