01.12.11 Post-Show

[The 6th Wilbury]

Hey Scott-

On today's show, you asked whether or not Prahlad Friedman had mentioned being satisfied with his compensation from the cheating scandal prior to signing with UB. In fact, he briefly mentioned it during a surprise call-in visit to PokerRoad Radio (May 18, 2009 - "Live From LA w/Phone-A-Fan Trivia, Part II")

Here is a transcript of that part of the interview:

NEJAD: Now the big run-ups happened on Ultimate Bet. For a while there, you were destroying every living human as any number of screen names. There was Mahatma, there was SpiritRock. You became kind of the stuff of legend as far as the earlier years in no-limit hold 'em was concerned. And then it all started to fall apart, right?

FRIEDMAN: Well, yeah, kinda. As we know, good ol' Russ.

[both laugh]

FRIEDMAN: Good ol' Russ Hamilton.

NEJAD: So you were probably one of the biggest victims, you think, of some of the cheating that took place on that site?

FRIEDMAN: Yeah, yeah. I was one of the biggest victims. I know some other people who got hurt pretty badly, but...

NEJAD: How did you deal with that, by the way? You must have been going insane.

FRIEDMAN: I don't know. I always had a lot of confidence in my abilities. So when you get killed, I would just say, "Well, that's the way poker goes." And I had this tremendous faith that I wasn't being cheated. When you talk to random people and you tell them you play internet poker for a living, their first question over the last whatever years is, "How can your trust it? How can you trust it?" I would always be [laughs], "Well, of course you can trust it!".

NEJAD: Right, right.

FRIEDMAN: It's all legit, 'cause I was doing well. So if I was being cheated, it was better than playing live 'cause you get so many hands in, you play in multiple games and there were a lot of donkeys on there at the time.

FRIEDMAN: But there were a few hands where I'd start to get a little spooked out. There would be like four spades on the river and I would bet $8,000 into $3,000. As you know, I was one of the only guys overbetting big. I would mix it up... do-it-with-nothing, do-it-with-the-nuts kinda of thing. This time it was with nothing and he would give it a call. He had a pair of queens, no kicker. With four spades. Just little hands like that were happening a lot, and I was starting to feel like maybe I shouldn't bluff as much. You're always adapting as a poker player, so I'd try to adapt and not bluff as much. Meanwhile, my bluffing strategy was the best strategy. It was just that I was being cheated. So it was like I was adjusting when I shouldn't have. My biggest adjustment should have been, you know, to quit the game.

NEJAD: Well, who could have really believed that something like that was going down. But have they made you whole? Have they given you back everything you think they got?

FRIEDMAN: Yeah, they've taken care of me. I've got no complaints.

NEJAD: That's good. That's good to hear.

The PRR crew revisited the subject on the August 25, 2009 episode. This nugget arose during that interview:

HARRINGTON: How did you feel about the way UB handled everything, and what do you wish they had done differently?

FRIEDMAN: I think they did a good job, honestly. I don't represent any sites. I don't want to. They've talked to me a little bit, but I'm not really interested in it. To be gambling for a living, I'm a kind of anti-corporate type of guy. I don't really want to be wearing something where I don't know exactly how they run things. Anytime someone has a ton of money, there's a good chance there's some shady activity going on.

SEBOK: Almost always.

Later on...

STAPLETON: One of the things we had a long discussion on earlier this week was Brian Devonshire, one of our PokerRoad family members, recently signed with UB. How do you feel about pokers who sign with UB? Are they traitors to the community? Is UB all well and good? Can we forgive and forget? What do you think about that?

FRIEDMAN: I think that they're kind of a new operation now. I've talked to the CEO, he's a cool guy. He definitely took care of my problem on there as well as they could. So I was happy. And if someone wants to sign with them, I don't see what the problem is. Everyone's beating them up, but it's a new operation. They didn't have to pay people back if they didn't want to. And they did.

Anyway, based on these two bits, the "I've been fairly compensated" part of Friedman's recent publicity isn't exactly a company line he's been pushing for them. Unless, of course, these two interviews had future endorsements in mind.

[Brian]

FRIEDMAN:Anytime someone has a ton of money, there's a good chance there's some shady activity going on. SEBOK: Almost always.

Well kinda says it all right there I think.