Dan Bilzerian is probably one of the most controversial figures in the field of social media. Also known as the Instagram King, Dan is an American professional poker player known for his incredibly carefree and wasteful lifestyle. A trip to his Instagram site would reveal exactly the kind of person Dan is.
A relentless player and daredevil, Bilzerian can bet his money on just about anything he wants, including a coin flip, and while he’s lost millions in the process, he’s won a few and gained a reputation.
One moment that could be called Dan’s breakthrough as an attention seeker was the nationally televised 2013 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, where Dan was allowed to sit in the front row while a model stroked his beard the whole time. He had previously made an impression and attracted the attention of ESPN at a similar event in 2009.
At the 2013 event, Dan had bet his money on fast-growing poker player Jay Farber, who won $5 million, and Dan coined about $1 million.
He played with several high-profile celebrities, including his colleague Floyd Mayweather and disc jockey Steve Aoki. Read on while we try to explore some facts about the man many young American men envy.
Dan Bilzerian Wiki
Dan Brandon Bilzerian was born on December 7, 1980, in Tampa, Florida, the son of Paul Bilzerian and Terri Steffen, who specialized in corporate acquisitions. He has a younger brother, Adam Bilzerian, who also plays poker. Dan and everyone in his family are said to have a very high intelligence quotient. He is of Armenian descent on his father’s side, and his family was fortunate to be one of the halves that escaped death during the Armenian genocide.
Dan was always a rich kid. Born the son of a father who made a lot of money as a corporate robber on Wall Street, Dan grew up in prosperity. The Bilzerian family lived in an 11-room mansion in Tampa Florid. The house was said to be about half the size of Buckingham Palace and had a swimming pool with a water slide, an indoor basketball court, an imported mountain of volcanic rock, and a batting cage.
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Although he had almost everything he wanted, Dan’s upbringing was not very pleasant, as he revealed, especially because his father, Paul Bilzerian, was hardly ever in the picture because of his full work schedule.
“I didn’t get much attention as a child. I guess that’s why I’m such a conspicuous madman,” Dan once admitted.
When he was 10 years old, his father was arrested in his presence after he was found guilty of stock and tax fraud. More on this in a moment…
This arrest made Dan an object of ridicule at school, which gradually turned him into a rebel. Within a year, Dan was expelled from two schools. The only school that met his approval was a military academy with drill instructors. His family later moved to Utah, where Dan was expelled from school after bringing his father’s Vietnam war weapon to show off to his classmates.
Confused about what to do next, Dan joined the Navy and began training as a SEAL. However, like three-quarters of the trainees, Dan never made it to the end of the program. He was honorably discharged and received a disability allowance of $6,000 per month to enroll in the University of Florida, where he studied economics and criminology.
In college, Bilzerian started playing poker. During his studies, Dan succumbed to government pressure to liquidate a third of his trust fund to get his father out of jail. However, he went bankrupt in his second year, as he only had $750 left from the liquidation of his assets. Thanks to poker, Dan was able to increase this money in Las Vegas to $10,0000 and then to $187,000.
At one point he was making up to $90,000 a week in poker. In the following years, Dan began to attract the attention of the high-stakes poker crowd. His first major tournament was the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event at Harveys Lake Tahoe. He finished the tournament in 180th place, and Dan’s charisma couldn’t go unnoticed by ESPN, which helped boost his popularity. The Armenian-born poker player has been building on that ever since.
Until 2010, Dan was voted one of the funniest poker players by Bluff Magazine. Dan soon switched to “nosebleed betting”, where he hosted games in his Los Angeles mansion that featured some billionaires.
In addition to gambling, Dan also appeared in many movies, including Olympus Has Fallen (2013), Lone Survivor (2013), Cat Run 2 (2014), and others.
As a result of his drug abuse, Dan suffered two heart attacks before he was in his early thirties.
He declared his candidacy to run in the 2016 presidential election but later dropped out to support Donald Trump.
Dan Bilzerian Dad – Paul Bilzerian
The life of Paul Bilzerian as a young man was in some ways similar to that of his son Dan. As a juvenile criminal, Paul dropped out of high school after he was reprimanded for violating the school uniform by wearing jeans. However, after serving in the Vietnam War, where he received a Vietnamese gallant cross, a bronze star, and an Army Commendation Medal, he changed his life.
Thanks to his high IQ, he graduated from Stanford with a B.A. with honors in 1975 and then attended Harvard Business School. He started as a real estate investor and later started takeover attempts of companies. One of his first successes was the acquisition of the Singer Corporation, a manufacturer of defense electronics, in 1985, and he soon became a millionaire.
Dan’s father Paul Bilzerian enjoyed prosperity in Tampa’s Tony Avila community until he was convicted of stock fraud in 1989. Most of his misdemeanors were related to the classic pump-and-dump business, where he invested heavily in public companies to later launch hostile takeover attempts.
Paul, who is known for his bushy, whitewashed mustache, was originally sentenced to four years in prison, but served only 13 months, the rest under house arrest.
In 2000, Paul was thrown back into prison, but he was released when his wife agreed to sell her Tampa mansion to vouch for his pouting skills. Although the SEC obtained a $62 million judgment against him for illegal stock manipulation, Paul has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
His huge debts have forced him to file for bankruptcy on several occasions, but many believe that bankruptcy is a trick and that he has kept his assets safe abroad.
By 2014 it was reported that he had paid only $3.7 million of the total debt he owed to investors. He lives in voluntary exile on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.
Dan Bilzerian’s Net Worth
Although it is said that Dan became a millionaire through poker, many disagree and believe that Dan is profiting from his father’s hidden wealth. Unusually for rich children, Dan enjoyed the benefits of a trust fund.
In his 2014 interview with radio host Howard Stern, Dan explained that his net worth is $100 million, half of which comes from his poker winnings in 2013.
The source of Dan’s wealth may always be a subject for discussion, but he has revealed how much he earns and loses through his crazy gambling. In 2011, he earned $385,000 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway after winning Tom Goldstein. He owns an $800,000 Richard Mille watch. Rumor has it that he turned down $100,000 from a co-founder of Facebook to shave his beard.
Dan lost $2.3 million in a coin toss game He invested $1 million in the movie Lone Ranger and made $1.5 million on the movie’s success.
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Dan Bilzerian’s House
The poker millionaire lives mainly in a gated community in the hills of Hollywood. The house has a pool overlooking the hill, a sunken living room, money counting machines, guns in almost every room, and of course a poker table. He lives with his cat and two goats that sleep on a $700 blanket. Rumour has it that he rents the house for $35,000 a month from Singapore’s multimillionaire Wong Ngit Liong.
Bilzerian owns another house in San Diego and Las Vegas.
Dan Bilzerian Height: 5 feet 9.5 inches
Dan Bilzerian Girlfriend, Wife
The way he displays naked women on Instagram, it is obvious that not a single woman can satisfy Bilzerian. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would have the patience for a committed relationship. However, he was previously in a relationship with his Playboy playmate Jessa Hinton. Jessa told reporters that she slapped Dan after she learned about his wild private card games with prostitutes.