According to Bilzerian, he spent much of his college years in various gambling games. One of the earliest stories about his legendary abilities at poker is a tale about how he turned $750 into $10,000 on a St. Petersburg boat. Perhaps young Dan picked up some of his skills playing online poker? Bilzerian’s brother, Adam Bilzerian, finished 47th for $138,568 that year. Adam does have a few additional tournament cashes totaling nearly $900,000. Dan Bilzerian is a different story, and he’s a different person compared to his brother. Adam doesn’t strut his stuff all over social media like his older brother. According to Bilzerian, he started playing poker in college and gambled all his money away. He however regrouped and traveled to Las Vegas where he was able to turn a paltry $10,000 into $187,000. This was in the early 2000s and since then, Bilzerian has not looked back. How Did Dan Bilzerian Make His Millions? Dan Bilzerian is a trust fund child, and when he was 30 years old, the trust fund set up by his father kicked in and allowed him to access millions. The internet personality never disclosed how much he got from his father as part of the trust fund, but it was thought to be in tens of millions.

Dan Bilzerian has an estimated $200 million net worth, money he claims he made through poker, but is that actually true?

Bilzerian, dubbed the “King of Instagram,” has over 32 million Instagram followers. He’s all over social media posting pictures with beautiful half-naked women, his massive collection of guns, and living the luxurious lifestyle the rest of us can only dream about.

And that’s what makes him so appealing to such a large audience. He lives the life most fantasize about while growing up. But it would be virtually impossible to accumulate $200 million in net worth simply from social media.

Bilzerian, however, doesn’t claim that is where he’s made his money. He has repeatedly said he earned his wealth in high-stakes poker home games against loose, wealthy businessmen and celebrities, mostly in Southern California.

The social media playboy claims he once made $10.8 million playing poker in just one night. However, his poker prowess and winnings have never been substantiated by any top pros, at least not publicly.

Bilzerian doesn’t grind the high-stakes games at the casinos in Las Vegas. You won’t find him at the Bellagio, inside Bobby’s Room (now “Legends Room”) sitting next to Doyle Brunson splashing around some six-figure pots. And you also won’t catch him grinding the live tournament circuit. He only has one career recorded tournament cash; a $36,000 score for 180th place in the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

Bilzerian’s brother, Adam Bilzerian, finished 47th for $138,568 that year. Adam does have a few additional tournament cashes totaling nearly $900,000.

Dan Bilzerian is a different story, and he’s a different person compared to his brother. Adam doesn’t strut his stuff all over social media like his older brother. Dan, however, loves to let everyone know just how wealthy he’s become mostly because of poker. But his claims are a bit questionable and hard to believe.

Doug Polk is one of many top-level pros who disputes Bilzerian’s claims. In 2017, he addressed the issue of the social media icon’s poker skills in a YouTube video. And let’s just say he wasn’t exactly raving about Bilzerian’s ability to read his opponents.

So, if Bilzerian didn’t accumulate his wealth through poker, where did he get all that money that he loves to flaunt? Many believe he received it in an illegal way, although this is just a reasonable theory from his critics.

Did Dan Bilzerian illegally inherit his money?

We can’t prove Dan Bilzerian made or didn’t make his money from poker. There aren’t any players in the high-stakes games he competes in who have come forward saying yes or no. And the poker pros like Polk who dispute these claims are only making assumptions.

But there is one thing suspicious about his rise to fame and fortune. Paul Bilzerian, Dan’s father, is a former wealthy corporate takeover specialist who was sentenced in 1989 to four years in prison and slapped with a $1.5 million fine after being convicted on nine counts including conspiracy and securities law violations.

The Wall Street felon was also ordered to pay back a $62 million judgement to the SEC. He instead filed bankruptcy and claimed to have just $15,000 in assets and $140 million in debt.

The money was never collected and the SEC gave up its fight to retrieve it in 2014. Paul Bilzerian only spent 13 months of a four-year sentence in prison, and eventually left the US to live on an island in the Caribbean.

And that brings us to his multimillionaire son, Dan Bilzerian, who somehow accumulated such a massive net worth in a rather short period of time. Many have theorized Dan received a massive inheritance from his father, which allegedly included money from the missing $62 million.

Bilzerian has long denied that claim and no one has proven it to be true — or false. Dan has admitted some of his money came from a trust fund he received in his 30’s (he’s now 40 years old). But he adamantly claims the bulk of his wealth came from poker.

Many critics in the non-poker media have argued that Bilzerian made his money through an inheritance. Most high-stakes poker pros agree. But Bilzerian continues to claim he became rich through poker and not his father. The truth may actually be somewhere in the middle.

Featured image source: Flickr

Dan Bilzerian, a quasi-professional gambler who doesn’t play with the pros, admits he loves the adrenaline rush of gambling and acknowledges to the public that he’s an asshole because: “There’s always going to be people… envious… that’s just the way of the world.”

Dan’s life is certainly interesting, and his thousands of followers on social media seem to be fascinated at the amazing excess of his life. Though estimates of his net worth are hard to pin down, some experts believe he’s worth about $100 million. Estimates of how much he’s won in private poker games (because he avoids professional gambling) is mainly based upon statements he’s made. According to Bilzerian, he’s $50 million richer because of his poker success!

Poker

We wonder how Bilzerian acquired his poker skills, because earning millions at poker is the stuff dreams are made of. According to Bilzerian, he spent much of his college years in various gambling games. One of the earliest stories about his legendary abilities at poker is a tale about how he turned $750 into $10,000 on a St. Petersburg boat. Perhaps young Dan picked up some of his skills playing online poker? It’s pretty likely…

History

Bilzerian, the son of trader Paul Bilzerian, seems to have inherited some of his father’s flamboyance and lack of apparent concern about what other people think. His father, the son of Armenian immigrants, claimed to have made $40 million in the 1980s but later went to jail for tax issues and fraud.

By 2001, Bilzerian’s father was bankrupt and stated to the bankruptcy court that he owed more than $140 million with just $15,000 to his name. We can only imagine how frightening Dan’s childhood must’ve been, what with midnight police raids at his home and very public claims about his father’s crimes, but there’s also a question about the trust fund that got Dan on his way to fame and fortune…

How Did Dan Bilzerian Get His Money

Lifestyle

Dan Bilzerian seems to want others to dislike him. The thirty-two year old says in a quote from “PocketFives” that he has a “pretty crazy life… when something happens, I’ll take a picture of it… Instagram is interesting because it gives people a look into my life…” A quote from “Bluff” is also telling, “People who don’t know me… are going to judge me… I have had some money given to me… but at the end of the day… it’s nobody’s business but mine.”

Of course, he has a private jet and keeps company with many beautiful women. From the looks of things, Dan certainly doesn’t want to get tied down.

Accessories

How Much Is Dan Bilzerian Worth

We write quite a bit about the importance of accessories, and Dan Bilzerian agrees with our take on how important they are to establishing a man’s distinctive look. Instead of spending really big bucks on fashion (he seems to live in black t-shirts and matching black cargos that call attention to his athletic build), he loves watches and claims that the least expensive watch he owns cost about $40,000. He also loves supercars like an AC Cobra made of aluminum (with plates that shout SUCK IT) and a Bentley Continental (the make once favored by football great O.J. Simpson).

The Daily Mail reports that Bilzerian owns at least one hundred guns, and that he considers guns an “accessory.” His first gun, a Viet Nam issue-M16, was a present from his father. According to “Complex,” he says “I got functional guns… guns for looks… hunting rifles… and everything in between.”

We hope that friends and acquaintances hanging out with Dan are wearing some of the accessories we’ve written about here.

How Much Money Is Dan Bilzerian Worth

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