Dan Bilzerian is an interesting character. My lack of social media savvy had caused Mr. B to be missing from my life until this point. However, his thirty million plus Instagram followers seem to be lapping up his lavish lifestyle. The thirty-nine year old Americans’ feed is stacked full with images of riotous parties and excursions as beautiful women press up against him. However, just how did he reach this point?
It appears that a large amount of his success has come from being rather skilful at poker. Or, playing poker against rich guys who’re bad at it. This seems a somewhat clever strategy. In an interview with the True Geordie podcast he said that his success came from portraying himself as a ‘rich idiot’ and he wanted people to ‘think I had a big trust fund’.
He tried to interact with the rich and famous, rather than the poker community (as they’d presumably beat him). Whilst I may sound a bit scathing about Dan here, he does seem to be a relatively honest guy. He admits that poker ‘was the one thing in my life that wasn’t about ego it was about bank account.’ This ruthless strategy seems to be working out for him. A quick Google suggests he is worth nearly $200m which perhaps allows him to pursue his ego-related ventures.
His father -Paul Bilzerian- is a wealthy corporate businessman who has had a few brushes with the law. He had to serve a prison sentence in the 1980s related to one of his corporate takeover deals. However, I’m sure that Paul’s trust fund for his son has helped Dan’s poker career just a little. Dan has also appeared in several films and is the chairman of Ignite International – a company which specialises in products containing CBD. His Don Draperesque marketing on Instagram consists of promoting his company alongside pictures of half-naked woman. Ethically questionable but somewhat effective I presume.
He also had a brief Presidential run in 2015 before deciding to endorse Donald Trump. Presumably because both their lifestyles so perfectly chimed with the office of President, he felt he didn’t need to run anymore. He also caused a stir online after the horrific Las Vegas massacre at which he was present where he attempted to get a gun to assist police officers after initially fleeing the scene. He uploaded videos of his movements to Instagram on the night of the shooting. Some criticised his filming at such a sensitive time but others celebrated his attempt to help.
Dan Bilzerian’s indulgent, women-laden lifestyle may court controversy but he does seem to have some talents. Whether his riches come from poker, his dad’s trust fund or his weird business I’m not quite sure. A combination of all of them seems most likely. If you enjoy living his life alongside him on social media, by all means carry on. I actually quite enjoy his rather witty captions. However, I’ll now be leaving the Kingdom of the Instagram King for the foreseeable future.
Check out this video to see someone who Dan might want to play against in the future.
Featured Image Credit – Flickr
