Dan Bilzerian, better known as Instagram King, Blitz or Instagram Playboy King, became famous as a poker player. Boasting of having made more than $ 10 million in a single night playing poker, he rose to fame via Instagram. Despite this, his life could have been very different had he been able to finish his Navy SEAL training. Surely, he would not have ended up being as rich as he is now if that had happened.
Dan Bilzerian Early Life
Dan Bilzerian was born on December 7, 1980 in Tampa, Florida. He is the eldest son of Paul Alec Bilzerian, an Armenian-American businessman who specializes in corporate acquisitions. Paul’s career ended in 1989 when he was sentenced to prison and a hefty fine on nine counts, including conspiracy, making false statements, and violations of securities law. His problems with the law continued after he served his sentence and was eventually declared bankrupt. For his youngest son, Adam, that was a turning point. Enraged by the government’s actions, he gave up his dream of becoming a Green Beret soldier. Instead, he became a professional poker player, a decision that would have a profound impact on the life of his younger brother.
In 2000, Dan Bilzerian began the first of several attempts to end Naval Special Forces training. He was finally abandoned. The reason given by the instructors was a “shooting range security violation.” There are a lot of rumors as to what that actually means, but the fact remains that Blitz failed the BUD / S cycle about halfway through. It turned out that this was a lucky turn of events for him.
Dan Bilzerian Career
After failing in the Naval SEAL program, Dan enrolled at the University of Florida, where he majored in business administration and criminology. When he finished, his older brother Adam had started his career in poker. Two of them played in the 2009 World Series of Poker. Adam came in 47th with total winnings of $ 138,568. Dan’s performance was even worse, placing 180. The following year, Bluff magazine organized a poll on Twitter to see who was the funniest poker player and Dan won. This attracted him a lot of media attention, which he was able to make the most of. While his poker winnings don’t really count, because shortly after he stopped playing against professional players, Dan made several controversial statements about how much money he made at poker. In one of his statements, he claimed that he made $ 10.4 million in one night. In an interview with Howard Stern, he also said that he made more than 450 million in one year from poker alone. Since these numbers cannot be confirmed without taking a look at his tax returns, they should not be taken into account when estimating Dan Bilzerian’s net worth. What we know for sure is that he made $ 385,000 in a race against Tom Goldstein. They did a quarter-mile race and Bilzerian won his 1967 Shelby Cobra against a Goldstein Ferrari 458 Italia.
In 2014, Dan became involved in a legal battle with the producers of the film Lone Survivor. He claimed to have loaned them $ 1 million for the film. In return, they agreed to give him a role of at least eight minutes on screen and 50 words. In the end, he dropped the lawsuit, because he made about $ 1.5 million from movie ticket sales.
One of the incidents for which he became famous involved a photoshoot that Hustler arranged with him and porn actress Janice Griffiths. Dan was supposed to throw her from the ceiling into a puddle, but he missed and she fell to the ground, breaking her foot. Both Dan Bilzerian and Hustler refused to make it up to her.
This wasn’t the first time Dan had ended up in a lawsuit from a woman. In 2014, model Vanessa Castaño accused him of kicking her in the face during a fight at a Miami nightclub. The club eventually banned Dan for life and wanted Castano $ 1 million in damages. Video from the event shows Dan wearing heavy combat boots during the accident. He later claimed that Vanessa attacked a girl he was with, but even if he was defending her, kicking a girl in her face could not be justified.
Dan Bilzerian Net Worth
In 2015, Dan Bilzerian announced his candidacy for President of the United States. He withdrew from the race just a few months later and instead declared his support for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Dan came under fire after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting incident. Initially, he ran away from the strip. Later, he posted another video on Instagram claiming that he went to get a gun and came back. Not many believed them, including Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer who said Dan’s actions were “disgusting.”
His trick has brought him a massive following on Instagram, with more than 40 million followers, which he has been taking advantage of from various sponsors. However, the majority of his fortune comes from a trust fund set up by his father. Dan and Adam each got one. Currently, Dan Bilzerian’s net worth in 2021 is estimated at $150 million, although it is difficult to confirm this.
