Did Dan Bilzerian inherit his money?
I see all these pictures of Dan Bilzerian with
private planes, yachts, and avantador’s; did he inherit all his money? I know
he says he’s a “poker” pro, but his dad had hundreds of millions of dollars at
one point, and much of it was “lost” track of after he went to prison for being
a white collar criminal. Does anyone have any insight into this? I really doubt
he makes any money at all at poker, and I feel like he just spends it and isn’t
being honest about where it comes from. I am not trying to criticize him but I
am just trying to get to the bottom of whats happening because it seems
incredibly dubious.
1.
Lorin Yelle, Professional poker player for 10
years and poker coach for 6 years.
The investment fraud angle was already covered, but
since Quora asked me to weigh in on the subject, I will cover the poker aspect
:)
I rarely claim 100% knowledge on the affairs of
people I don’t know personally, but I can say with 99% certainty that the answer is “not
a chance”. Please note that the following text isn’t, nor is meant to
be, quoted verbatim, yet read on to see why the details aren’t important.
Dan tipped his hand when he said in an interview with
Howard Stern that he won $50 million playing poker in a single year, with the
implication that he must have made far more than that by getting his start as a
poker pro. He then thumbed his nose at other high stakes overachievers by
saying, “really, who else has done that?”
So how am I so certain that he actually didn’t get
his start as a poker pro? I’ve been involved in online poker for 12 years and
more or less know of all the biggest names in the game. From what I’ve read, I’m
not the only one who never heard of Dan Bilzerian until a few years ago when he
made a deep run in the WSOP $10,00 Main Event, and that’s because other than
this rather “meh” non piece of news, he never made any significant mark on the
poker world. No big tournament wins, no WSOP bracelets, etc.
Ok...no big deal. All serious players know that
besides a handful of outliers, all of the biggest winners in
poker play cash games, not tournaments. Online players also know basically every
single player who plays in the biggest stakes in the world, which one would have
to play in order to make anywhere near $10 million, let alone $50 million.
I say “basically” because there were some players who
tried to be anonymous in order to get action, but since players who regularly
play in games where millions of dollars are won or lost in a session draw a lot
of attention to themselves, the desired anonymity never lasts and their
identities are eventually outed. Dan’s name was never among these players, and
someone boasting of making so much money is completely contrary to the idea of
being anonymous.
So we have established that
he has no public record of winning a significant sum of money. However, that
doesn’t rule out one last possibility: that he made a boatload of cash playing
in private, ultra high stakes home games populated with celebrities and other
wealthy people with money to burn.
I have read that he has
played in games with Toby Maguire, and even was able publicly to vouch for Major
League baseball star, Alex Rodriguez, that he was not present at this
home game on a specific date, implying that Dan was, in fact, a regular at this
home game, and thus a reliable witness. Admittedly, since I don’t have any real
interest in this subject (a total contradiction after writing this much, I know
:), I haven’t even bothered to verify whether this particular tidbit is true.
However, it’s not necessary because....
People don’t get invited into private, ultra
high stakes games, unless they first have a ton of money in the first place!!
In other words, the other players in the game aren’t going to ignore their itch
to gamble for stakes higher than anything available in public casinos just to
let Dan grind up his roll in $5/10 games, even if he is funny and brings
entertainment...although it’s quite likely that these would be reasons why he
would be invited back :)
Final note:
In another interview where Bilzerian continued the
outrageous claim of making $50 million playing poker, he followed that up with
a peculiar humble brag, saying that his skill level is somewhere between a good
high school player to perhaps the minor leagues, yet he is able to win so much
because the players he fleeces play at the tee-ball level (again, not a
verbatim quote, but close). Again, this doesn’t fit the narrative, as anyone
publicly insulting the generous benefactors that they have been hustling isn’t
likely to ever get invited back in those games.
I do, however, find it to be quite likely that he has
won millions in these games, but hopefully we can finally shut the door
on whether or not this is how he became wealthy in the first place.
Related Questions
2.
Anonymous
103.2k Views
Wall street journal did an
investigative report on how his dad was ordered to pay back 62 million dollars
but he only paid back 3.7 million SEC Judgment Against Raider Paul
Bilzerian: $62 Million. Collected: $3.7 Million. The money was
hidden through various trusts. So the question arises where did that 50
million dollars go?
If Dan Bilzerian is such great poker player how many
poker championships did he win? His name is not listed in List of World Series of Poker Main Event champions so I am
guessing he did not win the World Series of Poker.
If we do more research and check if he is
internationally ranked poker player and look for his poker earning the
amount is about $ 39,000 http://www.globalpokerindex.com/...
So based upon this information so you guys decide
whether he made his money or did he inherit his money?
3.
Anonymous
113.7k Views • Upvoted by Larry Wolfe,
no limit Texas Hold’em grinder | SaltPoker.com
He OBVIOUSLY has not made his
money from poker. I would be shocked if he was even up lifetime in poker.
Poker is just a front he is using to launder the 100s of
millions of dollars his dad stole from the public through white collar crime
during the 80s.
It’s pathetic that Dan tries so hard to be recognized
as someone who has made it on his own--made his “own money” but the truth is he
is far from that and is really nothing more than a spoiled, entitled child with
no sense of what work really means or how hard one actually has to bust their
ass for a dollar. He wants to be recognized as being great at
something, but really the only thing the guy is good at is consuming stuff.
If he was being honest about where his money comes
from, I might respect him a little more, but the truth is he cannot admit that
the money doesn’t come from poker, because to do so would be a de facto
admission that all the money he squanders on his opulent lifestyle is money his
dad stole from the public.
4.
Anonymous
70.6k Views
He’s a “rich kid,” but his father is still alive. Presumably his dad
put some money in hiding and a shitload into a Florida home (protected from
seizure) before heading to federal prison.
5.
Adam Cham
4.1k Views
I think it is very doubtful Bilzerian made any
significant amount playing poker. It could very well be an excuse for the feds
to protect the inherited money that belongs to the government. On youtube,
there are no videos of him playing poker and one cash on hendonmob, a site that
tracks players’ live results (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/...). Moreover, successful
poker players tend to be soft spoken introverts who spend a lot of time alone,
studying the game, watching videos of themselves play, and finding holes in their
game.
6.
Jacob Hornstein, Software Engineer
30.1k Views
As a professional poker player Bilzerian’s most
notable cash was in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, for which he appeared on
six episodes of the show’s television broadcast. He finished in 180th place and
won $36,626. He is also a co-founder of Victory Poker, an online poker room. In
2010 he was voted one of the funniest poker players on twitter by Bluff
Magazine. On March 9, 2011 Bilzerian raced fellow race car enthusiast and
Supreme Court Litigator Dan Goldstein for a wager of $385,000 at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway, with Bilzerian racing a 1965 AC Cobra and
Goldstein behind the wheel of a Ferrari
458 Italia. Bilzerian won the race.
In November 2011 Bilzerian, along with ten others including actors Tobey Maguire, Nick Cassavetes and Gabe Kaplan, was asked to pay back winnings that they had won in poker games against ponzi-scheme operator Bradley Ruderman after Ruderman was sentenced to prison, to help pay back some of the victims Ruderman had stolen from over his criminal career. That same year Bilzerian defended Alex Rodriguez publicly against accusations that he had gambled illegally, claiming that he was present when the alleged gambling event had taken place and Rodriguez was not present. This is from wikipedia.
In November 2011 Bilzerian, along with ten others including actors Tobey Maguire, Nick Cassavetes and Gabe Kaplan, was asked to pay back winnings that they had won in poker games against ponzi-scheme operator Bradley Ruderman after Ruderman was sentenced to prison, to help pay back some of the victims Ruderman had stolen from over his criminal career. That same year Bilzerian defended Alex Rodriguez publicly against accusations that he had gambled illegally, claiming that he was present when the alleged gambling event had taken place and Rodriguez was not present. This is from wikipedia.
7.
Prashant Bhoriwal, Whatever you resist,will
persist.
20.2k Views
As every one who wrote the
answers said that he has not earned this rather inherited from his father
dubious white collars crimes which earned the bilzarian empire huge profit
whose accounts cannot be traced because they are hidden under various
trusts.
Moreover he has a very high tendency of twisting the
reality.
Instead he views it as: he
pays for those girls to leave after he has sex [with] them (in one of his
interviews)
Just like he claims that he earned his entire wealth.
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