Did Instagram star Dan Bilzerian—who currently has more than 20 million followers on the social media site—really make his mysterious fortune playing poker? That’s the story he has told in the past.
Legend has it Bilzerian turned $750 into almost $200,000 during one trip to Las Vegas when he was younger before eventually transforming himself into a great poker player and making more than $50 million one year. And there are many people—we’d guess about 20 million people?—who believe that story. How else do you explain Bilzerian’s jet-setting ways and his IG feed, which is routinely filled with photos and videos like this:
The story surrounding Bilzerian’s fortune has come into question in the past, though. Back in 2015, Vice put together an entire exposé on Bilzerian that suggested his money is actually the result of the shady business dealings and criminal history of Bilzerian’s father Paul, who went to prison for fraud back in the late 1980s and reportedly moved his money around in such a way that allowed his wife and kids to access it later.
And now comes a new report that essentially suggests the same thing while simultaneously trying to prove that Bilzerian isn’t a very good poker player to begin with. Professional poker analyst Doug Polk, who runs the poker tutorial site Upswing Poker, spoke out about Bilzerian in a video called "The Truth About Dan Bilzerian’s Poker Ability" that he released earlier this week.
"He claims to have made all of his money from poker," Polk said. "Yet, his dad made a lot of money, but in the ‘80s went to jail and was forced to pay a $50 to 60 million fine and only paid a few million. The money is missing and we just don’t know where it went."
Polk also examined a recent livestream of Bilzerian playing poker to try and get a better feel for how he plays. And while we should point out that he only evaluated one session, Polk walked away from it feeling like Bilzerian is probably duping everyone with his poker tales.
"All in all, I wouldn’t have said he played all that great," Polk said. “On the internet, he’s a fish in the water."
You can watch Polk breaking down Bilzerian’s poker skills here:
Is this definitive proof that Bilzerian is lying to everyone about where his fortune came from? No. But it does cast more doubt over the story that the Instagram star has sold to everyone.
