Dan Bilzerian Explains Pitfalls Of Being a High-stakes Poker Pro

Florida born entrepreneur, Dan Bilzerian, like his father “corporate takeover specialist” Paul Bilzerian, has business running through his veins and currently has a net worth estimated at $100 million.
The American gambler and film actor is also a well-known figure in the poker community, and has won millions of dollars playing in cash games at limits as high as $10,000/$25,000. In fact, Dan Bilzerian said he once won $10.8 million during a game of $5,000/$10,000 no-limit, but also readily admits to not being “nearly as good as all these online guys,” many of whom he has staked over the years.
Therein lies a clue to being a profitable poker player, namely table selection, and as the 33 year-old explained recently: “I play in private games with business guys and celebrities. They are playing for fun. I don’t play with pros. I am not even close to one of the best players.”
Not surprisingly, Bilzerian has many interesting stories to tell about his high-stakes endeavors, such as one eccentric opponent who would only ever make a bet in terms of cars or planes, a Mercedes being worth $100,000, a Ferrari $300,000 and a Bugatti $1 million.
Dan Bilzerian also has some interesting takes on the poker community as a whole, which he describes as a degenerate group, and said that those player involved in the “stressful” profession had a very high chance of going broke. Key factors Bilzerian says are instrumental in a player’s downfall is that “when they are winning, they feel like they are going to continue winning at the same rate and when they are losing they want to win their money back.” Further factors contributing to the downward process is when on a losing run a player not wanting to drop down in stakes, as well as not budgeting properly for their expenses.
As Bilzerian then goes on to highlight; “But they don’t do that and that’s why professional poker players go broke. If you look at Tom Dwan, he went broke; Phil Ivey just went broke. All these really talented guys who made a bunch of money end up pissing it all away. There is not a long list of professional poker players who don’t go broke. It’s crazy.”
I’m not sure where Bilzerian got his information from about Phil Ivey going bust recently, especially as Ivey is believed to have a fortune similar in size to Bilzerian’s, but his points are well-taken as to the pitfalls associated with playing poker for a living.