Dan Bilzerian Slams Poker Players as “F*****g Nerds”

1 year ago
Dan Bilzerian Slams Poker Players as “F*****g Nerds”
07:20
12 Jun

Dan Bilzerian has lashed out at the poker community, describing most players as “fucking nerds”, with Doug Polk a “stereotypical clickbait guy” and Phil Hellmuth as “probably the worst f*****g thing to ever happen to poker."

Bilzerian also revealed that his days as a GGPoker ambassador are definitely over, arguments over money and an unwillingness to “sell out” the main issues causing the rift.

The alleged serial misogynist has been seen by many as a blight on the game since first crawling out from under the financial wings of his criminal father’s stolen $millions.

Claims to have won more than $50million playing poker against bigger whales than himself abounded over the years, with the self-proclaimed King of Instagram regularly making the headlines, and rarely for positive reasons.
This week on podcaster and YouTuber Adam22’s No Jumper show, Bilzerian opened up about his feelings for the poker community, and he didn’t hold back.



Poker nerds and poker friends

“Most poker players are fucking nerds,” said Bilzerian, adding: “I don't really hangout with that many of them, I don't really want to associate with them. I shut most of them out of my fucking games. I never really let pros in.”

Of course, probably the main reason he doesn’t want pros in his games is because he would have his ass handed to him on a plate, but that’s not a crime.

And he does list Phil Ivey, Andrew Robl, “Jungleman” Dan Cates and Antonio Esfandiari among those players he considers as “friends”.


Slagging Polk and Hellmuth

Some, however, most definitely are not, and both Doug Polk and Phil Hellmuth come in for special attention.

Polk has taken several pot-shots at Bilzerian over the years, claiming:

"I think that maybe he can beat some high stakes, very soft live games, but on the Internet, he's a fish in the water."

More recently he had Bilzerian on his podcast, but that left the $millionaire playboy with a bitter taste in his mouth.


“He's the stereotypical clickbait guy," is how he described Polk this week, claiming: "He doesn't care about reporting the news, was willing to convolute the truth to fit his narrative to get him the story that he wanted. And then he'd basically hide under the guise of 'oh, I'm just a journalist.' But it's like, no if you're a journalist taking that approach, you've got some ethical issues there."

Thomas ‘SrslySirius’ Keeling, the man behind Polk’s content, was described by Bilzerian as a “bullshit editor” who deliberately made his answers appear different to what he had really said.

Phil Hellmuth also faced a barrage of criticism, Bilzerian stating:

“Guys like Phil Hellmuth are probably the worst fucking thing to ever happen to poker”.

That was in reference to Hellmuths’ constant berating of opponents, most recently seen in the Hustler Casino Live cash game where Phil was accused of angleshooting newbies.

“You got a guy berating players for playing bad. In my games, we encourage people to play bad,” said Bilzerian, adding: “We wanted people to make bad calls and stupid bluffs, and this fucking idiot is encouraging them to play better, to play tighter, and it's like, why?"

The GGPoker Affair Ends

Bilzerian has also faced serious criticism for his role with GGPoker, in which he did almost nothing except underline his well-deserved reputation as a misogynist.

Taken on as an ambassador by the online poker giants, Bilzerian’s first day was an embarrassing one, with Vanessa Kade calling his sleazy sexism out and Bilzerian responding in typical fashion...

That was followed by Bilzerian reneging on his duty to play the winner of his GGPoker birthday freeroll – Alex O’Brien - because she is a woman.

In the end, Bilzerian says, he didn’t do his job for the site because he “just won't sellout”, claiming:

“I get offered so much money to do fucking promos...I just don't have the heart to do it. Initially, I tried to do it, you know what I mean, I did some posts and drove them a fuckload of traffic...but then they were supposed to give me a percentage of the people that I recruited..."

Bilzerian claimed that it amounted to “100,000 that we downloaded... a lot of people,” and that the money should have been “millions a month.”

That was that, says Dan:

"So, we just agreed to kind of like end it, you know.”

Whether or not it’s the last we will see of Bilzerian in the poker world is impossible to say, but there are plenty who will be very happy to see the back of him.


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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