EXCLUSIVE - Sex, guns, cocaine-induced heart attacks and a pet Bengal tiger biting a party girl's breast: The $100m poker playboy 'Instagram King' opens his heart and home to reveal what drives his 'lunatic lifestyle'

Pictures charting a lifestyle of naked girls, exotic animals and firearms have seen Dan Bilzeran crowned the Instagram King with 200,000 followers

Just last weekend he says a Bengal tiger he had bit a party girl on the breast

Describes himself as 'actor, astronaut, a**hole', telling MailOnline he didn't get 'a ton of attention as a kid and that’s why I’m such a flashy lunatic'

A high school drop out, today he’s poker champion worth $100m with homes in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas

Tells MailOnline, at Hollywood Hills mansion, ‘lunatic lifestyle’ is driven by unhappy childhood as son of twice-jailed Vietnam War vet and corporate raider

At 33 feels ‘bulletproof’ having survived two SEAL training ‘hell weeks’ and two heart attacks brought on by booze, cocaine, Viagra and a stripper

Behind the beard and bravado, has secretly given away hundreds of thousands saying acts of charity give more ‘bang for his buck' than winning

Dan Bilzerian is asking his security chief what the law in California is on shooting coyotes.

‘If it’s in self-defense sir I think you’re okay,’ comes the earnest answer. ‘What about in defense of a goat?’ Bilzerian persists.

Zeus, the goat, is the latest addition to the court of the so-called Instagram King, high stakes gambler Bilzerian, and currently sleeps on a $700 blanket in the grounds of Bilzerian’s Hollywood Hills home.



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The king and his god: Dan Bilzerian holds his new pet goat, Zeus, at his Los Angeles mansion during an interview with MailOnline about his technicolor life he broadcasts to 200,000 followers on Instagram He was a surprise gift from a friend who just won $5.2million in the World Series Poker.

Bilzerian garnered $1million for stumping up 20 percent of the $10,000 entry fee.

He has just returned from a celebratory trip to the Mexican resort of Puerta Vallarta: ‘We loaded a bunch of girls on a plane and went down there.

‘We went zip-lining, rented a yacht, got some baby Bengal tigers and some monkeys at the house. It cost like $10,000.’

With a roar of laughter he adds: ‘One of the tigers bit one of the girls – bit her tit! Thankfully, I didn’t have to buy new implants.’

Welcome to what passes for ordinary in Bilzerian’s most extraordinary life.

Celebration: Dan has just returned from a trip to Puerta Vallarta in Mexico where he was celebrating winning $1m from his friend's latest poker success. He said: ‘We loaded a bunch of girls on a plane'

Living the dream: Dan said he is, in his own words, ‘actor, astronaut, asshole’. But Dan's front hides a deeper, more complex story as to how he came to be worth $100m with a playboy lifestyle to match

Nightmare in paradise: During his latest trip a Bengal Tiger who joined the party bit a breast of one of his guests. Dan said: 'Thankfully, I didn’t have to buy new implants'

Waiting to grow up: Dan, now 33, told MailOnline: 'I’m like a big kid. But it’s not like a called myself the Instagram King. I put up what people want to see and that just happened'

Winnings: Dan made his first bet when he was in the Navy SEALS and his luck hasn't run out since

He is, in his own words, ‘actor, astronaut, asshole.’ Well, he’s certainly not an astronaut.

Part William Randolph Hearst part Hugh Heffner, he is worth $100million. He lives extravagantly with homes in Las Vegas, San Diego (said to resemble the Iron Man mansion) and Los Angeles.

He has nearly 200,000 Instagram followers (which have doubled since his account received widespread media attention last week) who live vicariously through the pictures he posts.

They are packed with mounds of cash, guns, guns and more guns (he has a grenade launcher in his Vegas pad), supercars with license plates reading ‘SUCK IT’ and ‘MR GOAT’ and girls, nubile, cosmetically enhanced and overdressed if wearing both halves of a bikini.

He turned 33 last week and he doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up.

He says: ‘I’m like a big kid. But it’s not like a called myself the Instagram King. I put up what people want to see and that just happened.’

Bilzerian sits expansively on an over-sized couch in his vast sunken living room. He is flanked by a marble-topped bar, stocked with every liquor imaginable and featuring a tap shaped like an upturned revolver.

A mountain of the very latest X Boxes are piled up on its surface – he’s been giving them away to friends, and strangers too if their story affects him - a sort of latter day Santa Claus.

To his right a maroon felt poker table is set up for the next home game. Mark Wahlberg, Toby Maguire and director Nick Cassavetes are just some of the high-stakes gamblers who play here.

He reflects: ‘Basically I didn’t get a ton of attention as a kid, I guess that’s why I’m such a flashy lunatic.’

Pop psychology perhaps but, he admits: ‘There’s some truth to it.’

Because if Bilzerian’s life today is unpredictable and wild, it is positively stable compared to his childhood and youth.

Born in St Petersburg, Florida, Bilzerian is the eldest of two sons. His brother, Adam, two years his junior is also a professional gambler.

Show off: Dan, whose supercars feature license plates like 'SUCK IT' and 'MR GOAT' explains he is a product of his childhood: 'Basically I didn’t get a ton of attention as a kid, I guess that’s why I’m such a flashy lunatic'

Odd: His Hollywood Hills house is packed with weapons - and there's a picture of a goat above his headboard

His father Paul, married his Stanford sweetheart Terri Steffen, moved with her to Florida in 1978 and embarked on a career as a corporate raider.

He made millions and he made headlines. He took over Singer and the Hammermill Paper Company, cannibalized companies and was worth more than $40million by the age of 36.

And in 1988 he was indicted by a grand jury on charges including tax and security frauds.

Bilzerian was eight years old. He remembers: ‘Tampa was a small town and he was front page news every single day.

‘All the kids in school taunted me, “Your dad’s going to jail,” and I believed my parents when they said no it wouldn’t happen.

‘Then one day I was driving into school with him, which was weird because my mom always took us. And he was like, “yeah, I’m going to jail.” That was kind of a s***y time.’

The childhood that Bilzerian describes is one of extremes. His father lavished his family with material wealth – he built a 44,000 sq ft house in Tampa complete with indoor basketball court, three pool tables, a pool with a slide and mountain made of volcanic rock and a batting cage in the backyard with a major league pitching machine.

‘It was like a kid's paradise,’ Bilzerian recalls. ‘Except he was never flashy with clothes, cars or watches or all the stuff I kind of am now.’

So was he close to the father who indulged him so much? ‘No,’ he says quickly. ‘He worked all the time.

‘You have to understand. My dad’s not the most normal thinking person. It’s not normal to need to make millions or billions of dollars.’

Bilzerian bounced in and out of four high schools in three years – failing to graduate from any.

'Business criminal': Dan's father, Paul, had a huge effect on his life. He was a Vietnam War vet and corporate raider worth $40m who spent 8 months in jail after a court battle over $300m debts from civil suits

Kicked out of the first, his father sent him to Minnesota to live with an aunt and uncle – part punishment, part simply not knowing what to do with him.

Expelled from there he was sent to Naval Academy in St Petersburg.

When his father bought a robotics company in Utah the family relocated, then returned to Tampa, before heading back to Utah again.

Weeks from graduating Bilzerian was jailed for having a machine gun in the trunk of his car.

He says: ‘My dad didn’t hunt or anything and the only gun he knew was the machine gun he’d been issued in the Vietnam war. So he just figured, “I’ll give him an M16.”

‘I thought it was normal. I took some kids into school in my car and I was like “hey do you want to see my M16?”

‘I couldn’t complete high school so I had to get a GED (General Education Diploma) – or a Good Enough for Dan according to my dad.’

Paul Bilzerian was a green beret who fought in Vietnam. ‘He was the youngest commissioned officer since the Korean war,’ his son says with some pride. ‘He told me that the life expectancy in Vietnam was like 8 minutes. That’s the craziest thing you ever heard.

‘He’d been kicked out of high school and that was his salvation. He got a bronze star, he went to Stanford and Harvard business school. That’s what allowed him to be successful. So I did the same thing.’

Bilzerian enlisted in the Navy and enrolled in SEAL training. He made it through hell week then was rolled back to the beginning of training on a safety violation. He made it through a second only to be dropped three weeks before graduation ‘for no real reason,’ he says, other than ‘p***ing off an officer.’

‘It’s probably the most brutal military training in the world and I finished two hell weeks, ‘ he says. ‘And that was after I’d broken my leg.’

According to Bilzerian the first bet he ever placed was with the medical officer who treated him and bet him $20 that he wouldn’t make it through hell week.



Hard knocks: 'I had to sign over a third of my trust fund to get my dad out of jail. I was happy to do it.’ His father didn’t speak to him for 7 months. ‘He was furious. He’d be in jail rather than hand over $5 to the government

Luxury: Dan is used to high-living. He was brought up in St Petersburg, Florida, surrounded by vast wealth

A-list friends: Mark Wahlberg, Toby Maguire and director Nick Cassavetes are just some of the high-stakes gamblers who play poker at his impeccable house

Drop-out: Dan, after being caught with an MI6 in the back of his car, didn't finish high school. 'I had to get a GED (General Education Diploma) – or a Good Enough for Dan according to my dad'

‘I won the bet,’ he says, ‘At substantial cost to myself.’

His leg was ultimately so damaged, and his refusal to stop had such an impact on his health that at the age of 22 he was rated 60 percent disabled and medically discharged.

‘I did 510 days SEAL training. It’s meant to be a six-month course, only to get dropped.

‘Maybe it saved me life though,’ he says. ‘Because a whole lot of my buddies in my class died.’

During that time his father had once again been arrested and was being held in prison in contempt of court.

He had twice filed for bankruptcy in the intervening years, the first time was in 1991 when he faced debts of more than $300million in civil suits.

In 1993 a federal judge ordered him to hand over $62million. He fought and filed for bankruptcy again in 2001.

Bilzerian recalls: ‘My dad had been in jail for 8 months because he wouldn’t disclose assets. The FBI raided our house, kicked in the doors with battering rams, took my guns, our computers…it was serious.

‘I had to sign over a third of my trust fund to get my dad out of jail. I was happy to do it.’

‘I distinctly remember having to sell my guns – I loved my guns. I had to go broke to respect the money’

His father didn’t speak to him for 7 months as a result. ‘He was furious. He’d be in jail today rather than hand over $5 to the government.’

Bilzerian enrolled at the University of Florida on a course in Business and Criminology.

‘Well look at my dad,’ he says. ‘Business criminal.’

He was a ‘meat-head jock,’ with a trust fund he couldn’t touch and $6,000 a month in disability allowances as a veteran.

He felt rich. And he started gambling.

He gambled compulsively, recklessly, drunkenly and foolishly. He lost all his money.

‘I distinctly remember having to sell my guns – I loved my guns,’ he says. ‘I had to go broke to respect the money.’

He sold his guns for $750, turned that into $10,000 across four days on a gambling boat in St Petersburg, went to Vegas and played for three weeks straight turning that into $187,000.

Playing online, he says, ‘There were weeks when I’d make $90,000 and I’d be thinking, “What the hell am I doing in college?”’

Tough nut: Dan enlisted in the Navy and enrolled in SEAL training. He made it through hell week then was rolled back on a safety violation. He made it through a second only to be dropped three weeks before graduation, for 'no real reason' other than 'p***ing off an officer', he said

Way of the gun: He first started gambling when he bet a medical officer $20 that he wouldn't make it through hell week a second time with a busted leg. He did, but was medically discharged

Compulsive: He began to gamble recklessly and drunkenly. He sold his guns for $750, turned that into $10,000 across four days on a casino boat, went to Vegas and played for three weeks straight making $187,000

He lasted four years in college – much of that time ‘medically withdrawn’ by a willing doctor while gambling in Vegas or the Bahamas.

The pattern of his life was set.

By the age of 32 the court over which he now resides was complete. With two long-term relationships behind him – three years with playmate Jessa Hinton, five years with his latest ex-girlfriend Nadine - his lifestyle was one of girls, guns, partying, drugs and sex.

Then he suffered two heart attacks, back to back. ‘I was up for four days partying,’ he admits. ‘I’d been snowboarding, I hadn’t slept, I’d got flu, I ended up going to Vegas, gambling, going to a strip club, taking some stripper back and we’re hanging out partying and having sex. I ran my body into the ground.’



'I was doing coke and I’d been up for four days so I took a Viagra for the first and last time in my life. Add it all together and “boom”'

He says: ‘When you do SEAL training you think you can do anything. I swam seven miles in the ocean three times in a month, I ran 144 miles with no sleep.

‘You think you’re bullet-proof. The difference was I was doing coke and I’d been up for four days so I took a Viagra for the first and last time in my life. Add it all together and “boom.”’

‘I don’t do coke anymore,’ he says. ‘And I certainly don’t do Viagra.’

An angiogram showed no lasting damage, according to Bilzerian, for whom two heart-attacks at the age of 32 seems only to have confirmed that he is, in fact, invincible.

He can buy whatever – perhaps whoever – he wants. His LA home alone is testament to that, tucked into hills above Sunset Boulevard with its wall of windows overlooking his pool and an unimpeded panorama of Los Angeles.

He indulges his obsessions. He has racing fuel shipped in for his supercars though he rarely drives them.

His goat sleeps on a $700 blanket – all he could find to keep him warm.

His closet is filled with cowboy boots – crocodile, ostrich, snakeskin, the more outlandish the better. A goatskin chair, sits in front of the freestanding bath in his bedroom, where a semi-automatic rifle and portrait of a goat are mounted above his bed.

Rather unnervingly he sleeps with two revolvers, and a knife, on his bedside table.

It is all unapologetically flash and aggressively masculine. But though his default mode is macho bravado this is not, he admits, a ‘forever lifestyle.’

Party animal: Dan had two back-to-back heart attacks at the age of 32. It started when he went to Vegas, got a stripper, did coke and Viagra after partying for four days straight

Guns and sex: With two long-term relationships behind him – three years with playmate Jessa Hinton, five years with his latest ex-girlfriend Nadine - his lifestyle was one of girls, guns, partying, drugs and sex

Cash rich: Dan said that when he lost it all: ‘I distinctly remember having to sell my guns – I loved my guns. I had to go broke to respect the money’

Not all fun, fun, fun: Dan says that he knows his partying ways can't last forever. He has started giving to charity and also financed several feature films, including Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg. It is all part of him trying to rebrand himself from playboy to 'gentleman of poker'

He has begun making plans for a different existence.

He has part financed several feature films including Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg, which tells the story of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and a failed mission in Afghanistan in 2005. The three other SEALs on the mission were killed – all of them friends of Bilzerian.

He has small roles in two other upcoming films – The Other Woman and The Equalizer –and is in the midst of developing a horror film.

And then there are his charitable endeavors.

This is part of his ‘rebranding’ from playboy to ‘gentleman of poker’ yet he is visibly less comfortable speaking about it.

He strokes his beard self-consciously as he relates the $100,000 he donated to Typhoon Haiyan victims and the $20,000 to the family who adopted four children with terrible birth defects only for one of them to develop leukemia.

‘When you go out and adopt four kids that have health defects, knowing you’ll be saddled with them for life – I respect that.’

There are other individual cases - $10,000 or $20,000 here, $100,000 there. He donates when a story touches him.

‘It’s a cliché,’ he says. ‘But it’s crazy the bang for your buck that you get when you do stuff like that.’

Bilzerian exists in a world that, he says, ‘Ninety nine percent of people don’t understand.

‘People cannot understand what it’s like to win over $10million in one day or to lose $5million in one night. Just knowing that you have lost a really nice house or won ten Bugatis…when you put it in those terms its really hard to stomach the losses.

‘It’s hard to keep grounded. I know I’m not. I know I need to reset at some point.’

Every week he receives requests from television companies wanting to do a reality show of his thoroughly surreal life.

Torment: Dan said it is difficult for people to imagine what it's like to win $10m one day and lose $5m the next. 'It's hard to keep grounded', he says

Family man: Dan says he wants a child in five years and if marriage is part of the deal he'll take it... but he'll have trouble giving up his adrenalin fueled ways

He says he wants a child in five years and if marriage is part of the deal he’ll take it. But it seems unlikely that this Instagram King will surrender his crown any time soon.

After all, he admits: ‘When you jump out of a plane you get a few minutes of adrenalin. When you’re playing poker you can get that same hit for 12 hours straight.