There have been plenty of mentions of Dan Bilzerian (pictured) in the poker forums here on PocketFives and elsewhere. From a $2,000 stake in Jay Farber in the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event that paid off for seven-figures to mainstream media sites flaunting his Instagram, Bilzerian has become a relatively known commodity as of late. We caught up with him on Thursday for his take.

PocketFives: Talk about your staking arrangement with Jay Farberin the Main Event. How did that came about and what were the specifics?

Dan Bilzerian: He asked me if I wanted 20% of his Main Event and I said sure. Then, boom, he got second place. I’m taking him on a trip to Cabo, so that should be fun and I’m trying to hook him up a bit too. We had a panda on the rail, as people saw on TV. I paid him like $6,000 to jump off the bleachers, sing, and do a baseball slide across the stage. Out of nowhere, he dove off the second level of the bleachers, his panda head popped off, he tried to tackle a camera guy, and he got thrown out.

PocketFives: We understand you’re giving away $100,000 before the end of the year to people you deem in need?

Dan Bilzerian: Yeah. I don’t like giving to organizations, which take fees and salaries. Instead, I like giving money straight to the people. I partnered up with a rapper named The Game. He is giving away $100,000 and I am giving away $100,000 by Christmas. This is just something I decided to do. I also gave $10,000 to the victims of the recent typhoon in Asia.

PocketFives: Here’s a question from one of our members: If God would tell you to drop one of the following, which one would you choose? Play poker, girls (or wife), driving any cars, or all of your accumulated fortune?

Dan Bilzerian: That’s a no-brainer: poker. It’s the bane of my existence. When you win, you don’t care and when you lose, it’s depressing. I don’t play as much as I used to either. It’s hard. I’ve been playing such big games, so it’s hard to get the buy-ins together very often. Plus, once you go big, it’s hard to go back to the smaller buy-ins.

PocketFives: Here’s another question from one of our members: What was it like knowing for months that you had a stake in the WSOP?

Dan Bilzerian: The money wasn’t going to change my life. I wanted Jay (pictured) to win it for him. Winning compared to every other place is such a significant difference. I wanted him to practice poker too. I don’t think he ever played much heads-up. I would have practiced more than he did, but it is what it is. Second place – you can’t beat that.

PocketFives: Your Instagramimages have popped up everywhere, including an article entitled, “From crashed Ferraris, to naked women acting as plates for sushi, Bilzerian’s Instagram is a look into the life of a man with a lot of money and a lot of time on his hands.” Why do people care so much about your Instagram?

Dan Bilzerian: I have a pretty crazy life, so when something happens, I’ll take a picture and post it. My Instagram is interesting because it gives people a look into my life. I only post things I find really interesting. The first site that ran it, BroBible, didn’t contact me. A lot of other sites then ran their version of the same story. I got like 25,000 new followers in three days on Instagram from it all.

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