Dan Bilzerian & Doug Polk Have Explosive Bitcoin Argument

Dan Bilzerian and Doug Polk have gained a great deal of fame through poker and beyond. Bilzerian is known for winning a fortune through high-stakes poker along with his booming social media presence. Polk is one of the top online poker cash players of all time and has two thriving YouTube channels.

Both poker players are also in the cryptocurrency space. And this sparked a recent argument between the two, based on Bilzerian getting back into Bitcoin. Here are the highlights from their explosive clash.

Polk Rips Bilzerian for Leaving Crypto in the First Place

Dan Bilzerian recently tweeted to his 1.44 million Twitter followers that he’s getting back into cryptocurrencies. This prompted a tweet from Polk, where he bashed “The King of Instagram” for leaving the space to begin with:

Polk: “If you ever have to get back into crypto you are doing it wrong.”

Polk launched a cryptocurrency related YouTube channel in December. And he’s quickly become one of the most-popular crypto YouTubers, gaining over 200,000 followers in a short time. This is likely why he took exception to Bilzerian completely pulling his investments, then re-entering the space.

Bilzerian Tweets that He Sold His Bitcoin at $16,500

Bitcoin entered December 2017 at around $10,000. The famed cryptocurrency skyrocketed in value to nearly $20,000 by the middle of the month. Bilzerian sold at some point in between, which is a good move considering that it fell to around $6,500 by February 2018.

And the social media playboy made sure to mention this in his comment back to Polk:

Bilzerian: “Selling my bitcoin at 16,500 was wrong huh? Plz tell me what else I’m doing wrong you dumb shit, make sure to use my name so people pay attention to you.

Polk: “Since you brought up the subject, make sure to continue to use Daddy’s money so people pay attention to you as well.”

Polk’s tweet is about how many people believe that hedge fund manager Paul Bilzerian gave his son tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten funds, before being sentenced to prison for securities and tax violations.

Some believe that Dan then laundered the money through high-stakes poker to make it seem like his fortune comes entirely from the game.

Bilzerian Claims to Have Won Far More Poker Profits than Polk

Polk must believe that he has an edge over Bilzerian in both poker and cryptocurrencies. This is a definite possibility, considering that he owns the Upswing poker training site and has a large crypto portfolio. And he wanted to see what Bilzerian considers himself the expert in:

Polk: “Would you say you are more of an expert on poker or bitcoin Dan?”

Bilzerian: “To save time, I’ll bet you a million dollars I can show wires for poker wins in excess of 40 million dollars in a one or two year period. I’ve probably won more in one night than you have in your whole life, so I guess to answer your question, poker.”

Bilzerian has repeatedly said in the past that he’s not one of the world’s best poker pros. Instead, he compares himself to a “minor league baseball player” who competes against “high school players,” who aren’t as skilled as him. And he references these winnings to show that he at least knows something about the game.

Polk Issues Bilzerian a Poker Challenge

Few would argue that Doug Polk has more overall poker skill than Bilzerian. He just didn’t have the starting bankroll or play in the right games to have made as much as Bilzerian. Therefore, it’s no surprise that he brings up a poker challenge as a way to settle this debate:

Polk: “As fun as it sounds to settle this by getting your accountant involved (he does an amazing job btw) how about we actually play some poker?”

Bilzerian: “Point is, you said I didn’t make money playing poker, so let’s bet on it.”

Bilzerian backs down from the challenge by stating that the bet is about Polk claiming he didn’t make his money from poker. And it’s very possible that he could have wire/bank information that shows high-stakes poker opponents paying him a lot of money.

Polk Is Bullish on Bitcoin’s Future

As mentioned on his YouTube channel, “Doug Polk Crypto,” Polk has been investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for a few years. This makes sense, given that many poker players knew of Bitcoin before the general public. Bitcoin has been offered as an online poker deposit option since 2011.

He ended his argument with Bilzerian by tweeting:

“The value will increase over time, and trying to time the market will be on average an inferior strategy to investing in the long term success of Bitcoin.”

This goes back to a common debate between crypto investors on whether to “hodl” (hold) or sell for profits during bull markets. Polk obviously believes that the best strategy is to hold for the long haul. Bilzerian takes a different approach, as evidenced by how he sold during the bull run of Dec 2017.

Unless somebody is a skilled crypto investor, they should follow Polk’s approach until further notice. Bitcoin has risen from one penny upon its launch in 2009 to being worth over $19,800 last December. It’s currently trading for $9,392 at the time of this post after a winter market correction.