Bilzerian makes daring bet over bike ride

Instagram star Dan Bilzerian has a $1.2 million prop bet on the line: Can he ride a bicycle from L.A. to Las Vegas in 48 hours?

That's the wager Bilzerian, a Vegas poker player, made with Texas poker player Bill Perkins, and the ride must be completed by April 2, as Perkins outlined the deal online.

Each man is putting $600,000 in the pot. Winner takes all.

Lance Armstrong has signed up to help Bilzerian train. Armstrong offered to help through mutual acquaintance Joe Rogan.

Bilzerian, who hadn't been on a bike in 18 years before this, could be betting on his life, since he reportedly survived a cocaine-Viagra-flu-and-stripper double heart attack at age 25, and a 2011 pulmonary embolism while flying from Maui to Vegas and back during tournament play.

Bilzerian is a 35-year-old multimillionaire who boasts 16 million followers on Instagram, posting sexually suggestive photos of himself with women at Valley of Fire State Park; lolling with six mostly naked women at a time; standing with stacks of cash at an Aria casino cage; partying at club Omnia; and blowing stuff up in the desert.

Those Instagram posts are just from the past three weeks.

Many have written about Bilzerian in such bro-centric places as GQ and Vice, some of whom question whether he has ever been bankrolled by his wealthy father, Paul Bilzerian, a convicted corporate raider.

But Bilzerian has said he went broke at the University of Florida, then brought $10,000 to Vegas, gambled it up to $187,000, and has been poker playing his own way to riches ever since.

The Tampa Bay, Florida, native and Navy veteran became more prominent at the 2013 World Series of Poker, where he sat in the spectators' gallery while a woman stroked his beard.

Elsewhere, Hakkasan DJ Steve Aoki has encouraged Bilzerian to dive into a club crowd and throw cake at club fans. He's driven a tank over a car. He's driven a Lamborghini to its death in the desert. He was in a controversial 2011 private poker circle with filmmakers Tobey Maguire and Nick Cassavetes. He entered a 2015 plea of no contest to a misdemeanor after blowing up a tractor trailer cab near Vegas. He's appeared in a few minor movies. He lost $2.3 million in chips on one coin flip.

And now he has to wrap up this bike ride 320 miles from his L.A. house to the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.

"The hard roads usually take you to the best places," he said Tuesday night in an Instagram caption next to a photo of a bike and a private jet in Van Nuys, California.

BRITNEY POLITICS

Britney Spears didn't report meeting Donald Trump or any other Republicans while the presidential candidates were competing in the Nevada GOP caucus this week.

Last week, Spears met with Hillary Clinton, as seen in the Planet Hollywood star's social media, causing a stir by adding, then subtracting, the vote-for-Hillary hashtag #ImWithHer — although Spears let stand her gushing praise of Clinton and eight exclamation marks on Instagram.

Most comments on Spears' Instagram and Twitter posts with Clinton were supportive of her posts.

Spears hasn't posted about the Republicans. A request for comment from Planet Hollywood on whether the singer met any Republicans went unanswered by deadline after sundown.

YET ANOTHER CLUB

No Vegas nightclub needed a refresh as badly as Haze in the Aria hotel. It was the site of pimp and prostitution allegations, and the starting point of a 2013 after-club road rage crash that killed two.

Of course, cynics may conjecture that Haze just happened to get fingered for crimes allowed at other clubs, bars and maybe even restaurants, but Haze was also a dreadful scene in the end.

Anyway, the Hakkasan nightclub multinational conglomerate took over the defunct Haze space and announced last year it would become a new club named Jewel, featuring 24,000 square feet and a capacity of 1,925. That's small by Vegas standards, or "boutique" in Strip parlance.

On Wednesday, Hakkasan issued an opening date of May 19, a Thursday, for the club and its mirrored doors, arched bronze portals, glass chandelier, wood-granite-burgundy-leather banquettes, VIP sky boxes, LED walls, and LED-screen staircase. (Women and drunks usually dislike club stairs, FYI.)

ZIPLINING FOR CHARITY

And if you're an excursion tourist, or if you're into ziplines, downtown's SlotZilla has a charity offer, donating all revenue earned from 1 to 7 p.m. Thursday to Spread the Word Nevada, a nonprofit that has provided more than 3 million books to 400,000 children in low-income neighborhoods.

I love SlotZilla. It's scary when you're getting hooked up, but the second you pick your feet up and start gliding over Fremont Street Experience? Magical.

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Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous