PROFILE
Name: Ryan Riess
Age: 23
Birthplace: East Lansing, MI
Current Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
One of the breakout stars of the World Series of Poker Circuit battles, Ryan Riess will come to the 2013 WSOP Championship Event “November Nine” in the middle of the pack with his 25.875 million in chips. Riess will take Seat 4 when the tournament resumes in early November, with two short stacks on his right in Michiel Brummelhuis (11.275 million) and Mark Newhouse (7.35 million) and, on his immediate left, the bigger stacks of Amir Lehavot (29.7 million) and Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (26.525) to contend with.
While attending Michigan State University, Riess would spend some time working as a dealer in a local poker room on the side to make a little pocket money. Those activities would change after his first venture into a WSOP Circuit event in October 2012 at the Horseshoe Hammond in Chicago, where he finished second in the $1650 Main Event for a $239,063 score. Although the money allowed him to step away from the dealer’s box, he still completed his degree at MSU before attacking the WSOPC events full bore.
Since the beginning of this year, Riess has demonstrated excellent skill on the tables across the United States. He has cashed in 20 tournaments (most of them on the WSOPC) and earned his way into the WSOP National Championship in New Orleans in May, where he finished in 69th place. At this year’s WSOP, Riess has had three cashes for slightly more than $30,000 and, with his fourth cash at the “November Nine” final table, Riess will make his biggest payday ever in his burgeoning poker career.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Day 1(A): 72,250
Day 2(A): 74,400
Day 3: 167,000
Day 4: 1,078,000
Day 5: 5,570,000
Day 6: 3,830,000
KEY HAND
Riess may not have been a member of the “November Nine” without a key double up on Day 7 that kept him in the tournament. After floating around the bottom of the final 27 players with a dwindling chip stack, Riess was able to get his final 2.25 million chips in against Chris Lindh and had him crushed with his A-Q against Lindh’s A-10. After the board ran out Jack high, Riess got his double up and, from there, went on to build his sizeable stack with the elimination of Rep Porter in twelfth place. After Porter’s elimination, Riess was sitting on a 17.65 million stack and wouldn’t look back on his way to the WSOP Championship Event final table.
