Ryan Riess (born June 21, 1990) is an American professional poker player best known for winning the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event.^[1]

Riess attended Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes High School and graduated from Michigan State University with a Hospitality Business degree.^{[citation needed]}

Ryan Riess lives in Las Vegas. He has a girlfriend and declared in an interview that he is expecting to have a child around March 2019.^[2]

His first career tournament cash came in October 2012, when he took 2nd place at the World Series of Poker Circuit main event in Hammond, Indiana, for $239,063. In the following few months, he had several cashes in smaller events throughout the United States. Riess first played the WSOP in 2013, cashing in 3 preliminary events with a best finish of 11th in a $1,000 No Limit Hold'em event. Playing in his first WSOP Main Event, he made the November Nine in 5th chip position with 25,875,000. After eliminating 4 players at the final table, Riess entered heads-up against Jay Farber with a nearly 20 million chip deficit. After 90 hands of heads-up play, Riess's A♥ K♥ defeated Farber's Q♠ 5♠ to win the championship bracelet and $8,361,570.^[3][4]

In April 2017 Riess won his first World Poker Tour title at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale, earning $716,000.^[5] After a lengthy heads-up battle, Riess's A♥ K♥ defeated Alan Sternberg's 7♠ 7♦ to win the title, marking the 2nd time Riess has won a major tournament with A♥ K♥.

As of May 2020, Riess's total live tournament winnings exceed $14,990,000 of which $9,970,113 have come from cashes at the WSOP.^[6][7]