Ryan Riess (Riess the Beast)

Born in 1990 in the USA, Ryan Riess is best known for winning the 2013 World Series of Poker main event. In fact, it was at this tournament that he won his biggest ever payout of US$8.3 million. To date, he has won over $16 million in live poker tournaments. He also has to his record, 63 career paid places in WSOP events, which is pretty phenomenal.

His first big win at 22

The first time Ryan Riess' name was heard on the international poker scene was in 2012 when Ryan came close to winning a WSOP bracelet in the $1,675 No Limit Hold'em Main Event. He eventually finished 2nd and took home $239,063 in the process. His career was launched.

A mindset of fire

One of the reasons behind Ryan Riess's success is his fiery mindset. He's always very optimistic, works very hard, studies poker daily and is friends with several excellent poker players with whom he discusses strategy regularly. To give an idea of his attitude, in 2013, when there were only 9 players left in the main event and he was the chip leader out of the 9 players, he was asked about his chances of winning the tournament. A friend of his had already found himself in a similar situation as chip leader and had finished 10th in the tournament. The journalists wanted to know how he felt about finally reaching the final table as chip leader. To which he replied: "Oh, we're going to win [the tournament], there's no chance of that not happening. Note here that he was speaking in "we" because he's very close to his friends and fans.