It is summer in Las Vegas, and the World Series of Poker is in full swing. Like every year, 888poker is in town as well, offering its 888Ride services in exchange for short and fun interviews with some of the biggest names in poker.

The latest player to hop on the free Vegas ride with David Tuchman is Ryan Riess, “The Beast,” the 2013 WSOP Main Event winner and a tournament crusher with close to $17 million in live winnings.

It’s now been over a decade since his massive win, so this felt like the perfect time to remember the big moment and talk about how his poker career has developed over the years.

Winning the Big One Right Out of the Gate

Ryan Riess had an incredible stroke of luck to win the Main Event at the very first World Series of Poker he attended. He graduated from college in December 2012, and only a few months later, he won the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament there is.

He remembers that, back then, it felt like it was easy. When asked how many bracelets he’d have in ten years, he confidently said five. To this day, despite numerous second and third-place finishes, he still only has that one from 2013.

Despite now being older and much more experienced, Riess says that it’s important to have that confidence that you are the best player at your table. As he explains, if you sit down in a game and believe other players are better, why sit in that game to begin with?

It’s easier to have that confidence when you are young, and seeds of doubt only start to creep in later. For Riess, winning that first Main Event was a huge boost in confidence (and bankroll, of course) that played a huge role in his future career.

He recalls going into the final table not really thinking about pay jumps. He was scared and nervous, knowing he was within the reach of what most poker players can only dream about. But, staying honest and humble, Reiss says that he believes that, with his run of cards, almost anyone would win, as he avoided coolers and managed to stay on the right side of all important flips.

High Rollers vs. Big-Field Tournaments

Even though he’s accumulated a lot of experience over the years spent on the felt, Ryan Riess sticks to his initial approach that, to excel in poker, you have to take stakes out of the equation and approach every game as if it were your local $2/$5 game (at least from the monetary perspective).

This enabled him to join the world of high-roller tournaments and play against some of the best in the world for insane amounts of money. But, since he doesn’t like to sell action, he admits that sometimes these amounts still get to him.

From the strategy point of view, he approaches big buy-in tournaments and large-field, smaller buy-in events very differently. While the former require a very GTO, computer-like approach, the latter are all about adjusting to your opponents and making plays that will make you the most chips at that very moment.

For Riess, $10,000 tournaments are the sweet spot, featuring a perfect mix of serious pros and recreational players.

Keeping It Fun

For all those coming to Vegas for the summer, “The Beast” has one important message: have fun! Most of us started playing poker because it was fun, and he thinks it’s important not to lose that perspective.

His other piece of advice to recreational players is to stay patient. It’s easy to get antsy after not being dealt a good hand for half an hour or an hour, and do something you shouldn’t.

As for his own ambitions, Riess would love nothing more than winning the Main Event again. Of course, he realizes that’s a tall order, so he’d also settle for another bracelet, especially in a game like 2-7 Single Draw, which is his favorite outside of Hold’em.