Ryan Riess WSOP glory came in 2013, when he won the Main Event on the first try, and now the champion is watching a very different kind of final table wait play out at the 2026 World Series of Poker. In a new interview with PokerNews, Riess looked back at his own run to the bracelet and shared his thoughts on how the modern game, and the modern break before the final table, compare to what he experienced more than a decade ago.
Riess has a unique vantage point on the question. He is one of the last champions crowned under the old November Nine format, which gave finalists months to prepare, and he is now watching a field play for the same title after a break measured in weeks rather than months. His comments, gathered by PokerNews around the 2026 Main Event’s three week gap before its final table, offer a rare bridge between two very different eras of the tournament.
Ryan Riess’s 2013 WSOP Main Event Run
Riess won the WSOP Main Event in 2013 in his first ever appearance at the Series, a result that instantly made him one of the more surprising champions of the modern era. He arrived at the November Nine final table sitting roughly in the middle of the counts, with around 25.8 million chips, well behind chip leader JC Tran but far from the shortest stack.
The rest of that final table featured a mix of styles and experience levels, including Amir Lehavot and Marc McLaughlin among others who had survived a field of thousands to reach the sport’s biggest stage. Riess navigated that table to claim the bracelet and the title, a result poker media has referenced many times since as one of the more efficient breakout runs in Main Event history.
How Riess Prepared for His Final Table
What stands out most from the new interview is Riess’s honesty about his own preparation, or lack of it, heading into the 2013 final table. Asked about his plan for the break, he told PokerNews, “My plan was to just play poker during the break,” a strategy that saw him enter the Borgata Poker Open Main Event and finish in 68th place rather than spend the months studying his specific opponents and seat.
Looking back, Riess was candid about the gap in his approach. “I didn’t prepare for my specific position as much as I probably should have,” he said, a line that reflects both the era’s more casual attitude toward final table preparation and Riess’s own instinct driven style at the tables. It is a refreshingly honest admission from a former champion, and one that helps explain why his read on the modern preparation process carries real weight.
From the November Nine to a Three Week Break
For nine straight years, from 2008 through 2016, the WSOP used the November Nine format, pausing the Main Event for roughly four months between the money bubble and the nine player final table. The idea was to build television anchor coverage and give the finalists time to become minor celebrities before their last hands were played, but it also meant months of second guessing, media obligations, and, for some players, paralysis by analysis.
The 2026 WSOP Main Event took a different path, using a three week gap between the end of the money rounds and the final table instead of a multi month wait. Riess, who lived through the longer version of the format, does not think a short break is a bad thing. “A single day off is the worst option by far,” he said, arguing that some separation between the bubble and the final table matters. But he was equally clear that the modern approach gets the balance right, adding that “three weeks is a lot better” than the alternative of virtually no gap at all.
Riess’s Read on the 2026 Main Event Field
Riess has been following the 2026 Main Event broadcast closely. Speaking about chip leader Lucas Jumalon, Riess kept his comments grounded rather than crowning a winner in advance. “He’s in the driver’s seat, but it’s poker,” he said, a reminder that stack size heading into a final table is an advantage rather than a guarantee.
That caution proved well placed. Poker Pro Academy has previously covered how the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table ultimately saw the 22 year old Jumalon pull away from the field to win the bracelet, a result that fits Riess’s broader point about how quickly fortunes can swing once a final table actually gets underway. Players who want a refresher on how these formats and payout structures work can check our WSOP guide for a full breakdown of the Main Event and the wider Series.
What Modern Players Have That Riess Didn’t
Perhaps the most striking part of the interview is Riess’s acknowledgment of how much the preparation toolkit has changed since 2013. He noted that his era simply lacked the studying tools and solver technology that today’s finalists lean on heavily in the weeks before a final table, from hand history reviews to detailed range work built around specific stack sizes and seating.
Where Riess spent his break playing live tournaments on instinct, a modern finalist can spend the same weeks running simulations, reviewing solver outputs for common stack depths, and building a plan for the exact seats they expect to face. That shift does not guarantee better results, as Riess’s own “it’s poker” philosophy makes clear, but it does mean today’s players walk into their final tables with preparation that was not available to the 2013 field.
A Champion’s Perspective on a Changing Main Event
Ryan Riess’s comments to PokerNews land at an interesting moment for the WSOP Main Event, as the tournament continues to experiment with the length and structure of its final table break. Having lived through both the marathon wait of the November Nine years and, now, the compressed three week window as a spectator and former champion, Riess is in a rare position to judge what works.
His verdict, that a short gap beats no gap at all but that a few weeks strikes a healthier balance than four months, offers a useful data point as the WSOP weighs how much time is really needed between the money and the Main Event’s biggest stage. For newer players following along, our how to play poker guide is a good starting point for understanding the fundamentals behind the game Riess and this year’s finalists are competing at.
