The Waterford, Mich., native beat out more than 6,000 hopefuls who paid the $10,000 entry, and after nine days of playing in the poker marathon, he emerged victorious — and a bit richer, to say the least.

After nearly three and a half hours of playing heads-up poker against amateur player Jay Farber, Riess was staring at Ace-King. When Farber went all-in with his Queen-Five, he called immediately and jumped out of his chair, seeing he had the advantage.

In front of dozens of family and friends wearing “Riess the Beast” T-shirts, Riess crouched down with tears of excitement building in his eyes as he was one card away from victory. The final card hit the table, missing Farber’s hand, and Riess instantly went down under a pile of screaming supporters.

It wasn’t an easy journey, however, as the 23-year-old was the youngest player to be sitting at the final table, better known as the “November Nine.” The challenge didn’t stop there, as he started the final day of one-on-one poker down $85 million chips to Farber’s $115 million.

On his LinkedIn profile, Riess wrote of only one MSU event he participated in: 2010 Vegas Night held by the School of Hospitality Business. Riess also lived his life as a card shark by dealing at Stacks Hold ‘Em Bar in East Lansing and Card Sharks in his hometown.

It was a childhood dream that came to life, as Riess said on television after the tournament he wanted to win since watching Chris Moneymaker take the Main Event in 2003. The first week of the tournament was played in July, until the final nine players went on a three-month hiatus to regroup and plan for the final table. As he stood in front of hundreds inside of Penn & Teller Theater at Rio Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Riess tried to describe the feeling on ESPN.

“I was so excited waiting 100 days or whatever it was to play this. I’m just speechless,” he said