When we last left Ossi Ketola, the esports standout-turned-casino owner best known as ‘Monarch’ battled Dan Cates in a day-long series of heads-up battles in North Cyprus. Ketola lost over $14 million to ‘Jungleman’ on the live stream by the time the action wrapped up in the wee morning hours.
But anyone who may have thought that Ketola would wave the white flag, take his losses and run for the hills doesn’t have a good sense of the public persona Ketola’s looking to build. As the owner and operator of Duel, a crypto-based casino and betting platform, Ketola is looking to simultaneously battle as many of the top stars in poker heads-up, while shining a light on his brand.
So far, it’s been an expensive endeavor for Monarch.
When the high-stakes action shifted to the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju, South Korea, Ketola followed to lure more high rollers away from the tournaments and into a heads-up freezeout. For a weeklong stretch, Ketola battled both new and familiar opponents. It started with Polish pro Wiktor ‘Limitless’ Malinowski, and then came another high-profile target in Alex Foxen.
Across two nights, Ketola and Foxen battled, eventually setting a new record for the largest televised pot in poker history. Ketola returned for more action against familiar foes Elias Talvitie and Kayhan Mokri, and the matches wrapped up with Bjorn Li. Records for the largest televised heads-up match and largest televised pot were once again shattered.
Ketola’s brash, take-on-all-comers approach should have been a no-brainer win for the poker world. And in fact, he is down somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 million overall, which is a massive infusion of money into the high-stakes community.
But over the course of these matches in Jeju, Ketola’s history of highly questionable social media posts came to light. The Finnish man’s proclivity towards using the racial slurs indiscriminately across social media became a topic of conversation. Ketola, whose fortune was initially built upon the CS:GO skins marketplace, came up in a community that leaned into free speech absolutism as a justification to say abhorrent things without major consequence.
Rather than declining to interact or trying to offer context, Ketola responded with a barrage of new posts with slurs to a variety of parties who questioned his actions and speech. That included Cates, who tried to diffuse tensions and became another target of Ketola’s vitriol.
And yet, each night, the action continued on as players stepped up to try and take a chunk out of poker’s new villain. Ketola’s record now stands at 27 matches and $21 million in losses.
Wiktor Malinowski – Up $6 Million
First up for Ketola in Jeju was Wiktor ‘Limitless’ Malinowski. The 31-year-old from Poland is a veteran of online poker high-stakes cash games, and also has a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker title worth $726,000 to his credit. His live poker exploits are even more impressive. In 2021, he took down the $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl main event in Cyprus for $3,690,000.
Malinowski topped his high score in May 2024, winning a $200,000 Triton Super High Roller Montenegro event for $4,789,000. Those two results go a long way in making Malinowski the winningest live tournament poker player ever to hail from Poland.
The first heads-up match between Ketola and Malinowski mirrored the format used in Cyprus. For the $2 million buy-in, each player received an equivalent amount of chips worth exactly 100 big blinds, with stakes at $10,000-$20,000.
Ketola opened up an early lead with a triple-barrel bluff, and had a chance to take down the first match with pocket nines when Malinowski shoved with A♦K♥, but a king on the turn flipped the advantage. Ketola bluffed off the last of his chips, running into Malinowski’s rivered straight.
They reset the stacks, this time doubling the buy-in to $4 million. Ketola once again opened up an early lead, at one point four-betting with A♣8♣ to get Malinowski to lay down tens. Malinowski stole the lead back with two pair against top pair, and the match evened out once again when Ketola’s straight beat a set.
A Malinowski bluff gave him more room to operate, and on the final hand, he shoved the river of a Q♥4♠2♥2♦9♠ board, putting Ketola to the test. Ketola eventually found a call with A♣4♣, but Malinowski’s A♦Q♠ had the best of it. Malinowski walked away a $6 million winner, and Ketola’s losing streak stretched to five matches.
Alex Foxen – Down $3 Million
The action ended in the early morning hours of Saturday melting into Sunday. Production staff went off to bed, ahead of another day of streaming tournaments, but there would be more heads-up poker to come.
Foxen and Ketola had both bagged up chips for day 2 of a $150,000 Triton tournament, but still sat down to play a $2 million heads-up match of their own. The biggest early pot saw Ketola flop top pair and a flush draw. Foxen turned a straight, but Ketola’s rivered flush earned him a lead of almost 3:1. On the final hand of the match, Ketola turned a diamond flush while Foxen turned a wheel, breaking his losing streak.
Predictably, Ketola wanted more, and the stakes increased to $5 million per player. The second match swung hard on one big hand. On a board of 4♣3♦2♠J♥, Ketola had Q♦4♥ and seemingly hit gin on the 4♠ river. But after Ketola led out big on the river, Foxen shoved and put Ketola’s stack at risk. After a solid few moments of thinking it through, Ketola got away, saving himself his last $2.5 million. He was right, as Foxen had him dominated with A♦4♦.
But ultimately, Foxen’s aggression wouldn’t be denied, and he won a flip in the end to seal the bounce back win. The players then went off to sleep before playing returning for day 2 of the Triton event. Both players would reach the money, with Ketola finishing 19th for $223,000 and Foxen placing 10th for $342,000. A drop in the bucket, all things considered.
The third match was for $6 million each. Foxen took an early lead, and extended it by bluffing Ketola off of pocket jacks with ten-high. He then nailed a river flush against Ketola’s top two pair. Ketola managed to get away from the hand, but ultimately, little would go his way. He put the last of his chips in with a busted straight draw, and Foxen picked him off with third pair to win the match.
Ketola briefly stepped away, now down $9 million to the former college football player, but he would get it all back and then some before they were through. Once again, $6 million was the buy-in, but this time everything with Ketola’s way. His lead eventually swelled to more than 5:1, and then the deck delivered the deciding blow. Ketola’s pocket queens dwarfed Foxen’s pocket nines, and flopped a set for good measure.
As the sun threatened to rise in Jeju, the pair decided on one final $6 million match. And it didn’t take long for history to be made.
Ketola pulled slightly ahead early on, and then came the hand of the match. Ketola opened with K♣J♥, and Foxen called with 8♦6♦. The K♦J♦8♣ flop gave Ketola two pair, and Foxen had a pair of eights with a flush draw. Despite the strength of their hands, both players checked.
The tension built with an A♦ on the turn. Foxen led out for over 80% of the pot, and Ketola just called. The K♠ river gave Ketola a full house, and set the players on a collision course. Foxen bet $550,000 into the $800,000 pot, and Ketola ripped it in for $5.05 million effective, the entirety of Foxen’s stack. Foxen lifted his hand from the felt, stared at the cards, and eventually found a call. Ketola tabled the bad news, and the night’s action was swiftly over.
“GG,” said Foxen, ending his run against Monarch down about $3 million overall, give or take any match handicapping.
Although the matches didn’t work out for the tournament star, he did end up with eight cashes in Jeju for a little more than $1.4 million. He’s cashed for $10.6 million this year overall and is once again in the running for the Card Player Player of the Year race.
Elias Talvitie – Broke Even
In the fourth consecutive late night of action from Jeju, Ketola’s Finnish countryman took up the challenge for what would ultimately be a pair of $3 million buy-in matches. Talvitie has $6.4 million in recorded lifetime tournament earnings, most notably, banking $3,542,000 for fifth in the Triton Million Invitational at WSOP Paradise in 2024. He also took seventh in a 2022 Triton $200,000 Invitational for $1,050,000.
Once again, Ketola got out to a lead. Unfortunately for him, he and Talvitie played a pot for $5.2 million of the $6 million in play that didn’t go his way. Talvitie rivered trip fives with 6♥5♣ to crack Ketola’s pocket kings, claiming the first match and a $3 million lead.
Not one to let out a window of opportunity get away, they ran it back for another $3 million. In the turning point of the second match, Ketola nailed a runner-runner heart flush to take a lead of more than 6:1. After wearing Talvitie down to his last five big blinds, Ketola squared everything up when A♦9♦ held off Talvitie’s J♠10♣.
Kayhan Mokri – Up $5 Million
Kayhan Mokri was a familiar foe to Ketola, losing a €1 million buy-in match in Tallinn but winning a €2 million buy-in in Cyprus. The pair reignited tensions in a major way in Jeju. Over two nights, they battled in an escalating series of four heads-up bouts on the live stream.
Mokri took the first match, which had a $2 million buy-in, when his 10♦8♦ flopped a straight to crack Ketola’s pocket aces. Mokri also won the second match for another $2 million when Ketola’s set of nines were cracked on a J♣5♠2♥9♠3♣ board by Mokri’s A♥4♥.
With the stakes doubled to a $4 million buy-in, Ketola finally got his revenge. He chipped Mokri down, and then, on a 7♦4♦4♣ flop, Mokri four-bet shoved with J♦6♦. Ketola was all too happy to call with A♣4♥, turning quads with the 4♠ to seal it.
They returned for a single $5 million buy-in match the following night. With nearly $8 million of the $10 million in play in the pot, and Ketola at risk, Mokri’s A♦K♥ outflopped Ketola’s pocket queens on a run out of K♠10♦8♣3♣10♣. Just as he had in Tallinn and in Cyprus, Mokri walked away from Ketola in Jeju as the overall winner.
Bjorn Li – Down $4 Million
One final challenger stepped up to battle Ketola, a name likely to only be familiar to longtime poker fans. Bjorn Li, who hails from Hong Kong, is a long-time heads-up poker specialist. Back in 2015, the then-University of Chicago student joined Doug Polk, Dong Kim, and Jason Les to take on Carnegie Mellon University’s poker-playing AI, Claudico. Li recorded the largest win total of any of the four human opponents.
Li has only popped up on the poker radar a handful of times in the subsequent decade, most notably finishing second in a Triton short deck event in Madrid in May 2022.
The pair started off with an explosive first match, as the bout lasted just one hand. Li flopped aces and sixes on an A♦10♥6♣4♥7♣ board, and Ketola tried a pure bluff river shove with 8♦3♦. Li eventually called, and he was up $2 million right off the bat.
Ketola evened the score when he four-bet overshoved with Q♥9♦ preflop, Li called with pocket sevens, and the Q♠ spiked the turn. Li went up two matches to one when Ketola tried another bluff holding K♥10♦ on a 9♥8♥7♣5♣A♥ board. Li eventually called with a straight to take the third match.
Another river bluff from Ketola in match 4 ran into the worst-case scenario. On a board of 10♠3♠2♦K♦A♠, Ketola attempted a steal with his J♦4♦ busted flush draw. Unfortunately for him, Li had rivered the nuts with K♠9♠ and snapped him off.
Ketola proposed a radical finale for the week. An $8 million buy-in that would either leave him $12 million in the hole to Li, or up $4 million. Li agreed, and the biggest match of series kicked off. Li opened up a 3:1 lead early on, but Ketola managed a vital double when he turned trips.
With the stacks evened up, the scene was set for the new record for the biggest pot in televised poker history. Ketola four-bet jammed with 9♥9♣, and after some consideration, Li called with 8♦8♥. With $12.7 of the $16 million in play in the middle, the stakes had never been higher. The pair traded outs on a 10♥7♥6♠ flop, but two more undercards on the turn and river gave the pot to Ketola.
Ketola secured the victory a short time later with a coinflip. He was a $4 million winner against Li, and without the side action or handicaps factored in, only a $4 million loser on the trip in total. It’s unclear where the controversial whale will pop up next, but it seems likely we haven’t heard the last of him.
- Photos by Triton, Ossi Ketola, Drew Amato