Top Stories of 2025, #5: Ossi Ketola’s Record-Shattering Heads-Up Poker Matches

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Dec 27, 2025 7 min read

Heads-up poker has a history of high-stakes and high-profile feuds, with Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu featuring in our Top Stories of the Year in 2021.

But this year, the battles were not fueled by personal animosity but by a desire to compete—and win—against the world's best. And the catalyst for this action was one man: Ossi "Monarch" Ketola.

The former esports professional walked into poker festivals in Cyprus and South Korea and took on the world's elite, including Dan Cates and Alex Foxen, in a series of week-long, multimillion-dollar cash games that set new records almost every night.

This is the story of Monarch and the heads-up cash games that shook the poker world.

Who is Ossi Ketola?

Ketola is a Finnish high-stakes poker player, entrepreneur, and former esports professional. Known in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) scene as “Monarch”, Ketola made millions competing at the highest level before founding the gambling site CSGOEmpire. He also has business ties to the online casino Duel.

He first burst onto the poker scene in November 2024, with four cashes at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo, including a runner-up finish to Vladimir Korzinin in the $150,000 NLH 8-Handed for $2,970,000.

He also final-tabled the 2024 WSOP Paradise $100,000 Triton Main Event, finishing fifth for $1,172,000.

Ossi Ketola at Onyx SHRS Cyprus

However, in August this year, Ketola went from occasional High Roller appearances to the name on everyone's lips in the poker world.

At the first-ever Onyx Super High Roller Series Cyprus, both he and Denmark's Kayhan Mokri put up $2 million each, and battled in a livestreamed heads-up match.

Ketola vs Mokri

"I first met Ossi a few years ago while I was on holiday in Marbella," Mokri told PokerNews. "And then bumped into him in Estonia at the start 2025. All the tournaments were done, and he was looking to play some heads-up sit-and-gos. I put myself on the list, and I ended up playing two games there — I lost both for $1,000,000 a piece."

The pair stayed in touch and headed to the Onyx Super High Roller Series, where the same problem raised its head once more. No tournaments, and an insatiable desire to play nosebleed heads-up sit-and-gos.

The first match in Cyprus between the pair took over five hours to complete and spanned 270 hands. The chip lead swung back and forth, with Ketola moving into an early lead only for Ketola to bet A♠K♦ for top pair on K♠Q♠5♥8♦7♥, only for Mokri to call with K♥7♦ having rivered two pair.

Monarch would battle back into the lead, only for Mokri to again pick up a hand when he needed it, flopping the nut straight on 10♥8♥7♣10♠5♦ and getting value from Ketola's Q♦8♣. This opened up a lead that Mokri wouldn't relinquish, and finally closed it out with a cold deck as both players flopped to pair on the A♦6♥4♦ However, Mokri's A♠6♠ was better than the 6♣4♣ of Ketola, and the Finn was dead on the turn after the 6♦ improved Mokri to a full house.

Ketola was keen to play again, offering immediately to up the stakes. "Call your true friends, let's do five [million]," he said.

"That's his whole thing," explained Mokri. "He wants you to be stressed, he wants to do it fast. He'll say 'Three minutes, and we play'. He's not going to give you any room — and he shouldn't! I've played a lot of heads-up matches over the course of my career, so I think I was well enough prepared for me to play with him."

Ketola vs Jungleman

Mokri jumped on a plane and headed to EPT Barcelona. He landed, and opened his phone to "a bazillion texts." The next heads-up match had started.

"I look at my phone, and I see that Jungle is playing Ossi," Mokri explains. "Apparently he had been up for 30 hours or something and was still looking for action."

Dan "Jungleman" Cates has a formidable poker resume. A back-to-back Poker Players Championship winner. A feared online presence, especially amongst high-stakes heads-up games. And now here he was taking on Ketola.

The pair would play six heads-up matches over 12 hours, with buy-ins ranging from $1 million to $6 million.

It started out as a one-sided affair, after Jungleman won the opening $1,000,000 match after just 19 hands.

With the blinds at $5,000/$10,000, Ketola A♦K♠ opened to $25,000 and Cates K♥K♦ three-bet to $100,000. Ketola then four-bet shoved, and Cates called.

The pair agreed to run it once, and the 8♠7♠2♣10♥Q♥ board saw Cates secure victory.

"Rematch? Let's do same thing," said Ketola.

Undeterred, Ketola would level things with a win of his own in Match 2 before the pair bumped up the stakes to play for $3,000,000 each. This one also went the way of Monarch.

Suddenly, across the match against Mokri, and the first three matches against Cates, Monarch was in the green. However, as the stakes increased — the pair played for a combined $32 million across the final three games — the class of Cates came through, winning all three in what became the biggest televised poker game in history.

Despite ending up down $15 million in the space of just two days, Ketola still had the energy to call out Daniel Negreanu, saying he wanted to "mog" him. In online slang, “mog” means to completely outclass or dominate someone.

However, Ketola had different opponents in mind than Kid Poker...

Ossi Ketola at Triton Jeju

One month later, Ketola was playing at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju. He played three events, cashing in one, but was much busier away from the tournament tables playing yet more high stakes cash games.

This time, he took on five different players across a week of play.

"I was aware of these matches beforehand," said Mokri, who said that Ketola had expressed a desire to play against the world's best. "Ossi actually asked me to find him opponents - familiar faces, players with high profiles etc."

First, Wiktor Malinowski defeated him twice for a total of $6,000,000, before Ketola battled Alex Foxen over the course of two nights. While the pair split the first two matches, Foxen was up after they increased the stakes from $2 million to $5 million a piece.

However, the second day saw Monarch win two of the three $6 million matches, including a record-breaking $11 million pot.

Next up? He traded $3 million matches with Elias Talvitie on September 14, before resuming hostilities with Mokri who he had first battled in Cyprus a month prior.

"He asked me in private whether I wanted to play, and I said 'I'm tired, go play somebody else.' And then he called me out on X. So I just answered, 'Gear up little boy, let's play."

Mokri would win both opening $2 million matches, before Ketola squared things up with a $4 million win of his own. Just like Foxen, this match-up would spread into a second day as Mokri walked away a $5 million winner.

"It didn't go to well for him, but it was very good for me!" said Mokri.

This series of matches that stretched an entire week culminated in a $16 million dollar heads-up match against Bjorn Li, that featured a record $12,700,000 pot — the largest ever for a televised poker hand.

Will The Matches Continue in 2026?

When asked, Mokri isn't entirely sure whether the heads-up matches will continue into 2026, saying he has no interest in hunting Ketola down to continue battling.

"I think he enjoys the competitions as much as he enjoys the adrenaline of the games," said Mokri. "Maybe he'll be a bit more selective with who he plays.

If the games were to continue, what could the stakes even increase to?

"For sure there is a number that would be too big, but what that number is, is pure speculation, to be honest with you," said Mokri. "I think he has a very good long-term perspective of things. And it's very easy to underestimate the guy, but he's a very intelligent guy who knows how to do stuff.

"I think he's a very sharp guy. Obviously, he's not going to improve as a poker player with the small amount he plays, but I think if he actually took his time and wanted to learn the game and had the motivation, he would probably be a very good poker player."

Ossi Ketola 2025 Heads-Up Match Results

Ketola vs Mokri I

Ketola vs Jungleman

Ketola vs. Malinowski

Ketola vs. Foxen I

Ketola vs. Foxen II

Ketola vs. Talvitie

Ketola vs. Mokri II

Ketola vs. Mokri III

Ketola vs. Li

Pictures courtesy of Triton Poker Series

Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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• Tags Alex Foxen Bjorn Li Elias Talvitie Kayhan Mokri Ossi Ketola Triton Poker Wiktor Malinowski
• Related Players Alex FoxenBjorn LiElias TalvitieKayhan MokriWiktor MalinowskiOssi Ketola