He shook up the poker world with $19M swings against Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, but who is the crypto casino mogul taking on the game's elite?
Ossi Ketola, also known as 'Monarch,' made the headlines last week when he put out an open challenge to the world’s best high rollers. He landed a series of six games with Cates, and despite winning two of the first three, he lost the last three – and they were the big ones, with buy-ins of €5M, €5M and €6M. Jungleman won around $15 million in total and Ketola lost around $19 million over the course of these and other high-stakes heads-up games.
While Cates had a small piece of himself, Ketola has claimed he was playing 100% his own money. While there’s an element of ‘Trust me, bro’ on this, it’s almost definitely true. He’s extremely wealthy, and who’s going to stake him to play the world’s best heads-up players?
“I’ve become poker famous,” Ketola said in a random chat on Kick.com. But who he is, where did he come from and how much money does he actually have?
This isn’t the first time Ketola has made waves in the poker world. If you were watching the streams from Triton Monte Carlo last year, you’ll have seen him in some outlandish outfits, winning close to $3 million. Alex Foxen even ended up in the ‘Ketola coat.’
He was somewhat overshadowed by the exploits of Vladimir ‘Gambledore’ Korzinin at Monte Carlo. Korzinin won close to $8 million on his Triton debut, winning the $150K NLH and coming second in the $200K Invitational.
He beat Ketola heads-up in the $150K in one of the most unlikely match-ups you could have predicted, heads-up in a big Triton. Ketola played at WSOP Paradise as well, finishing 5th in the $100K Triton event.
Were the games legit?
First things, first, were those high-stakes games legit?
That was the question former poker pro Mike McDonald was asking, and he immediately went hard on the high-stakes games with Jungleman.
He backtracked pretty quickly.
“Had some pretty legit/honest people tell me I was shooting from the hip with this one on @Monarch. By no means a "go deposit on his site" level endorsement, but at least he has a credible backstory, substantial history playing for high stakes, pays when he loses etc."
Ketola replied with a simple, “Cheers.”
As per the quoted tweet, Ketola was using the high-stakes games to drum up publicity for his new crypto casino, Duel. That comes with the tagline: 'The First Casino That Gives a F*ck. Just the purest form of gambling — The way it should be.'
Ketola claims he is pushing the majority of games on Duel to a 0% house edge.
How much money has Ketola got?
A lot. Enough to drop $19 million and write it off as marketing.
He made it from CSGO: Empire, whose tagline reads, 'The most trusted Counter-Strike Skin Gambling Site.'
Counter-Strike has been one of the most widely-played first-person shooters since the year 2000. Skins change the cosmetic appearance of weapons, gloves and knives, and they’re a big deal.
Sites like CSGO: Empire let you gamble with skins, depositing and withdrawing them, as well as with crypto and other payment methods. It operates in a hugely controversial space, with claims of underage gambling being levied at all CS skin gambling sites.
Developer Valve has tried to crack down on these sites as Counter-Strike has a big teen following, but whatever they do, the gambling sites have found a way round it.
CSGO: Empire has made Ketola very rich and he’s now launched Duel, a more traditional crypto casino and sportsbook.
The prize is big. Ketola is targeting Stake, the world’s biggest crypto casino. Forbes reported that Stake had revenue of $4.7 billion in 2024, valuing the company at 11 figures and probably around the $15 billion mark minimum.
When you’re talking about these figures, $19 million is chump change.
A polarising figure
Ketola is a polarising figure, but he’s now trying to reinvent himself as the anti-scammer personality in the space, after a shaky start scamming other players in Runescape when he was young (aged 6-13) — tricking players into handing over in-game items.
His sites and marketing are aimed at the new generation of gamblers. Don’t expect to see the sort of brand that William Hill or BetMGM have carefully built up. This is the new breed – social, crypto and full of attitude.
Along the way Ketola has been involved in a number of controversies, one of which saw CSGO: Empire members storm the stage at the PGL Major Copenhagen in 2024 (the officially sponsored Counter-Strike 2 event) because of its affiliation with competitor CSGORoll, leading to esports orgainization 3DMAX pulling its sponsorship deal with CSGO: Empire.
You can read Ketola’s origin story in his own words on his extensive X thread below (and with the disclaimer that elements of this have been contested). Here are the Cliffs in his own words:
- It was the year 2016 and I was 18 years old, when I launched my business: CSGOEmpire.
- Over the years, I exposed countless casinos for their fraudulent behavior. However, my main focus revolved around ”provably fair” systems around casinos. I put a ton of effort into campaigning for the use of transparent and cryptographically verifiable algorithms in casinos.
- Also worth mentioning — I’m a bit of an abstract artist, and in the past couple years I’ve done some seemingly unhinged livestreams. Sometimes I stream in a castle with a bunch of dancing midgets and chinese hookers with fake guns laying around. This is a part of an obscure artshow, but it’s also done for the purpose of getting attention for our cause.
- It also doesn’t do me favours that I’m pretty bad with verbal interviews and due to my personality, it’s often hard to get my true message across.
- I’m going to carry on with my mission — I will continue building cool products in the gambling sector, and simultaneously I’m going to do some very unhinged shit in order to put scammers on their knees. It appears that the gamba scene has only gotten worse in the last couple of years, and scammers are going rampant.
- Tl;dr: I'm just a chill guy who runs casinos and hates scammers.
Will we see Monarch back on the poker tables any time soon?
Challenges are out there. 'Jungleman' Cates is keen on a rematch, while Doug Polk has also thrown his hat into the ring and got Ketola’s attention.
The request for “no phones” comes after Ketola tried to stop Jungleman watching the stream on his phone while he was playing. Jungleman refused, stating, fairly, that he couldn’t introduce stipulations on the fly. Watching hands play out 20-minutes later undoubtedly added even more to Cates' already healthy heads-up arsenal.
Polk hit back with some trademark humor — “Why are you willing to play for 100x jungle’s net worth but only 1x mine?” — before giving out two options.
“Option A: We play for $500,000 and I have 100% of myself. Option B: We play whatever stakes you want and I'm sure people will buy action. We might not even have $20,000,000 in chips at The Lodge but if you want to come down and break our bank I'll see you here in the Lonestar state.”
Monarch’s response came quickly: “Maybe we can make something sane happen with a reasonable handicap. Let’s see, will be spamming some more showmatches later.”
Polk is one of the best heads-up players in the world but one thing he can offer Ketola is eyeballs. Polk’s content is among the most-watched in the poker space — his video on the Jungleman vs. Monarch encounter has got close to 500,000 views already.
However, one of his latest tweets proves that Ketola is currently thinking even bigger.
Triton Jeju is just round the corner as well. Will we see him there? We think it’s very likely he pops up in the poker space again very soon. And we’re here for it.
Additional images courtesy of Triton Poker/European Parliament.
