Life comes at you pretty fast. Most of us roll out of bed, reach for coffee, scan the news, glance at a few emails, and head to the office.
Dan 'Jungleman' Cates? He sometimes wakes up to a random text inviting him to play poker for $500,000. For him, it’s just another day of ‘life in the fast lane’ and the high-stakes jungle of a restless poker nomad.
And that’s precisely what happened just a few short weeks ago at the Onyx Club in Cyprus.
Cates spills the tea on his high-stakes matchup and more in the next edition of PokerOrg's The Interview, coming soon. For now, here's a sneak peek.
'I packed my stuff and flew all the way to Cyprus'
“Last month I woke up to this text that says this guy named Ketola wants to play me for $500K,” shares Cates. “I think to myself, this guy sounds like some online pro.”
Offers for nosebleed heads-up matches don’t come as often as they once did for Cates, so his curiosity was piqued. Still, he lingered in bed, a bit tired, a little dejected, until the following text chimed.
“Then someone else texted me and said, ‘Hey, you should play this guy.’ That woke me right up and put me in a much better mood. It’s time to go do some stuff.”
Cates had plans to go to Barcelona, from where he was in Stockholm, but that all changed after receiving the text. “I packed my stuff and flew all the way to Cyprus to play.”
When Cates arrived at the Onyx Club, the Super High Roller Poker Series was winding down. He would have to wait his turn in line to play the Finnish gambling mogul Ossi 'Monarch' Ketola, who was finishing up a match with a European friend.
Learn more about the Finnish enigma Ossi 'Monarch' Ketola in our exclusive interview - see the link below.From the start of the heads-up battle, nothing went according to plan for Cates, at least for the first few matches.
“He actually played quite a bit better than I expected, at least in this session,” confesses Cates. “We actually played for a million euros, and I lost. I was a little bit frustrated. Now I had just lost a bunch of friends and my own money, and I'm on a little bit of a downswing.”
That was about the time a slew of heckling memes started popping up on the Internet.
“Soon after the match, Ketola started talking shit, and there were these memes on the net, something about a lion roaring from this guy named Monarch on Twitter. He's saying, ‘They took down the jungle.’ I thought it was funny, actually, but that's what happens when you lose.”
Cates, pictured in costume at a Triton Poker event in 2022, doesn't mind the spotlight.
'He offers to bump it up to three million euros... Okay, sure'
It’s commonplace for players to sell action when the bankroll required for heads-up play could easily entail a slew of seven-figure pots and massive swings.
“I had to sell action, because it was quite a big game. I'm not crazy enough to play for big portions of my roll. That would hurt me too much. So, I was always playing basically for the same share of myself.”
Big action draws big investors when the profits could potentially soar into the millions.
“Selling action for the match was pretty easy, actually. Especially when a lot of people see big numbers and big wins, they hit you up and want a piece.”
The stakes started at a million euros per match and were quickly increased three times that amount.
The heads-up duel saw pots reach a staggering size, with several $4M+ pots being contested.“After he beats me, I'm pretty steamed. It seemed like he was getting very lucky. Two pair versus a better two pair, trips versus trips, that kind of thing. That's quite lucky. And then I lose, and maybe he thinks he's got an edge; I don’t know. Maybe he's feeling it. He offers to bump it up to three million euros. Okay, sure. And I lose that one. And then I get bluffed by six-four offsuit."
The losing streak continued, and the Jungleman’s world was a bit shaken.
“Then he won again. Now I lost my crew, and myself, five million euros total. I'm not feeling too thrilled about this. And it seems like I’m in a world of pain. The memes are going to happen again. I'm ready for the lion roaring, conquering the jungle, slaying the animal. Whatever.
"Then he says, ‘Okay, let's go for five million euros'. I think, okay, okay, here's a good chance for me. And I started to figure out some holes in his game.”
What happened next would break the poker industry broadcast records. The largest pot on a televised stream, $8.5 million, occurred between Cates and Ketola, far surpassing previous nosebleed games at the popular Triton Poker and Hustler Casino Live streams.
Hear more in Cates's own words in the next edition of PokerOrg's The Interview, available later this week.
Monarch finds a new challenger... or two
For his part, Ossi 'Monarch' Ketola isn't done with high-stakes poker... not by a long shot.
His first heads-up opponent, on Saturday September 13 at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, Korea, will be Wiktor Malinowski, with Alex Foxen believed to be waiting in line.
The action will stream at Monarch's Kick channel.
Jungleman shares more from the battle with Ketola, his 'a-ha' poker moments, his approach to dealing with scammers and much more in the newest edition of PokerOrg's The Interview, coming soon.
Additional images courtesy of Triton Poker/Joe Giron Photography/pokerphotoarchive.com.
