Dan 'Jungleman' Cates is ready for round two against Ossi 'Monarch' Ketola after winning $15 million from the Finn in a series of high-stakes heads-up matches on Tuesday at the Onyx Club in Cyprus. When asked what stakes he would play for, Cates replied, "Whatever he wants."
The ultra-high stakes matches happened after Ketola put out an open challenge and found opponents, first in Tallinn last week, and then in Cyprus, during the Onyx Super High Roller Series.
Cates also played Ketola in Tallinn and lost €1 million in an early morning match-up where he was visibly frustrated with how things went down.
He was much happier in Cyprus. But things got off to a rocky start — Cates was down €3 million after the first three matches. Luckily for him, the stakes kept going up and Cates won the final three matches, with escalating buy-ins of €5 million, €5 million, and €6 million.
Cates: 'It feels pretty good to make history'
The two players tangled again in a ring cash game at the Onyx Club on Wednesday night, where the stakes were a more modest $500/1000/2000. Cates lost $55,000 but Ketola was the game's biggest loser, dropping another $600,000, mainly to Rob Yong after getting his jacks cracked in his final hand.
Ketola three-bet preflop with 
and picked up a call from Yong who had 
. Yong called a bet of $18,000 on the 
flop and was rewarded with the 
turn.
As James Dempsey said on comms, "Not like this! Monarch just getting savaged on this table once again."
All the money went in on the turn and Ketola declined to rebuy.
Talking afterwards, Cates revealed how he was feeling after the huge win on Tuesday: "Pretty good. It feels pretty good to make history."
Cates went on to say that he thought he could beat Ketola, who was "gloating" on Twitter and "calling himself the Monarch."
"I played with him in Tallinn," Cates continued. "I didn't know who he was then. There were some conditions for the match and I wasn't too happy that I lost. He seemed to play better than some people had imagined he would... I got more of a read on him as time went on, and things worked out better for me, he ran a little less hot."
Asked if he had a message for Ketola, Cates said: "Even kings can fall unless they stand up to the test of being a true king. I'm not finished knocking him down."
All eyes will now be on Triton Jeju where its next Super High Roller Series starts September 8, immediately after the first ever Triton One festival. Will Monarch turn up to reclaim his crown?
