Ossi Ketola Is Back – and He Took $6 Million Off Malinowski

Ossi “Monarch” Ketola came to Jeju once again to play million-dollar heads-up battles.  His first opponent, Wiktor “Limitless” Malinowski , came to take his money, which, after a few minutes of play, looked like it was going to work out, but at the end of the night it was Monarch who took Limitless’s money.

Ossi Ketola’s casino-named Duel Heads-Up battle at the Triton High Roller Series started at $1 million each. But it did not stay there.

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What is Duel Heads Up at Triton?

Duel Heads Up is the co-branded heads-up series run at Triton Poker where Monarch plays heads-up freezeout against anybody.

The basics:

• Format: heads-up freezeout, 100bb no top-up
• Stakes: agreed between the two players, from $1 million to $3 million a side
• Blinds: scaled to the stake, from $5,000/$10,000 up to $15,000/$30,000
• Where: alongside the main Triton schedule, on the Triton live stream

It is not an official Triton tournament. No event number or Triton title is attached. It is high-stakes side action, promoted by Triton and branded by Duel, and it has quietly become the most-watched thing at the festival.

Lose a match, and you do not wait for next year. You agree to a bigger number and sit straight back down. That is exactly what Ketola did.

Match 1: $2,000,000, and it was over in minutes

The pair sat down on September 9 at Les A Casino in Jeju, during the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II. Each player put up $1 million. Blinds were $5,000/$10,000, so they started 100 big blinds deep. One freezeout, winner takes all.

It did not last long.

How the money went in

Malinowski opened the button to $25,000 with K♣ K♦. Ketola looked down at 9♥ 6♣ and called.

The flop came K♥ 8♥ 7♣ and hit both of them. Malinowski flopped top set. Ketola picked up an open-ended straight draw.

Ketola checked. Malinowski bet just $15,000 into $50,000, barely a third of the pot. Ketola check-raised to $50,000. Malinowski flat-called.

The turn was the 5♠. Ketola hit the nuts.

He checked once more. Malinowski bet $75,000. Ketola check-raised to $250,000. Malinowski moved all-in.

That should have been the end of it within two seconds. Ketola cannot lose the hand as it stands. He has 77.3% of the pot with one card to come, and Malinowski is drawing to just ten cards out of 44 – one king, three eights, three sevens, three fives.

He tanked, worked the camera, and finally slid in his last $580,000. That put $905,000 in from each man and $1,810,000 in the middle, 90.5 big blinds apiece.

The river was the 5♥.

Board paired. Kings full of fives. Malinowski scooped the lot, and the match was over.

Ketola was never deciding anything in that tank. He had the nuts, and he knew it. He was holding the moment for the stream, and everyone watching could see exactly what he was doing.

The river had a different plan for him.

His reaction afterward was pure Monarch:

“I knew it would be an expensive slow roll. You shouldn’t f*** with the universe. But I did it for the clip farm.”

That is a $905,000 content budget. Most creators would call that a rough CPM.

Match 2: $4,000,000, and the queen that cost Malinowski everything

Ketola’s answer to losing the first match was to double the stakes. Match 2 was played for $2 million a side, with blinds at $10,000/$20,000.

He won in a single hand, building it street by street.

Malinowski opened to $50,000. Ketola three-bet to $200,000 with K♣ K♠. Malinowski called with A♣ Q♦, and $400,000 was already in the middle.

The flop came 2♦ 7♠ 8♥. Nothing for Malinowski at all.

Ketola bet $165,000, a shade over a third of the pot. Malinowski called.

Then the turn brought the Q♥.

That card is a trap, and it is the whole hand. Malinowski pairs his queen and now has something to call with. He doesn’t have much more equity. He picks up two queens as outs but loses a card to come, so his chances barely move: Ketola 89%, Malinowski 11%.

Ketola bet $400,000 into $730,000. Malinowski called again.

The river was the 5♣. A blank.

Ketola moved all-in for $1,485,000 into a $3,015,000 pot. Malinowski called off his last $985,000 with a pair of queens, and the graphic went to 100% and 0%.

Pocket kings, played for three streets of value against a man who was drawing to three cards from the moment the flop landed. The series was level at 1-1.

Match 3: $4,000,000, and the booth thought he had lost his mind

The stakes stayed at $2 million a side. So did the blinds, at $10,000/$20,000.

Then came the hand that defined the whole series.

Every chip went in before a single card hit the felt.

Malinowski opened to $50,000. Ketola three-bet to $200,000 from the big blind. Malinowski moved all-in. And Ketola called off his entire $1,665,000 stack, 83 big blinds, with Q♥ 9♥.

Queen-nine suited. For the whole $4 million match.

Malinowski turned over A♣ Q♣. He had Ketola dominated and covered.

In the commentary booth, Randy Lew asked out loud whether Monarch had lost his mind.

The equity graphic backed him up. Malinowski 71%. Ketola 27%. The other 2% was the chop. Ketola had called off a $2 million match stack as a two-and-a-half-to-one underdog, holding a hand that could not even beat a queen.

The flop came 8♣ 2♦ 5♦ and made it worse. Ketola was down to 14%.

Then the 9♠ hit the turn.

One card, and the whole thing flipped. Ketola paired his nine and went from 14% to 93%. Malinowski was suddenly the one drawing, and he was drawing to three cards – the three remaining aces, three outs out of 44.

The river blanked.

Ketola took the $3,330,000 pot and left Malinowski sitting behind $650,000, barely 32 big blinds in a match that had started at 100. The man in the booth had just questioned was now holding more than 80% of the chips in a $4 million match.

The bustout

Malinowski never recovered. He was down to $630,000 when the last hand arrived, and he built the pot himself.

He limped the button for $20,000. Ketola raised to $50,000 from the big blind with {Ah Kc}, and Malinowski called with {Ac 8h}.

Dominated again. Ketola 72%, Malinowski 23%, with a 5% chop in between.

The flop came 6♦ A♠ 5♠. Both men paired their ace. Only one of them had a kicker worth anything.

Ketola checked. Malinowski bet $50,000. Ketola check-raised to $125,000, and Malinowski called, leaving himself $475,000 behind. The graphic read 83% to 15%.

The turn was the 7♥, and it was the one card that gave Malinowski a way out. It handed him a straight draw and lifted him to 25%.

Both players checked it.

The river was the 2♦. Nothing.

Then Ketola did something you almost never see. He bet $1,500,000 into a $350,000 pot. More than four times the pot, and more than three times what Malinowski had left in front of him.

Malinowski called off his last $475,000 with aces and an eight kicker. He was drawing dead. 100% and 0%.

That was $4 million to Ketola, and the series was 2-1 in his favor.

Match 4: $6,000,000, and the hand that ended the series

The stakes climbed one last time, to $3 million a side. Blinds moved up to $15,000/$30,000.

By the time the final hand arrived, Malinowski was down to $820,000, and Ketola was sitting behind $2.6 million.

Ketola had A♦ 8♦ in the big blind. Malinowski had A♣ 5♠ on the button. The board came A♠ 10♥ Q♠ 8♥ 3♦.

Both men paired their ace on the flop. The difference arrived on the turn, when the 8♥ gave Ketola aces and eights. Malinowski still had one pair and a five kicker.

On the river, Malinowski led out for $270,000. Ketola raised to $1,700,000, putting Malinowski all-in.

Malinowski called off his last chips.

Aces and eights. Over.

The rivalry finally turns

Malinowski beat Ketola at Jeju in 2025 as well. The Finn kept coming back, and the Pole kept taking the money. Match 1 in Jeju II looked the same.

It was not.

Ketola’s 2025 Jeju run is still the benchmark for the whole format. Over seven nights, he put up roughly $63 million in buy-ins against Malinowski, Alex Foxen, Elias Talvitie, Kayhan Mokri and Bjorn Li. Two of those hands rewrote the record books:

• $12,700,000 against Bjorn Li – the largest pot ever shown on a live poker stream in nominal dollars
• $10,990,000 against Alex Foxen – the first eight-figure hand ever broadcast

In 2025, he didn’t walk away in profit. In 2026, he did, and he did it by raising the stakes after every setback.

Read the full heads-up battle match-by-match history in our Ossi Ketola heads-up archive .

Who is Ossi Ketola?

Ketola is a Finnish entrepreneur and the founder of Duel. He is not a tournament grinder, and he does not pretend to be. He plays enormous heads-up matches against elite professionals, on camera, and he is happy to be the underdog while doing it.

That willingness is why this format exists. Nobody else is putting up seven figures a side against Malinowski and streaming it.

For his full earnings, background, and estimated net worth, see our Ossi Ketola player profile and our Ossi Ketola net worth breakdown .

What happens next at Triton Jeju

Ketola usually stays for the whole festival and plays whoever sits down. Expect more matches, expect the stakes to climb, and expect at least one more hand you will still be watching clips of in December and even after.