At the Triton Series in Korea, Ossi Ketola was playing expensive heads-up matches every day.
He lost $6 million to Wiktor Malinowski, won $3 million from Alex Foxen, broke even after matches with Elias Talvitie and Kayhan Mokri, and won $4 million at the end of the series from Bjorn "AsianFlushie" Lee.
They initially played four $2 million matches against the latter, with AsianFlushie winning three. Ultimately, however, Ketola prevailed in the $8 million buy-in match, which also set a new record for the largest bankroll in a televised cash game: $12.7 million.
Ketola raised to $200,000 , Lee moved up to $800,000 c Ketola immediately shoved, Lee thought about it and called.
🔥 $12,700,000! THE BIGGEST POT IN TELEVISED HISTORY!
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 19, 2025
Ossi Ketola @Monarch and Bjorn Li @bjorn__li clash on poker’s biggest stage. pic.twitter.com/zLkWc8AiYZ
Between heads-up rounds, Ossi took to the poker subreddit to answer questions from the audience.
– Hi,
Some of you may have heard of me lately. I'm that angry whale.
Ended up on this corner of the internet for the first time in years and thought it would be fun to do an AMA. Ask away.
(For those who don't know -- Lately I played the largest ever televised poker games by far, once losing around $17 million in one sitting)
– Do you like making everyone hate you? Doug Polk recently compared you to Kanye West, thoughts?
"Kanye, I'll take as a compliment.
Polk doesn't know me though and is reporting on very surface level information without much critical thinking/research. Just bandwagon?"
– What would you be doing if you didn’t get rich off of a virtual items in video games?
Do you like poker so much you would have tried to go pro?
"Quite polarized, not sure what I would've been doing. Solid chance I could've built a different kind of business and succeeded, although the gambling stuff is obviously an incredibly lucrative market and it's just a perfect match for me. I've been outearning my parents with gambling-related stuff since the age of 13.
Funny enough, I did think I would go pro in poker when I was like 13-14 years old, punting some tens of thousands I made from Runescape by playing poker, not knowing what the fuck I was doing. Had inflated expectations of my own ability and was just punting (there's a certain level of irony here, perhaps related to the present moment xd).
Somehow though I quit playing altogether and created my own poker site operating with Runescape gold as a currency at the age of 15"
– Who at Triton have you offered to play HU against? Who has declined to play you? Have you considered changing the format to say a 200bb format instead of 100? What do you think your biggest advantage / disadvantage in this format is?
"Everyone is throwing offers. Most too greedy and uninteresting. Many also declined playing.
I'm kinda stuck on the 100bb, that's what I'm used to. The advantage is simply that it's the only format I know somewhat. I haven't seen many poker hands in my life.
Not entirely sure how many backers they have, usually probably around 5 or so. Yeah I know somewhat who is staking them usually, but I don't really care."
– If its really you, which I dont think it is, why are you so racist?
Editor's note: Jay Farber found numerous racist comments on Ossie's Twitter account and is calling on poker media to boycott him.
"Meh, it's not that serious. I'm a kid of the internet and I enjoy my shitposting. However between the lines there is a certain extent of protesting against the modern woke culture & censorship psyops."
"meh, no matter how many corporate zombies we hire or how much it costs me, I will remain to speak my mind (to a certain extent) and aim to be unapologetically myself.
idgaf, I'd rather get cancelled and rejected by society than to bend over like that."
"I genuinely believe the act of censoring certain words is a huge psyop & a slippery slope towards 1984. In my childhood they used to sell chocolate called "n****ers kisses" in the store and that was fine -- Next they stigmatized midget, rtard and whatnot. Who knows what's next.
It's a huge psyop. Focus on what's actually relevant and pay attention to the real problems in the world. Not mudfights by purple haired bitches."
– As a rich recreational player – I get promoting your new site. But do you ever consider spending millions traveling and doing life things? Not mutually exclusive I guess.
Also why challenge the top pros as a non pro yourself, when you could be a relatively unknown in pretty high stakes games. Just that stakes not big enough in those types?
"I had a phase where I did all of the travelling stuff and generic "enjoying life" stuff. That was kinda hella dull. Rather just focus on what I'm hyperfixated to.
Traveling/life things in general are quite overrated imo, even if you had financial freedom & no time constraints, you'd eventually probably get bored. Building a family ought to be where the meaning is at though."
– Why would you challenge the best heads up player in the world for record amounts while being so tired lol.
"It's not as bad deal as people think. The handicap is very substantial and that's baked into the circumstances."
Editor's note: In the event of a loss, opponents pay out losses with an additional odds. Rumor has it that Foxen played with a 1.25 handicap, meaning he won $4 million at Ketola's table, but actually pocketed $5 million.
– Do you play super high stakes to try to not feel dead inside? Never really sure if people are your friend just because you are rich? Get more sleep, bro.
"That's a part of it for sure, although there are multiple motives involved in this high rolling stuff.
My dopamine receptors are generally quite fried and also in this kind of position in life, it's hard to get excitement from mundane stuff. I'm definitely enjoying the thrill."
– What’s next for you? What’s the end goal?
"kids is one of main purpose of life. Keep building my business. Purify the gamba (gambling) space."
– Will you add zero rake poker to Duel.com?
"I would fucking love to implement poker, but I'm afraid it's just an uphill battle. I firmly believe online poker is dying & also I believe that poker sites must do some really deceptive shit in order to succeed. A legitimate/transparent/pure poker site wouldn't succeed imo. A huge pity."
– I've watched all the HU matches -- I'm mainly curious about your poker background, obviously you've played in some high rollers in recent years and refer to yourself as a 'whale', but how do you see yourself as a poker player?
"I don't have much experience at all. Just pressing buttons on GTO Wizard sometimes.
As a player I think I'm a very fast learner and kind of have potential in that sense, but still I'm going to remain being a fish since I'm not going to spend the time to actually study/practice properly.
What made me jump into the game -- Patrik Antonius invited me to Triton, I went there for the lols and actually performed super well in the tournaments. Somehow then fell into this rabbit hole and now this is becoming quite a fundamental part for promoting my business and my personal brand attached to it."
– How do you live life with your self proclaimed fried dopamine receptors. Do you find it difficult to focus playing poker/doing anything else productively? Do you ever struggle to enjoy life?
"It goes in waves, I can fix it. Only a couple months ago I was living on a gigamonk dopamine detox mode for quite some months.
struggling to enjoy life? somewhat. Difficult times I guess, having to push so hard to make the next breakthrough. But hopes still up.
High stakes poker is easy to focus on. Work occasionally gets incredibly dull or frustrating."
– Do you watch previous hand while on the toilet?
"No."
– Did you take the COVID vaccine?
"Fuck no."
– Why do you respect others so little that you casually employ racism to boost your brand? Do you literally care about nothing other than your ego and money? Please explain in detail.
"To boost my brand? Bruh, you can't fathom how much EV my businesses have lost simply because I kinda don't give a fuck and often just say what I want."
– Why do you play poker if its not for the money?
"Glory."
– What have some of your biggest purchases been in the last year non-business related?
Which of those purchases were worth the money?
Which ones do you feel like you could've gone without?
"I don't buy much stuff. Main expenses would be personal staff, moving around with entourage, renting ultra luxury resorts and flying around private."
– Are you a degen?
"Kinda have multiple personalities/phases
Sometimes a degen, sometimes a giga disciplined monk."
– Tell your story.
"Doing gambling related business stuff since age of 13
ran my first big casino for almost 10 years now. Started aggressively campaigning against scammers and advocating for fair/transparent gambling around 8 years ago, although the amount of effort I've put into this sort of campaigning has gone in waves. Hoping to go harder at it again and do a big purification in the crypto gamba space, although I'm spread quite thin and got a lot on my plate."
– What is your bankroll for these HU games? Up to what point would you double or nothing?
"I don't even know. Meh, probably not gonna punt "that" much more."
– Does anyone help you work on the game?
– I've never consulted a coach, but I have a few friends who are regulars and who give me advice from time to time. Nothing serious, though.
– What is your approach to studying the game? Do you have a coach or mentor? Do you use any programs you want to shout out?
"No real coaches, some gigapro friends give casual advice here and there, but that's about it."
– Which opponent was the best? Why?
"I guess Jungle did an extremely good job at exploiting me, although I was in the opposite of the zone state there. I was playing horribly."
