At the Triton Series in Jeju, Ossi Ketola (Monarch) had another heads-up against the regulars.
He lost both matches to Viktor Malinovsky – first they chipped in $2 million, then the stakes were doubled.
In one of the hands, $5.7 million was up for grabs.
Ketola called the 3-bet and continuation bet, and bet on the turn and river himself.
In another, Victor bluffed his opponent on the river.
The next day, Ossi played Alex Foxen. The first match for $2 million lasted only an hour and was won by the Finn. He lost the rematch, in which the buy-in was raised to $5 million.
Here, in one of the most striking hands, the players were dealt trips to trips, but the match did not end there.
Foxen bet on the flop and turn, and on the river Ketola led and folded all-in.
Ossi was set to continue the banquet, but his plans were not destined to come true (yet).
"Unfortunately, we couldn't continue, the film crew went to bed," Ketola wrote. "We'll see what happens tomorrow."
UPD: A day later, Foxen and Ketola continued playing with a buy-in of $6 million.
After the first high-profile match against Jungleman, we all knew that Ossi wasn't about to go down in stakes.
Read ReadPatrick Leonard is not hooked by modern poker streams:
– I’m somehow completely disconnected from all poker streams. High stakes cash, tritons, even these 10m heads up matches. But I grew up literally waiting till HSP was released in the UO at 5am to watch it. The stakes are so much bigger, but it just feels like something is missing?
– I could tell you the top 30 pots in HSP history, who was in them, what the action was, I watched Jamie Gold vs Farha 100+ but for some reason whenever I switch stream on in less than 3 minutes I’ve switched off. Is it the characters? I kinda know what it is but can’t describe it
“Feels like everythings lost its soul,” says Andy Stacks. “Now it’s just algorithms, likes and trying to outshine each other for the spotlight.”
– "I think this is actually the word I’ve been searching for for so long. Soul. You’re absolutely right. The soul is different. The soul has changed. The souls has been programmed. Thank you!"
Uri Peleg recalled his first offline session:
– First time I ever played live poker was in atlantic city in 2007. I had just won MTG worlds for 40,000$, but was still a nit , so went to play 0.5/1$. The only poker I knew was from watching highstakes poker.
3 memorable hands:
- In one I limped behind 83o, because you have to play small cards to be tricky :) (thanks sammy farha!)
hit a 83Axx board, someone tripled and I called down. He said "aces up" angrily. I was like "aces what?" and he said "just joking, you win".- In another hand I had QQ on some low board, I bet super small three times, I was terrified of sets. My opponent showed a missed open ender and gently berated me for giving him insane pot odds.
- Last hand I remember I had AA! Obviously limp... It was like a 7way pot, board had 99T on the flop, me and another guy went allin in a clicking war. Honestly I was completely lost what to do. Somehow the stars aligned and he had KT rather than trips.
Ended up 300$ and with a very distinct feeling that poker is easy :)
In a recent $10k GG Millions tournament, Roman Emelyanov folded kings preflop, leaving a lasting impression on Beriuzy.
– On the bubble of the 10k, recreational folds Kings preflop correctly.
Speechless. This is the sickest random insane soul read I have ever seen.
Dmitry Shakhov clarified in a Telegram channel that Roman "Romashka accidentally didn't have time to do anything with the kings. As a result, he lost nothing except the BB he placed against the aces!"
“Pretty sure it was a very lucky misclick," Beriuzy also came to the right conclusion a little later. "It's a rich recreational that has won this 4 times before so you can take off your wild stupid theories🤣.”
Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov legalized their relationship after 10 years of marriage:
– WE FINALLY DID IT!!!
Len Ashby doesn't have such warm feelings about the festival :
– While playing a no limit game at Bellagio like ten years ago I think I gave Chris Johnson and Jeremy Ausmus both a 5k free roll if I ever attended Burning Man. I had to have gone voluntarily and be sober. And if someone offered me 50k to go now so I’d profit 40k I still wouldn’t go. 😀
Patrick Leonard continues to yearn for the past, he still hasn't come to terms with the closure of PocketFives :
– "Pocket fives dying/being killed was such a bad thing for online poker. Should have been invested in, popularised & supported."
“What happened?” Mustafa Kanit asked to Pads remind him.
– It was bought by GGPoker via PokerStake and then just killed. There was a lot of outrage, they said they’d bring it back. They didn’t. Hopefully 2026 we can see it back, people loved it from all eras. Moorman, jakoon, djk, Lena etc etc etc
– Seeing not lasagnaaammm on that list hurts! He had all of this guys on his pocket 🤣😂🤣❤️ ( Ed. – lasagnaaammm is the nickname of Mustafa Kanit himself )
KPR16 recalled the most memorable hand in his career :
– Over 3 million hands of poker in my poker career but this one stands out as one of the crazier pots I played.
$1K/2K and 5 players for 4 bet cap on the turn!
See how the hand played out in full .
– Did you have some sort of limit dream machine program? Thought I heard that on a podcast but maybe it was someone else.
– Yes. Most successful limit players after 2011 were studying how machines play and I suspect some of them were even studying them earlier. However, the biggest edges still came from understanding how to exploit.
Seth Davis explains why regulars don't show emotion when they win huge amounts:
– Tournament poker is losing losing losing hundreds of thousands at a time. That's just the reality of it—until you finally run deep and take one down and that makes up for all those losses, and more.
Don't be fooled. Losing for thousands of hours comes with a range of emotions. And, the biggest one when it comes to winning might surprise you. It's not joy.
What you see on camera is empathy and respect. Losing so much takes emotional control, and when you finally do win, you can't help but have empathy for the person who lost. You've been in those shoes most of your career.
That's literally me on this trip. Five events, multiple bullets, and I'm down $350,000.
This is where the etiquette comes from. Is it bad for the game that people don't show emotions? Probably. People love drama, rivalries, reactions, and that's fair enough. But high-stakes tournament professionals don't put in thousands of hours to aura farm on a Twitter clip.
They respect the game and they're here to win trophies. They breathe competition and in most cases, they're professionals, not entertainers.
ACR added a tournament a couple of months ago, Phill's Thrill, with a buy-in of $10k.
Chris Moneymaker celebrated his victory yesterday.
— Finished it off while doing live commentary!
The tournament attracted 65 entries, while in a similar tournament on GG, participants made 159 entries.
Scott Seaver was left with a huge impression after watching the film "My Sunshine":
– Oh no I watched aftersun on my flight and now I won’t be able to stop thinking about this film for I have no idea how long. How did this not win every single award there is, it’s a tour de force of filmmaking and direction I just…. I don’t even know.
On RottenTomatoes, the film has a 96% approval rating from critics and an 82% approval rating from audiences.
Phil Hellmuth challenges all haters:
– alk is cheap
If someone actually believes that I am a losing player in cash games (I have won over $3M since 2014 in cash games and have tax records to prove it), then will they put their money where their mouth is?
My critic and I will post $500,000 each, and that critic can book me—dollar for dollar—in the games you say I lose money in, televised cash games (where I won 23-out-of-24 sessions from 2013-2019).
This year: I am winning $110,000 in 6 sessions of $25-$50 “Hellmuth’s Home Game” (on YouTube and CBS Sports Net)
– "yapyapyap hu4rollz," – Ossi Ketola noted in the comments.
Other comments were similarly doubtful.
