"Disrespect the game": John Krpan blasts Clemen Deng over a Poker Masters bubble hand

A short clip from the 2026 Poker Masters has become one of the most argued-about hands of the series. On the money bubble of Event #4: $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em, chip leader Clemen Deng had the chance to bet Joey Weissman's last few chips and chose not to. John Krpan, who was at the table, told Deng he had "disrespected the game." Nick Palma stepped in to defend Deng, PokerNews reported on Oct 18. The video, first posted on X on Oct 16, had nearly 400,000 views by Monday morning, by X's count.

The hand

Event #4 drew 80 entries at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, and the top 12 were paid, per PGT.com's official results. With 13 players left on the first day of play and the blinds at 15,000/30,000, here is how the hand went, according to PokerNews:

• Weissman raised from the button to 180,000 with the ace and king of diamonds. That left him just 10,000 chips behind, so he wasn't all in.
• Deng, in the big blind with around 1.6 million, called with pocket threes instead of moving all in.
• The board ran out nine, eight, four, ten, jack, and both players checked every street.
• Deng's threes won the pot. Weissman was left with 10,000 chips, one-third of a big blind, and the bubble was still on.

A single bet from Deng at any point would have put Weissman's last chips in the middle.

What was said

Krpan, who wasn't in the hand, spoke up. "Disrespect the game. It's what you did, disrespected the game," he told Deng, per PokerNews. Deng answered, "it's part of my strategy."

Palma, who also wasn't in the hand, took Deng's side. "No, that's how it is now. It's strategy," he said. "I'm not defending him for no reason, that's just how the game is now." Krpan didn't back down and kept criticizing the play, PokerNews reported.

Why the chip leader would keep a short stack alive

Palma explained the reasoning at the table: "The reason why he leaves him with a 10k is because he wants to have everyone short so he can continue to raise and abuse the bubble. It has nothing to do with, he's not disrespecting anyone."

The idea is that while one tiny stack is still alive, the other players with small and medium stacks would rather wait for that player to bust than risk finishing 13th themselves. In this event, 13th paid nothing and 12th paid $20,000. That makes them likely to fold almost everything, which lets the chip leader raise pot after pot and pick up chips without much risk. The longer the bubble lasts, the more the big stack gains, as PokerNews put it.

PokerNews added that the move has become common in high roller events over the past couple of years, and that short stacks use it too: keeping a chip back near a big pay jump leaves them the option to fold if someone raises behind them. We looked at when that leftover chip is worth keeping, with the numbers worked out by script, in Leaving One Chip Behind: When It Helps and When It Hurts.

How it played out

Keeping the chip back worked for Weissman. He lost the hand but built his 10,000 back up to around 190,000 and got through the bubble, per PokerNews. Adrian Mateos went out in 13th instead: he was all in with the ace and seven of clubs against Chris Hunichen's pocket nines, and a queen-high board ended his tournament. It was Mateos' third bubble in the first four events, PokerNews reported. He went on to win Event #5 two days later.

Krpan lost a race right after the bubble burst and finished 12th for $20,000, according to PokerNews. Weissman made it to ninth for $24,000. Deng reached heads-up and finished second for $144,000, behind Vitalijs Zavorotnijs, per PGT.com.

PokerNews describes Krpan as a recreational player who appeared in the poker scenes of the movie Molly's Game.

Smart strategy or bad for the game?

On X, the reaction split along the same line as the table. Some posters called Krpan out of touch with how tournaments are played today, and others sided with him on how the game should feel. A repost of the clip framed it as Palma "breaking down current poker strategy to an old timer." PokerNews put the question to its readers in a poll: smart strategy or disrespectful to the game?

What the hand shows is how much the money bubble changes a tournament. A chip leader's best play there isn't always to knock out the shortest stack, and a short stack's best play isn't always to go all in.

A note on the buy-in

The buy-in is $10,500. Of that, $10,000 from each entry goes into the prize pool, which is why 80 entries made an $800,000 pool. The other $500 is the fee the house keeps. Some outlets call it a $10K event, after the prize-pool share.