Poker Skill vs Upper Hand
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Poker Skill
Master Texas Hold'em with daily, bite-sized lessons and interactive puzzles. Get personalized coaching on every decision to improve your instincts and understanding of game dynamics. Practice without real money or wagering.
- Daily guided lessons
- Interactive puzzles
- Personalized coaching
- Texas Hold'em fundamentals
- Preflop decision practice
- Pot odds and equity training
- Bluffing and hand reading drills
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Learn Texas Hold'em the way you'd learn an instrument: a few minutes of real practice a day. Poker Skill gives you short, guided lessons built around real decisions, then a daily puzzle to test your instincts. Every answer gets coaching, so you know why a play works, not just whether you got it right. No wagering. No real money. Just poker, taught one hand at a time. What you'll practice: - Texas Hold'em fundamentals, position, and table dynamics - Preflop decisions you can trust - Pot odds, outs, and equity without the math headache - Bluffing and hand reading as you improve Short sessions, streaks, and visible progress make it easy to stay with it. Start from zero, or fix the leaks in a game you already have. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Upper Hand
Engage in strategic 1v1 card duels combining poker and chess elements. Play against friends asynchronously, test your skills in ranked matches, or practice offline. Features include daily puzzles and a coach mode powered by an advanced engine.
- Asynchronous turn-based play
- Ranked matches against random opponents
- Offline solo play
- Daily board puzzles
- AI coaching engine
- Quick hands for short sessions
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Upper Hand is the best app for Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC). FEATURES • Play your friends: Async turn-based play with dunks, chat and more. • Ranked: Get matched against a random opponent. • Play offline: play solo offline so you can play on a plane, on the subway, or anywhere without wifi. • Daily puzzle: a new board every day. Find the best play. • Coach: Get trained by the strongest OFC engine. • Quick hands: play one while you wait for coffee, or a dozen on a flight. HOW TO PLAY • You get 5 cards to start, then 3 at a time. Keep 2, throw 1 away. • Fill three rows: 5 cards on the bottom, 5 in the middle, 3 on top. • Your bottom hand must beat your middle, and your middle must beat your top. Get the order wrong and you foul, which scores zero. • Your rows go up against your opponent's, row by row. Big hands earn bonus points. • Make a pair of Queens or better on top without fouling and you unlock Upper Hand Advantage: on the next hand you're dealt all 14 cards at once. NEW TO POKER? The tutorial takes about two minutes and includes an optional crash course on poker hands. A list of every hand is one tap away in every game. ALREADY PLAY OFC? Upper Hand is Pineapple Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC / OFCP) with the rules you already know: 13 cards, three rows, fouls, royalties and Fantasy Land, which we call Upper Hand Advantage. Play heads-up Pineapple OFC against your poker group, find a ranked opponent, or practice OFC poker offline against the Pro bot. Terms: https://www.playupperhand.com/terms Privacy: https://www.playupperhand.com/privacy EULA: https://www.playupperhand.com/eula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Poker Skill at none against Upper Hand's shown. Poker Skill also leads on ratings volume (404 vs 43). Upper Hand's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 69%) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Poker Skill sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Upper Hand sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Upper Hand holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Poker Skill has 404 ratings behind it against 43, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of Poker Skill's written reviews are positive against 100% of Upper Hand's.
Poker Skill ships an update every 6 days, Upper Hand every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Poker Skill | Upper Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (404 ratings) | 4.9 (43 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 69.2% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 404 — better | 43 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 260 MB | 114 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +12 |
| Developer | Funco | Echagames LLC |
Customer experience
Poker Skill
Upper Hand
In-app purchases
Poker Skill
- Poker Skill Plus, Monthly$9.991 Month
- Poker Skill Plus, Monthly$13.991 Month
- Poker Skill Plus, Monthly$14.991 Month
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- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly1 Year trial$64.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly$64.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly7 Days trial$64.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly7 Days trial$89.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly$89.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly1 Year trial$89.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly7 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly1 Year trial$99.991 Year
- Poker Skill Plus, Yearly$99.991 Year
Upper Hand
- Weekly Subscription$2.997 Days
- Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
- Annual Subscription$39.991 Year
- Lifetime Pro Access$99.99









