Pokermancer vs ChessHole
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pokermancer
Engage in a strategic roguelite poker-puzzle experience by tracing card paths on a 4x4 grid to form poker hands and achieve target scores. Collect items and trinkets to enhance your build and overcome escalating challenges and boss encounters across multiple floors.
- Strategic card path tracing
- Poker hand formation
- Roguelite progression
- Item and trinket collection
- Boss battles with unique rules
- Escalating difficulty modes
- One-handed play
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Pokermancer is a roguelite poker-puzzle game built for quick, strategic runs. Trace paths through a 4x4 grid of cards to create poker hands and reach the target score. Cleared cards disappear, new cards fall in from your deck, and every path you draw can matter as much as the hand you form. Between rounds, spend your gold in the Break Room on trinkets and items that change how you score. Discover powerful synergies, shape your build, and turn modest hands into massive results. Each floor adds new hazards that change the board, including frozen, burning, and statically charged cards. Every fifth round, a boss changes up the rules. Adapt your strategy or lose the run! Beat all five tables to unlock Overtime, an escalating difficulty mode with ten ranks that remove resources, add challenges, and push your builds even further. Play for free through the first three floors. One purchase unlocks the full game! Features: * 100+ trinkets and 30+ items to collect * 11 unique starting packs each with their own perks and spells * 25+ boss conditions * 7 hazard types to contend with * 10 Overtime difficulty ranks per pack * Keep playing in an endless mode beyond floor 5 * Portrait orientation and one-handed play * No ads, no loot boxes, no pay-to-win; one purchase unlocks the entire game and all future content
ChessHole
This minimalist puzzle game reimagines chess pieces as tools to navigate a disappearing board. The objective is to clear all unoccupied tiles without trapping your pieces. It offers a unique challenge beyond traditional chess, focusing on strategic movement and board preservation.
- Disappearing board mechanic
- Hand-authored puzzle campaign
- Daily shareable puzzles
- Puzzle Club archive
- Weekly puzzle packs
- Unlimited hints
- Generated practice boards
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ChessHole is a minimalist chess-inspired puzzle game where every move destroys the square you leave behind. This is not normal chess. There is no checkmate, no opponent, and no opening theory. Instead, each chess piece becomes a movement tool in a disappearing-floor puzzle. Move the rook down a corridor, jump a knight over broken ground, preserve a bishop diagonal, and plan the final safe squares before the board collapses behind you. The goal is simple: clear every unoccupied tile without stranding your pieces. Features: - Hand-authored puzzle campaign - Daily puzzle with a shareable path card - Puzzle Club archive for past daily puzzles - Weekly puzzle packs for subscribers - Unlimited hints with Puzzle Club - King, rook, bishop, and knight movement personalities - Drag or tap pieces with fast undo and restart - Generated boards for fresh practice Every move costs a square. Spend the board wisely. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ChessHole at 5.0 against Pokermancer's 4.6. Pokermancer's advantage is ratings volume (151 vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price, ads, 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. Pokermancer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ChessHole sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
ChessHole holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pokermancer has 151 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Pokermancer ships an update every 3 days, ChessHole weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pokermancer | ChessHole |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (151 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 87.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 151 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 110 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adam Bray | Palash Oswal |
Customer experience
Pokermancer
ChessHole
In-app purchases
Pokermancer
- Full Game Unlock$4.99
ChessHole
- Puzzle Club Monthly$2.991 Month
- Puzzle Club Annual$19.991 Year
- ChessHole Full Unlock$4.99
Questions
Is Pokermancer free?
Is ChessHole free?
Which has better reviews, Pokermancer or ChessHole?
Do Pokermancer or ChessHole have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pokermancer or ChessHole?
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