POKERULTIMATE

The goal

Everyone starts with the same number of chips. Win chips from the other players, hand after hand; a player who loses all their chips is out. The game ends when one player holds every chip on the table — the champion.

You do not need the best cards to win a pot. If you bet and everyone else folds, the pot is yours without showing your cards. Choosing when to bet, when to call and when to let a hand go is the whole game.

A table seats 2 to 6 players. You play against computer players, or against friends online (see “Using this app”).

Seats and the dealer button

Play always goes clockwise, to the left. One seat holds the dealer button, the round D marker. The first button goes to a random player; after every hand it moves one seat to the left, skipping players who are out.

The button decides who posts the blinds and who acts first. After the flop the button acts last, which is an advantage — you see what everyone else did before you decide — and the button goes round so everyone gets it in turn.

The blinds

Before the cards are dealt, the two players to the left of the button put in forced bets called blinds, so that every hand has something to play for:

• Small blind (SB) — the player directly to the left of the button puts in half the big blind.
• Big blind (BB) — the next player puts in the full big blind. It is also the smallest bet allowed in the hand.

With blinds of 10/20 the small blind puts in 10 and the big blind 20. A player who cannot cover a whole blind puts in everything they have and is all in.

At some tables the blinds go up as the game goes on, so the game does not last forever — see “The tables”.

Hole cards

The deck is shuffled and every player gets two cards face down, dealt one at a time starting with the small blind. These are your hole cards, and only you can see them. Yours are shown at the bottom of the screen; everyone else’s stay hidden until a showdown.

Four betting rounds

A hand has up to four betting rounds. Before each new round, shared cards are dealt face up in the middle of the table. Together they are called the board, and every player uses the same board.

In each round the players act in turn: check, bet, call, raise or fold (see “Betting”). The round is over when everyone still in has put in the same amount — or is all in — and everyone has had a chance to act. Before the flop the big blind gets that chance too: if everyone just calls, the big blind may still check or raise.

As in a casino, the top card of the deck is burned — put aside unseen — before the flop, the turn and the river.

If everyone but one player folds, the hand ends at once and that player takes the pot. No more cards are dealt and nobody shows their hand.

The showdown

If two or more players are still in after the betting on the river, the hand goes to a showdown: everyone still in shows their hole cards, and the best five-card hand wins the pot.

Each player makes the best five-card hand out of seven cards — their two hole cards and the five on the board. You may use both of your cards, one of them, or none at all. The game picks the best five for you.

When nobody can bet any more because players are all in, the remaining board cards are dealt straight away and the hands still in are shown.

Ties and split pots

If two or more players have hands of exactly the same value, they split the pot equally. Suits never break a tie: no suit is higher than another.

If the pot cannot be divided evenly, the odd chips go out one at a time to the tied winners, starting with the first winner to the left of the button.

The board is — a straight to the ace that nobody can beat. Whatever their hole cards, everyone still in plays the board and the pot is split.

Two players (heads-up)

When only two players are left — at the Heads-Up table, or at the end of any game — the blinds work a little differently:

• The player on the button posts the small blind; the other player posts the big blind.
• Before the flop, the button acts first.
• After the flop, the button acts last.

Going out and finishing places

A player with no chips left at the end of a hand is out. Players are ranked in the order they go out, and the last one standing finishes first. If two players go out in the same hand, the one who started that hand with fewer chips finishes lower.

Best five of seven

At the showdown you have seven cards — two in your hand and five on the board — but only the best five count. Two cards are always left over, and they never matter, not even to break a tie.

With in your hand and a board of , you have an ace-high Flush: .

Playing the board. If the five board cards make a better hand than anything you can make with your own cards, your hand is simply the board — and so is everyone else’s who cannot do better.

Kickers and ties

When two players have the same kind of hand, the higher one wins: a pair of kings beats a pair of queens. If they are still equal, the remaining cards of the five — the kickers — are compared one by one, highest first.

The wheel: A-2-3-4-5

The ace can be the bottom of a straight, A-2-3-4-5, called the wheel. Its top card is the 5, so it is the lowest straight: 6-5-4-3-2 beats it. The ace cannot turn the corner — Q-K-A-2-3 is not a straight.

In a single suit, A-2-3-4-5 is the lowest straight flush.

Your options

In this app a bet or raise is always shown as your total for the round: “Raise 120” means your bet in this round becomes 120 in all, not 120 more.

Minimum bet and minimum raise

• The smallest bet is one big blind.
• The smallest raise is the size of the last full bet or raise in the same round. Before the flop the big blind counts as the opening bet, so the first raise must add at least one more big blind.
• There is no maximum: you can always go all in.
• If you do not have enough chips for a full bet, raise or call, you can still go all in with what you have.

Blinds are 10/20. Marco raises to 60 — a raise of 40. If Ella wants to raise again she must make it at least 100 (60 + 40). If she makes it 200, that raise is 140, and the next one must go to at least 340.

At the start of every round the minimum goes back to one big blind.

A short all-in does not reopen the betting

If a player goes all in for less than a full raise, the others still have to call the extra chips to stay in. But it does not count as a raise for players who have already acted in that round: they may call or fold, but not raise again — unless another player makes a full raise after it.

Blinds 10/20, on the flop. You bet 100 and Felix calls. Sofia goes all in for 150 — only 50 more, less than a full raise of 100. You and Felix must each add 50 to call, or fold, but neither of you may raise.

Players who have not acted yet in that round may still raise as usual, by at least a full raise on top of the all-in.

Uncalled bets come back

Chips that nobody matched are returned. If you bet 500 and the only other player left goes all in for 200, the extra 300 comes straight back to you: only 200 from each of you goes into the pot. The hand history shows these returned chips.

All-in and side pots

A player who is all in can only win, from each opponent, as much as they put in themselves. When players are all in for different amounts, the chips are split into a main pot and one or more side pots:

• The main pot holds, from every player, up to the amount of the smallest all-in. Everyone still in can win it.
• Each side pot holds the chips above that level, and only the players who put in that much can win it.
• At the showdown each pot is awarded on its own, to the best hand among the players who can win it.
• Chips put in by players who later folded stay in the pots, but those players cannot win them.

Sofia goes all in for 300; you and Kenji each put in 1,000. The main pot is 900 (300 from each of the three of you) and the side pot is 1,400 (the extra 700 from you and from Kenji). If Sofia has the best hand she wins the 900, and the 1,400 goes to the better of you and Kenji.

The table shows each pot separately: Main first, then the side pots.

The tables at a glance

Blind levels

When Blind increase is on, the blinds move up one level every N hands. With every 10 hands, hands 1–10 are played at the starting blinds, hands 11–20 at the next level, and so on; after the last level they stay there. The bar at the top of the game shows the current blinds and how many hands are left until the next level, and a message announces each rise.

Every table uses the same levels. The highlighted rows are the starting blinds you can choose. The columns on the right show the hand on which each level begins at the tables whose blinds go up.

Preferences are not part of a table

AI speed, Equity assist and Deck are your own preferences. They are not part of any table and stay the same whichever table you choose (see “Using this app”).

Starting a game

1. Title screen — under Choose your table, tap one of the six tables, then Next. Here you can also open Records and this guide (How to play), sign in, play online and change the language.
2. Setup — choose the number of Players (2–6). Under Seats, type your name, tap an icon to change it and set each computer player’s strength — Easy, Normal or Hard; every seat can have its own. Then the table: Starting chips, Starting blinds and Blind increase. Last, your preferences: AI speed, Equity assist and Deck.
3. Tap Start game. The button goes to a random player and the first hand is dealt.

About this table next to the table name opens that table in this guide, and ‹ Choose another table returns to the list.

The game screen

• You sit at the bottom: your icon and chips, your two cards, and the name of the hand you have right now. The other players sit around the table, each with their chips and their last action.
• In the middle are the board, the pot — side pots are shown separately — and each player’s bet in front of them. D marks the button; SB and BB mark the blinds.
• The bar at the top shows the hand number and the blinds (and, if they go up, how many hands until the next level) and whose turn it is.
• The buttons at the top right open the Hand history (every action of the game so far, with the cards shown at each showdown) and the Hand rankings, switch the sound, and open the Menu.
• The menu has Language, Sound, How to play, Hand rankings, Save and return to title and Abandon this game. A game against the computer is saved after every action: Save and return to title (or simply closing the page) keeps it, and Continue on the title screen picks it up exactly where you left off. Abandon this game deletes it without recording it. Only one game is kept per device; starting a new one replaces it.

When the game is over you see your finishing place with the final standings and your own numbers — hands played and won, biggest pot and best hand — and can choose Play again (the same table again), Records or Back to title.

Your turn

When it is your turn, three buttons appear next to your cards:

The raise panel offers quick amounts and fine control:

• Min — the smallest bet or raise allowed.
• ½ Pot, ¾ Pot and Pot — bet or raise by half, three quarters or all of the pot, counting your call.
• All in — all of your chips.
• The slider and the − and + buttons set any amount in between; − and + move it by one big blind.

Amounts are rounded to the small blind. When the amount reaches all of your chips, the button reads All in.

After each hand the result stays on the table until you press Next hand.

Keyboard shortcuts

K also checks or calls, B works like R, and ← → change the amount like ↓ ↑.

Computer players

Each computer seat plays at its own strength: Easy, Normal or Hard. On top of that, every computer player gets a personality of its own — a little tighter or looser, more or less aggressive — so two players of the same strength do not play alike.

• Before the flop it rates its two cards with the Chen formula, a points score for starting hands that rewards high cards, pairs, suited cards and cards close in rank. It plays more hands when few players are left and when it is on the button, raises with strong hands, calls with playable ones and folds the rest. With a short stack it goes all in with a strong hand.
• After the flop it estimates its chance of winning by dealing out the rest of the board and random hands for the players still in, hundreds of times over (a Monte-Carlo simulation). It compares that chance with the pot odds — the price of a call against what it can win — and calls, bets or raises when the numbers are good enough, and folds when they are not. Facing a big bet it assumes the bettor is probably strong and becomes more careful.
• Now and then it bluffs, betting or raising without a good hand, and sometimes it checks a very strong hand to set a trap.

The computer never sees your cards, the other players’ cards or the deck. It only knows its own two cards, the board, the bets and how many players are in — exactly what a player at a real table knows.

AI speed — Slow, Normal or Fast — sets how long the computer takes over each move and how quickly the cards come out.

Equity assist

With Equity assist on, the label under your cards shows the hand you have right now and your chance of winning (your equity) against the players still in the hand.

• It is worked out again whenever new cards come out and whenever somebody folds.
• Like the computer players, it does not know anybody’s cards: it plays out 1,500 random deals of the rest of the board and of the opponents’ cards. It tells you how strong your hand is against unknown cards, not whether you are ahead right now.
• Compare it with the pot odds. If calling costs 100 to win a pot of 300, you put in 100 to end up with 400, so the call pays off in the long run if you win more than 100 ÷ 400 = 25% of the time.

2-colour and 4-colour deck

With Deck you choose how the suits look. The usual 2-colour deck has red hearts and diamonds and black spades and clubs. The 4-colour deck makes diamonds blue and clubs green, so a flush is easier to spot at a glance.

Records

Every finished game is recorded automatically when it ends. Open Records on the title screen, or Records at the end of a game.

• Totals: games, wins and win rate, average finishing place, play time, hands played and won, biggest pot, best hand, and VPIP — how often you put chips in by choice before the flop.
• Finishing places, results by table and by AI strength, and your most recent games, with online games marked.
• Export JSON downloads everything; Delete all deletes it and cannot be undone.

This device keeps your latest 60 games, or 200 while you are signed in.

Account and sync

Signing in is optional — the whole game works without it. Use Sign in at the top left of the title screen.

• One account for the whole Ultimate series. It is the same account as Catan, UNO and the other Ultimate games: sign in with the same email and password. Your ID, password, passkeys, icon and friends are shared by all of them.
• Creating an account needs an invite code.
• With an account, every finished game is also saved to it, so your records appear on your other devices. Records are kept on the device first and sent in the background; when you are offline they wait and go up at the next sync — when the game starts, when you sign in, or when you tap Sync now.
• Games you played before signing in are added to your account when you sign in.
• The account window opens from your icon and ID at the top left. There you can change your icon and ID, your password and passkeys, open your friend list, sync, sign out or delete the account.
• Your ID is the name friends and online opponents see. Nobody else can use the same one.
• Passkeys let you sign in with Face ID, Touch ID, a fingerprint or your device PIN instead of a password. After signing in with your password, add one with Add a passkey for this device.
• Changing the password signs out your other devices in every Ultimate game, and deleting the account removes it, with its records, from all of them.

Playing online with friends

Signed-in players can play at one table together, each on their own device. Tap Play online on the title screen; if you are not signed in, it asks you to sign in first.

1. Become friends. Tell a friend your 8-digit friend code or your ID (both are shown in the online lobby and in your friend list). They enter it and tap Send request, then you tap Accept. Friends see only your name and icon, never your email address.
2. Create a game. Tap New online game, or Invite to play next to a friend. Choose the table — any of the five, or Custom with your own chips, blinds and blind increase — then 2–6 seats, with a friend to invite or a computer player and its strength in each seat, and the AI speed. Tap Send invitations.
3. Answer. Invited friends find the invitation in their lobby, and a notice pops up on whatever screen they are on.
4. Start. The host taps Start the game once at least one friend has joined. Seats that have not answered are played by the computer.

• You act only for your own seat, and only your own hole cards are shown on your screen.
• After each hand anyone can press Next hand; if nobody does, the next hand starts by itself after a few seconds.
• Going back to the title does not end the game. Open Play online → Continue to return, even after reloading the page.
• A player who stays disconnected for about 45 seconds is shown as away, and the computer plays their seat until they come back. Leave this online game in the menu hands your seat to the computer for good.
• When the game ends it is saved in each player’s records, marked as online, and counted in your record against each friend.

Every device holds the whole table, so friends play on trust: the screen never shows other players’ hole cards, but a developer tool could. The rest of the deck is reshuffled with a fresh seed from the server before every move, so peeking at it does not reveal the next card.

Language and sound

• Language — English, 日本語 or ไทย, on the title screen or in the menu. It switches at once, even in the middle of a game, and the hand history is translated too.
• Sound — the speaker button at the top right, or Sound in the menu, turns the sound effects on and off.

Installing as an app

Where the browser supports it, an Install app button appears on the title screen. Once installed, the game opens in its own window and works offline for games against the computer; signing in and online play need a connection. On an iPhone or iPad, tap Share → Add to Home Screen in Safari.

When a new version is ready, a bar at the bottom offers to Reload.

Opening this guide

• How to play on the title screen.
• About this table next to the table name on the setup screen.
• During a game: How to play in the menu, or Read the full rules in the hand rankings.