Duolingo-Style Poker Apps: Five With Short Lessons and Streaks

For other kinds of poker learning app, from drill trainers to solver tools, see poker learning apps compared.

Which Duolingo-style poker app fits you

• Ollin. Coached hands with a one-sentence verdict on each decision, plus short lessons, one daily puzzle and a rating ladder, free on Android. Pick this if you want to learn mostly by playing hands.
• Poker Skill. Short lessons on a path, the Daily Puzzle among your Daily Missions and leagues ranked by XP. Pick this if you are new to poker and want a daily habit to keep.
• River. A guided path of bite-sized lessons with a placement quiz, study streaks, an AI coach named Otto and duels against mascots. Pick this if you want to start at your level and work toward ranges and solver feedback.
• Sharkling. A skill tree of short lessons, a shared daily puzzle, daily goals and weekly leagues, on Android and the web. Pick this if you want to study at a computer as well as on an Android phone.
• Stack Poker. Daily missions, streaks and rank tiers wrapped around ranked duels, with a library of short lessons. Pick this if you want to compete as much as you study.

Learning apps of every format are judged against one checklist in best app to learn poker.

Duolingo-style poker apps compared at a glance

Prices and features checked September 2026.

The five apps in detail

Ollin

Coached hands, with short lessons and a daily puzzle

Free no in-app purchases listed

Best for Android players who want to learn mostly by playing hands, with a one-sentence verdict on each decision and a five-minute daily habit of lessons and a puzzle.

Skip if You want an App Store app. On iPhone, Ollin runs only as a TestFlight beta.

Free version The whole app is free.

Where it runs Android, and iPhone through a TestFlight beta

Ollin is built around playing hands: after each decision, a coach named Ollie tells you in one sentence what that decision won or cost, and a skill rating moves you through tiers from the shallows to the trench. Ollin also pitches five minutes a day, with short lessons that unlock one at a time, from hand rankings to position, pot odds and reading rivers, plus one daily puzzle.

Compared with Poker Skill: Ollin is built for learning by playing coached hands, free on Android and in an iPhone beta, while Poker Skill is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on Google Play.

Poker Skill

Short lessons, the Daily Puzzle and full hands

Free forever.

Best for Learners who want short daily lessons from the rules up, the Daily Puzzle and a streak to keep, on iPhone, iPad or Android.

Skip if You want long video courses. PokerCoaching and Upswing Poker are built around video.

Free version The Daily Puzzle, every lesson paced by an energy meter and one Practice vs AI game a day. An optional Plus subscription is the only purchase.

Where it runs iPhone, iPad and Android

We make this one, built for Texas Hold'em. Lessons start at hand rankings and take a few minutes each, with one concept inside one hand. Every answer comes back with a reason. A new puzzle arrives each day and counts toward your Daily Missions, while streaks, XP and leagues track the habit. In Practice vs AI you play full hands against AI opponents, heads-up or three-player.

River

A guided lesson path with an AI coach

Free Premium $19.99 a month

Best for Learners who want a placement quiz to start at their level, then bite-sized lessons that lead to ranges and postflop play.

Skip if You want the whole path free. Every lesson tier, both GTO trainers and more daily questions for its AI coach come with River Premium.

Free version Part of the lesson path. Premium unlocks every tier, both GTO trainers and more daily questions for Otto.

Where it runs iPhone, iPad and Android

River comes from the makers of GTO Gecko. It opens with an adaptive placement quiz and then walks you down a path of bite-sized lessons and interactive questions, from rules and hand strength to ranges and postflop strategy. Practice spots come with solver-backed frequencies and EV feedback, and an AI coach named Otto answers your questions in plain language. A Journey screen tracks your lessons, accuracy and study streak. You can also test yourself in heads-up duels against River's mascots.

Compared with Poker Skill: River suits learners who want a placement quiz and a path to ranges and solver practice, with every tier in Premium, while Poker Skill opens every lesson to free players, paced by an energy meter.

Sharkling

A skill tree with leagues and a daily puzzle

Free Splash $14.99 a month

Best for Android and web learners who want short lessons on a skill tree, daily goals, weekly leagues and a free library of solved flops to study.

Skip if You want an iPhone app. Sharkling runs on Android and the web.

Free version The skill tree, the daily puzzle, a few practice hands a day and the full library of solved flops and preflop charts.

Where it runs Android and the web

Sharkling teaches one decision at a time through short lessons on a skill tree, and its shared daily puzzle gives everyone the same spot. Daily goals, weekly leagues and a record of your work keep you coming back, and its gems buy streak freezes, heart refills and XP boosts.

Compared with Poker Skill: Sharkling pairs short lessons with a daily puzzle and leagues as Poker Skill does, and its free library of solved flops makes it the better pick for solver study.

Stack Poker

Streaks and ranks around ranked duels

Free Pro $9.99 a month

Best for iPhone players who want ranked duels against other players, with daily missions, a streak and a rank to chase.

Skip if You want lessons at the center. Stack is built around ranked play, and the full lessons library comes with Stack Poker Pro.

Free version Ranked play against AI, daily missions, puzzles and Range Rush.

Where it runs iPhone

Stack Poker calls itself poker built like a sport, and ranked 1v1 duels against other players are at its heart. You earn XP every session, keep a streak alive through daily missions and climb rank tiers from Donkey to Endboss. Games against AI opponents, rated puzzles with explanations, a preflop trainer and a library of short, structured lessons sit around the duels. After a hand, AI insights show where you lost EV.

Compared with Poker Skill: Stack Poker is the pick for ranked duels against other players on iPhone, with its full lessons library in Pro, while Poker Skill puts lessons at the center and runs on iPhone, iPad and Android.

What makes a poker app Duolingo-style

A Duolingo-style app keeps each lesson short, ends it with a decision you make yourself, marks your answer on the spot and gives you a reason to open it again tomorrow. The decisions do the teaching: pulling a play out of memory to answer is what makes it stick, and the streak only brings you back for the next one. Poker Skill brings you back with the Daily Puzzle, which shows its difficulty before you answer, rated by how often players get that spot right on the first try. Order matters too, because a path that starts with hand rankings and position teaches you to read a spot before it asks you to count a draw’s chances with the rule of 2 and 4.

Short daily lessons or a video course

Short lessons suit a learner who has ten minutes a day and wants to spend that time on decisions. Poker Skill is built for that learner: in its lessons you make each move yourself. A video course goes deeper on one topic at a time, and you spend more of it watching than deciding, so it suits a player who knows the basics and wants a coach’s full reasoning. PokerCoaching’s Premium membership costs $147 a month or $999 a year and includes 600+ video classes, 70+ structured courses and 1,500+ interactive hand quizzes. The Upswing Lab training library costs $99 a month.

How we compared

The five were compared on their lessons, the daily habit each one builds, what the free version gives you and the devices each runs on. Facts about Poker Skill come from its store listings, this site and the app itself. Facts about the other four come from their own store listings, websites and plan pages. Trainers that drill preflop ranges or solver spots with XP added on top are left out: they practice charts more than they teach a path from the rules up. Learning apps that run prize contests or tie into a real-money poker site are left out too. Anything that could not be confirmed at its source is left off.

Frequently asked questions