Hold 'em for Flipper Zero

March 20, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Native single-player Texas Hold'em built specifically for Flipper Zero.

Play a full table of compact, readable Hold 'em against up to four bots with real betting rounds, side-pot-aware showdowns, save/load, and a UI tuned for the actual device screen.

Screenshots

On-device flow at a glance:

Startup Main Table
Start screen Main table
Controls Game Menu
Game menu Settings menu
Edit Blinds (1) Edit Blinds (2)
Edit Blinds (1) Edit Blinds (2)
Edit Bots Hand Ranks
Edit Bots Hand Ranks
Big Win Showdown
Big Win screen Showdown screen
Hand Result Game Win
Hand result screen You Won screen

Features

  • Full on-device Texas Hold'em from preflop through showdown
  • Heads-up play or full five-player tables with up to four bots
  • Side-pot-aware payouts and split-pot handling for real multi-way hands
  • Four bot difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme
  • Blind editor with optional progressive blinds
  • Save/load for full game state and table settings

Build

ufbt update
ufbt

Build output:

  • dist/holdem.fap

Install

  1. Connect Flipper Zero over USB.
  2. Build locally with ufbt update and ufbt.
  3. Copy dist/holdem.fap to /ext/apps/Games/.
  4. Launch from Apps -> Games -> Hold 'em.

Changelog

Controls

In Hand

  • Left: Fold
  • OK: Commit the current action (Check, Call, or Raise)
  • Up/Down: Increase or decrease the current bet amount
  • Right: Reset the current bet amount to the default call/check value
  • Hold Right: Set the current bet to all in
  • After folding, OK can fast-forward through the remaining autoplayed bot action

Global

  • Back short:
    • From the game screen: open Controls Help
    • From menu screens: close or cancel the current menu
  • Back hold: open Exit Hold 'em

Exit Menu

  • OK: Save and exit
  • Back short: Cancel
  • Back hold: Exit without saving

Save Behavior

Save path:

  • /ext/apps_data/holdem/save.bin

Startup behavior when a save exists:

  • OK: Load save
  • Back: Start a new game without loading the previous save

There is only one save slot by design. A fresh unsaved game does not delete the existing save until a later save overwrites it. Gameplay settings such as bot difficulty, fixed blind configuration, and progressive blinds are included in the saved state. Saved progressive-blind timing state is also preserved so future increases still trigger on the correct hand after load. If progressive blinds are active, the underlying base SB/BB used for future fresh games is saved separately from the current in-hand blind level.

Fairness and RNG

Card dealing fairness is based on:

  • Hardware RNG via furi_hal_random_fill_buf
  • Fisher-Yates shuffle across all 52 cards before each hand

Current bounded random selection uses modulo reduction (value % upper_bound).

What this guarantees:

  • No duplicate cards in a hand
  • A full-deck shuffle every hand
  • No AI influence over card distribution

What remains open for future improvement:

  • Replace modulo reduction with rejection sampling to eliminate modulo bias entirely

AI

Bot difficulty is exposed as Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme, with Medium as the default table setting.

At the top end, Extreme goes beyond the baseline heuristic bot by:

  • reacting more carefully to real betting pressure
  • valuing strong broadway and connector structures more accurately preflop
  • factoring in draw development postflop instead of playing only made hands
  • tightening bluff frequency while pushing harder for value with credible strength
  • avoiding weak stack-off lines more aggressively when pots get large

Firmware Notes

Target/API:

  • Target 7
  • API 87.1

The app is intended for official firmware and compatible forks, including Momentum, as long as they preserve external-app API compatibility.

Repository Layout

  • holdem.c: top-level app bootstrap, lifecycle, and main loop orchestration
  • holdem_engine.c/.h: gameplay flow, pot handling, and showdown logic
  • holdem_ai.c/.h: bot decision logic
  • holdem_eval.c/.h: hand evaluation and card formatting helpers
  • holdem_storage.c/.h: save/load management
  • holdem_app_internal.h: shared internal interfaces for the split UI/controller modules
  • holdem_ui_common.c: shared glyphs, centering helpers, and app-state display helpers
  • holdem_ui_render.c: all screen rendering and table-layout code
  • holdem_ui_flow.c: menu/input flow, edit-state commits, startup, and back-button handling
  • holdem_gameplay.c: result/interstitial flow and betting-round plus hand orchestration
  • holdem_types.h: shared types and constants
  • application.fam: app metadata
  • holdem.png: app icon
  • docs/architecture.md: architecture and extension notes
  • docs/roadmap.md: release follow-up and deferred work
  • docs/changelog.md: release history and pending changes
  • docs/pre-release-tests.md: high-risk validation checklist for payout, showdown, and rules edge cases
  • docs/screenshots/: padded screenshots for GitHub README presentation
  • .catalog/: Flipper catalog submission description, changelog, and raw screenshot assets
  • CONTRIBUTING.md: contributor workflow

Acknowledgements

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

For the smoothest review path and the fewest merge conflicts, contribute from the most recent active feature branch rather than main.

Please read:

  • CONTRIBUTING.md

License

MIT