This is a single-player poker game with roguelike-inspired mechanics. You try to make high scoring poker hands using card and hand upgrades, jokers with special abilities, and other mechanics. This is a puzzle game more than a card game, and will probably mostly appeal to puzzle game fans.
Image source: mobygames.com
Facts
Blinds and Antes - A Blind is a play round where you are playing hands to get to a certain score. An Ante is made up of 3 Blinds, first a Small Blind, then a Big Blind, then a random 'Boss Blind'.
Shop - The Shop is accessed after defeating every Blind (not after skipping one).
Secret Hands - Five of a Kind, Flush House (Full House, same suit), Flush Five (Five of a Kind, same suit).
Legendary Jokers - can only be obtained from the Soul Spectral Card found in Spectral and Arcana Booster Packs.
Analysis
Continue after winning - You can continue the game after winning Ante 8 (round 24, if none are skipped). However, the first time you win, you might go to the main menu without fully knowing what 'continuing the game' means. But a very user-friendly design choice adds a 'Continue' option when you start a new game, allowing you to continue your game, even if you decided to exit to the main menu.
Strategic Skip - Every Small and Big Blinds can be skipped in exchange for a random Tag. Every possible skip should be evaluated in terms the benefits of the getting the Tag versus the likely outcomes of the Blind:
- Blind prize money
- $1 for each remaining hand,
- $1 interest for every $5 you have.
- Any other positive outcomes such as the creation of new Tarot Cards or leveling up cards in deck.
Boss Blind - As soon as you enter a new Ante with 3 new Blinds, you should go through all skip Tags and most importantly, the Boss Blind effect. The strategy for the Boss Blind should be kept in mind for all choices during this Ante, as it can easily work against your current Joker/deck build. Certain Jokers can counter Boss Blind effects, so keep them handy.
Hand Probabilities - Balatro starts out with 8-card poker hands. I worked with ChatGPT to calculate these probabilities (may be inaccurate):
Poker Hand Probability Royal Flush 0.00086 Straight Flush 0.00773 Four of a Kind 0.03346 Full House Flush 0.62331 Straight ChatGPT3.5 gave up on this one, but said that it was probably around 1.0, which seems crazy Three of a Kind Two Pair One Pair High Card
