Balatro - A poker deck building roguelike

Game is crazy addicting, and probably one of the best things I've bought in a long time. I played this with my friend earlier for many hours and just bought it tonight for myself.

You deck build cards, play poker hands that are scored to score enough to advance, getting money after each win to buy better cards at the shop. Core gameplay loop is pretty much that simple, but it's crazy fun and crazy addicting.

Highly recommend, 10/10.

Some gameplay:

Gravel said:

I don't understand what's happening in that video. Watched 8 minutes and he throws away a full house for two pair, throws away a straight for...two pair. What the fuck is going on?

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The game is a standard 52 card deck. You get jokers which apply to every hand played. He had a joker most likely that gave a bonus on a 2 pair. Or, he leveled up his 2 pair bonus so that it actually gabe more chips then the full house or straight would.

You also get cards that manipulate the deck so it's no longer standard. For example converting cards to spades or things like that.

Chersk said:

this should be immediately ported to mobile. Can't see myself sitting at my PC playing fancy solitaire.

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It's quite fun on steam deck!

sleevedraw said:

I've heard good things about this in my channels; will probably pick it up.



I wonder if the lack of one maybe has something to do with online gambling laws? I did see a little chatter about this game getting banned in a few countries due to gambling concerns.

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The thing is with gambling laws, they are very clear cut and dry and easy to figure out.

Can you win things of value (this is VERY broad -- eg: you can win toilet paper?). Yes? It's gambling, IF and ONLY IF gameplay isn't *truly* free. Courts are VERY broad here. Like, having to give personal info to "play" is considered value, because your personal information has value to data brokers.

All the facebook/mobile casinos are fine because a.) gameplay is free -- you get free coins every day, but also b.) the coins you win cannot be cashed out for anything of value. They are just virtual coins, with no purpose. Number go higher. Nothing else. A and B dont both have to be true either. Gameplay can cost money but if you can't win anything of value, it's not gambling.

Bandwagon said:

Lost interest as soon as I realized it wasn't typical poker stuff

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It is. It just lets you be "different". I mean, its a rogue like with poker rules, but like you have jokers taht can make special things happen on special conditions. So like in the video when the guy was giving up a flush for a pair, that's likey because he had jokers that triggered extra chips or mult if you had a pair so the pair would actually be higher points. The game is all about poker + picking the right jokers/boosts that are compatible with your deck build and such.

Think of the jokers as pieces of gear that affect the cards/game.

Starting to pick up on twitch now. Cutedog_ is streaming it atm and saw a few others earlier.