How similar is this game to actual poker?

[KX3Y]

Pattern seeking in this game had my brain go hurr durr, I'm actually contemplating on learning poker. How easy, and similar is the actual poker, though?

[A bear]

Other than that they both use a deck of cards and the order of how good the basic hands are there isn't that much in common. Both are a lot of fun though and worth learning.

[Melodia]

It uses poker hands and poker ranks. And given poker itself has many ways to play it, I would disagree that there isn't much in common. It's not like a traditional betting round Poker but rather it's more like a very supercharged type of Video Poker.

[blaine]

As someone who's played recreation poker for years, but not with the level of interest to really learn pot odds and calculate all of the outs on the fly...

Some of the core strategy remains, but you will really progress when you understand Balatro's dynamics and start to build your strategy on that. You'll find yourself in weird situations when construction your play through where... maybe it makes more sense to have a flush vs a straight flush... or 2 pair vs a full house.

The first 2 or 3 rounds of the game, standard poker thinking works. So much so that you can skip the first two rounds if the bonuses are worth it to you (free jokers for example) and you can probably beat the first boss on regular poker saavy alone.

To beat the demo boss, you really will be figuring out different ways of approaching the game. For me, the most success I've had was when I taking buffs that benefited one particular suit, and usually flushes. Each time I've done really well, though, it's been when I've had jokers that synergized well and I drew a ton of planetary and tarot cards.

I actually love it, to be honest. I can't wait for the full version.

[Albie There]

This game has nothing to do with actual poker, it just uses poker hands and poker "jargon" (small blind, big blinds, ante).

In this game you are not playing against poker hands, you just need to achieve the chips (or points) target and you have "X" hands to do it. And obviously the fun and challenge comes with the higher and higher amounts of chips needed to advance, where you can only achieve by "cheating" (buying more cards, jokers, buffed cards, "skills" (the celestial cards will level up a poker hand to score more chips).