Remember...

[Game Judge James]

The game tells you nothing about it, but your poker hands do not have to be exactly 5 cards to be played. I was reading comments on a review here talking about pairs strategies and "spiking" three other cards, or forfeiting them in the hand, just in order to play it. If you only have a pair to play, you can opt to just play those two cards; or, if you feel like being resourceful, you could opt to spike an extra card and use it as a hidden discard without using those extra discard turns that are crucial when in a tight spot.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Game Judge James:

The game tells you nothing about it, but ...

You're told this during the tutorial ("up to 5 cards"). But you'd think the fact that there's a boss that forces you to play 5 cards would also serve as a pretty good hint that you don't need to, normally.

[Eleveneleven]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Originally posted by Game Judge James:

The game tells you nothing about it, but ...

You're told this during the tutorial ("up to 5 cards"). But you'd think the fact that there's a boss that forces you to play 5 cards would also serve as a pretty good hint that you don't need to, normally.

Or that there's a joker that gives 25 mult for only playing 3 cards

[sab0t]

Despite the hints already mentioned, this seems to be a common issue for some players. The guy from the youtube channel where I found this game also didn't realize this for the first several runs he played (even more annoyingly, he kept wasting his best cards lol, I think just as a sub-concious reflex of 'play good cards more score')

[Game Judge James]

Yeah, you'd think. I never figured it out in the demo and didn't really on my first couple of runs either, until I thought...let me see if I can just play one card..and that was that. Most people associate "poker hands" as five cards, so when the game says "play hand" you're thinking that subconsciously.