Royal Flush

[GonzoDog]

Is there a particular reason that there is no additional hand or bonus for a Royal Flush over a a normal straight flush? I really think there should be , as otherwise there is no risk/reward in trying to go for the Royal... All video poker has a much higher reward/payout for Royals.

For example: on a 9/6 paytable, a straight Flush pays 50 coins, but a Royal pays 250.... or i you played max on a video poker machine a Royal would give 4000 coins , instead of 250.

Royal Flush – 0.000154% (649,739-to-1 odds against)
Straight Flush – 0.00139% (72,192-to-1)

These are odds from any random dealt 5 cards

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Goblin:

Well we better give three tens a special reward then, no?

Three tens isn't a poker hand.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

Originally posted by Goblin:

Well we better give three tens a special reward then, no?

Three tens isn't a poker hand.

And royal flush isn't the best hand in Balatro.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Goblin:

And royal flush isn't the best hand in Balatro.

This is getting away from the premise of the original question. Balatro is poker themed, and the lack of a royal flush is an explicit deviation away from that theme. "Balatro isn't poker and can do whatever it wants" isn't really an explanation.

Balatro *already* makes gameplay concessions to 'normal' poker with how it ranks straight lower than flush, even though flushes are easier to make in Balatro. It has to work backwards from the traditional poker hand rankings and make straight's hand type scale better to make it 'better'.

I assume the real reason it was excluded is that it's just too inconsistent, especially with how Balatro's gameplay mechanics are already so un-friendly to straights. I don't think you can say someone's wrong for wanting to be able to try for it though.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

This is getting away from the premise of the original question. Balatro is poker themed, and the lack of a royal flush is an explicit deviation away from that theme. "Balatro isn't poker and can do whatever it wants" isn't really an explanation.

There is no lack of royal flushes. You can make them. They do the same thing as in the base rules of poker (nothing besides being unbeatable by lower hands), just not anything special like many house rules do. Balatro can in fact do whatever it wants in that regard, just like those house rules.

Originally posted by Forblaze:

I assume the real reason it was excluded is that it's just too inconsistent, especially with how Balatro's gameplay mechanics are already so un-friendly to straights. I don't think you can say someone's wrong for wanting to be able to try for it though.

I very much can. Nothing's stopping you from already going for royal flush builds. With the ace and face-centric jokers in the game, it's already beneficial. Same goes for steel wheel with Hack. But if you want to go for the challenge of "making a royal flush build" then you shouldn't ask for it to be less of a challenge (IE give a bonus to just this when literally nothing else in the game has that), and no one should ever ask for it to be a separate hand for reasons I'm not going to repeat for the twentieth time.
And if you dare suggest adding new jokers related to royal flush I'll feed you to the rabid "wah there's too much RNG becuase of how many jokers there are" crowd.

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Goblin:

There is no lack of royal flushes. You can make them. They do the same thing as in the base rules of poker (nothing besides being unbeatable by lower hands), just not anything special like many house rules do. Balatro can in fact do whatever it wants in that regard, just like those house rules.

You're being disingenuous. Royal Flush isn't a fully fledged hand type in Balatro. Saying a straight frush with AKQJT is the same thing is just wrong. A Royal Flush isn't just "the best possible straight flush" in poker, it's a completely distinct hand type.

I didn't say Balatro *can't* do whatever I want, I said saying that it can do whatever it wants isn't an explanation for why a decision was made.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

You're being disingenuous. Royal Flush isn't a fully fledged hand type in Balatro. Saying a straight frush with AKQJT is the same thing is just wrong. A Royal Flush isn't just "the best possible straight flush" in poker, it's a completely distinct hand type.

No. It. Isn't. It's just the highest straight flush. How often do we have to repeat this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_hands#Straight_flush

[Forblaze]

Originally posted by Goblin:

No. It. Isn't. It's just the highest straight flush. How often do we have to repeat this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_hands#Straight_flush

Wikipedia isn't really an an authority on this. If you go into any of their sources, Royal Flush is listed distinct from Straight Flush. As it is in every other poker context.

[A bear]

You realize your posted odds of a royal flush are seriously off since there a lot more cards in hand than 5 and you get multiple discards? Those are great for real 5 card poker, but this is a different animal entirely.