What hands should I aim for?

[Plaster Cramp]

Very new to this game but I find 99% of the time (so far) I go for 2 pair hands, it's gotten to the point I don't even notice if I have a better hand, I just look out for the pairs. I've completed a few runs just building around this strategy but have just read some guides that say "flush" or "straight" are the ones to go for. As the game gets (presumably) harder will I struggle playing just 2 pairs?

[Der dicke Shiba]

I also almost only use two pairs

[Michael Rand]

It's all about limits. I think it's a good strategy to play only with two pairs until you reach 4-5 antes. To advance to the next antes, you need better hands, like flushes or straights. While a straight flush is the best poker hand, it also requires a solid joker build. In my experience, a flush is the most effective hand, and it’s relatively easy to collect the jokers needed for this build

[RazzberryMocha]

High card/pair are the easiest to make but will score the least, good to build into if jokers are carrying your score. Two pair also kind of fits in here with slightly higher chips for slightly less consistency.
Flushes are the easiest five card hand to build into due to tarot cards and scale pretty well with planets but joker synergies tend to be weaker. Good for a mix between your hand and jokers contributing to score.
Straights are hard to fix your deck towards but have great joker synergies and great planet scaling.
Three/Four of a kind are great if you can fix your deck towards them with tarot cards/jokers, as they have great planet scaling and some of the best synergies.

[opie]

One pair is probably the easiest to play overall. You can always play it and it works well with blue seals, gold cards, and mult-scaling jokers. Compared to high card, you can play twice the number of enhanced cards and it scales by +5 chips per level.

[kone]

You either want consistency or sheer power.

High Card and Pair are easy to make and work well with scaling jokers like Green Joker. They also benefit the most from in-hand mechanics like blue seals and gold/steel cards.
Straights are inconsistent but strong, even in Gold Stake. The planet scales incredibly well and has good support jokers that fix the reliability issues.
Four of a Kind and the secret hands score and scale amazingly but require a bunch of setup. They're worth building towards if you aren't dedicated to any hand and have lots of money.

Flushes, Two Pair, Three of a Kind and Full House are fine, but at a certain point you might get caught at both ends. It can be either you can't draw/discard them when you need them, or when they do hit you might need to find another...and another.
They also don't have the best jokers that play to their strengths. Except maybe Spare Trousers.

[Plaster Cramp]

Thanks for the advice. last night I completed a run, aiming for flushes and straights. It went really well, managed to to get a score of over 1 million consistently during the last two ante's.

[Twelvefield]

Balatro is the name of the game, which is Joker in Latin. Your Jokers will define what hands will work the best for you, as well as Planet cards. The other stuff you use to manipulate your deck.

Because you tend to go through most of the deck and no cards are taken by other players, Straights and Flushes are a bit easier to achieve than in real Poker. I like Flush as my power hand, but Two Pair are more reliable, and if you are trying to conserve cards in your hand, 2P has the obvious advantage of not needing five cards to play.

The first couple of bosses should easily be defeated on White with Flushes and Straights. After that, though, your Jokers ought to dictate what you should play.

[eklos]

If you get the right Joker combo then flushes, straights are the most powerful that will take you through endless mode far. These are hands that will score you 200k ++ chips

[Xaelon]

It 100% depends on what jokers you get.

In ante 1 or 2, straights or flushes will generally win blinds, but later you should be playing whatever hand works with whatever jokers you've been given.

My highest scoring run ever involved Baron, Mime and LOTS of steel Kings. My hand of choice that run? High Card. I'd literally throw out some non-king facecard and watch the chips roll in.

So if you try to always play the same hand type, regardless of what Jokers you've been given there's a decent chance you'll lose.

The easiest hand to build around? That probably is two pair. Just don't be afraid to switch gears once you're more familiar with the game. You'll eventually develop a sense of "this is the hand I should be playing".

[ulzgoroth]

2 pair is a remarkably weak hand.

I'm not saying don't play it, but pay attention if you do.

It's harder to play than 1 pair, but it gets the same mult and only a bit more chips. Don't let the good feeling of having made the easiest >2 card hand throw you off - you are not gaining very much for boasting two pairs at the same time.


I mostly recommend being prepared to win with an easier hand (pair or high card) unless you get jokers that specifically go with a harder hand. Those do exist for two pair...

The exception to this is if you've got a build that needs to score more cards to work for some reason (smiley face or Fibonacci perhaps), and can't find or can't fit Splash. In that case, well, two pair is the easiest >2 card hand, after all.

[Dr. Cheesefart]

Play only high card, it's the only way to make progress in this game.

[noisyturtle]

I always go for a Flush, but I lose every game at Ante 7/8 because RNG hates me

[Dr. Cheesefart]

Originally posted by noisyturtle:

I always go for a Flush, but I lose every game at Ante 7/8 because RNG hates me

It's because of the game design not because of rng

[CMDR Shven]

Originally posted by noisyturtle:

I always go for a Flush, but I lose every game at Ante 7/8 because RNG hates me

If you keep going for the same hand type and you keep losing you might consider using a different hand type. . .

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by Dildo STONKS:

Originally posted by noisyturtle:

I always go for a Flush, but I lose every game at Ante 7/8 because RNG hates me

It's because of the game design not because of rng

This is technically true, but not in the way you meant it. The game design is meant to kill lack of flexibility in thinking.