two pair is the best hand type

[pack]

argue with the wall

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by DMAN222:

Originally posted by (Edgy) Asriel Dreemurr:

In this game you tend to want to gravitate towards hands that can be played repeatedly without discarding, especially in later antes. You could build around flushes but it would require a good bit of luck with spectral and/or tarot cards. By the time you set it up to make it viable you've probably inadvertently made easier hands more score viable.

My apologies, I was just trying to be silly. Thank you for the tips but I do understand it is more effective to build around easily repeatable hands (until you run into the eye)

The eye just needs you to either one-shot it or have more than one viable hand.

I'd say most good ante-8 builds are compatible with more than one hand, even if they do have a favorite hand. (Maybe deep infinite builds aren't, like the thing I saw on the wiki using a hundred negative planets with the voucher that turns them into mult multipliers.)

[dada416]

ive allways played with color,
but two pair and pair made me win the red game(i was stuck for 5 hours)

[machineguy]

Flush is just too good

[Jobesker]

Thought I was the only one

[Sliph]

Flush is my go to for sure. Pairs always fail me.

[Ackranome]

Pretty sure High card builds are the best.

[Twelvefield]

I do like Flush. It's easier to get them in Balatro that most other Poker because of the way you go through the deck, and there's no other players to share with. You should be able to get through the first ante with Flushes or Straights. In the later game, though, it's better if you have Jokers that support Pairs: Pair, Two Pair, and Full House, right? The Balatro Jokers aren't like Poker Jokers, if you happen to fall into a real world game where Jokers are in the deck.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Twelvefield:

I do like Flush. It's easier to get them in Balatro that most other Poker because of the way you go through the deck, and there's no other players to share with. You should be able to get through the first ante with Flushes or Straights. In the later game, though, it's better if you have Jokers that support Pairs: Pair, Two Pair, and Full House, right? The Balatro Jokers aren't like Poker Jokers, if you happen to fall into a real world game where Jokers are in the deck.

Most pair-specific jokers I don't think are much good, though. I mean, the Duo isn't terrible, but any other joker worth using (past early-game) probably works with hands that don't have pairs as well.


Flush is probably the most reliably accessible 5-card hand. With some builds, that might be important - stuff with heavy per-card effect jokers (like Fibonacci Hack or Hiker) or an extremely upgraded deck where you've got red seal polychrome glass cards or something. Though there you may wind up tending towards the Five Flush rather than just Flush.

[Kanlor]

I'm 80hrs in so no expert here, but I'd say it depends on your goals. If you want to clear ante 8 and "win", pretty much any hand can take you there with the right setup. But for high scoring endless mode, high card build with "held in hand" ability jokers have been my best by a mile.

Some examples from my unseeded runs today for comparison:

Cleared ante 8 easily with a two pair build mostly thanks to an early burnt joker and two blueprints a little later. Came grinding to a halt in endless mode due to a 300M blind despite two pair upgraded over lvl 50.

Run just completed: started hearts flush thanks to a duped bloodstone, worked towards a high card build with polychrome, red seal, steel kings. With 2x barons, mime, blueprint, mindstorm, consistently scoring ~ 2.0e25 by playing a single card. Cleared ante 18 (~ e30 score) thanks to a serpent boss and a cryptid, pushing my highest score to 6.773e46.

I don't know about you, but I like numbers so big I can't comprehend them.

[Sem56]

its my go to on a new run, if the right cards don't come out then i try and flail around to try and pull something outta my ass

[Dice T]

4s and 10s stacked with joker copy/even and then just start changing things to and gathering 4s and 10s and scrapping the rest. Everything from 2 pair to 5 of a kind scores heavy.