How To Play Balatro

What Is Balatro and How Do You Play It

Balatro is a card-based game built on classic poker rules, with a focus on strategy, building combinations, and earning points. At its core is a standard 52-card deck. At the start of each round, the player is dealt 8 random cards and must form a 5-card poker hand — such as a straight, flush, or full house.

Each card in the hand earns chips based on its rank (a two gives fewer chips than a ten), and the hand itself multiplies that value with a specific multiplier. This is how your total score for the turn is calculated. A weaker hand gives fewer chips, while a stronger one boosts your score significantly.

To improve your chances, you can discard up to 5 cards and draw new ones from the deck — but you can only do this a limited number of times per round. The main goal is to earn enough chips within a few hands to “beat the blind,” meaning you must reach a target score. With each new blind, the requirements get tougher, and careful planning becomes more important.

How To Play

Before you start a game in Balatro, you’ll be asked to choose a starting deck. No need to dive into the details just yet — we’ll come back to deck selection later, once we’ve covered the core gameplay. By then, it’ll be clearer what advantages each deck offers and how they affect your playstyle.

After clicking the “Play” button, the game board appears. This is where the main action takes place: you’ll play poker hands, earn chips, use Jokers and consumable cards, upgrade your deck, and advance to the next blind.

On the game board, you’ll see three types of blinds: small, big, and boss. With each new blind, the number of points you need to reach increases. The boss blind stands out in particular — it not only raises the difficulty but also introduces unique challenges. Unlike the small and big blinds, the boss cannot be skipped. However, there are special Jokers in the game that can weaken or disable its effect.

In front of you is the first blind — this is where the gameplay begins. You have a choice: play the blind right away or skip it. Skipping gives you a bonus that might be useful later on. The decision is yours, and each choice influences the pace and strategy of the entire run.

Let’s play:

In front of you are cards laid out in random order. Your goal is to score 300 points to complete the current blind and move on to the next stage.

On the left side of the screen, you’ll find the Run Info button. By clicking it, you can view the available poker hands and see how many points each one gives. This information will help you make more informed decisions when choosing which cards to play.

You have a limited number of hands and discards.

In our current layout, we can see that there are two pairs — a valid poker hand. This means we can choose to play it and move closer to reaching the score goal.

We scored 100 points for the two pairs.

We have only 3 hands left.
Let’s use a discard to replace the current cards with a new set.

Now we can make a straight — a solid hand.
That was enough to reach the required score and even go beyond it.

Before moving on to the next round, you’ll be given the option to buy a card or a set of cards.
Jokers are especially important — they act as powerful bonuses and can play a key role in securing a win.

We have 9 hard-earned dollars — let’s spend them on a Joker.

The Joker we just bought adds a few more Jokers to our setup, each providing useful bonuses.
As you already know, every round requires you to reach a certain number of points — and Jokers will be your main helpers in achieving that goal.

Jokers

Jokers play a central role in Balatro. They provide passive effects that can drastically change the course of a run. There are 150 unique Jokers in the game, each with its own effect. Jokers are divided into four rarity levels — Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Legendary — with rarer ones being harder to find. Some Jokers have a much stronger impact on gameplay than others, and choosing the right combinations can make all the difference.

Each Joker interacts with poker hands and other Jokers, granting additional bonuses regardless of the situation. As you’ve likely noticed, the main goal in Balatro is to score a required number of points to move forward. But relying only on poker hands won’t be enough — and Jokers aren’t your only source of help.

The shop also offers various upgrades in the form of special cards. These include Spectral cards, Planet cards, standard card packs (boosters), and Tarot cards — all of which can enhance your deck in different ways and increase your chances of success.

Tarot Cards

Tarot cards in the game are used to modify the properties of regular playing cards in your deck — for example, their suit or rank. But that’s not all. Tarot cards can also upgrade cards by adding special effects: some increase the number of chips earned, others boost your score multiplier. Certain Tarot cards grant you extra money, generate new Jokers, or provide other useful items.

There are 22 Tarot cards in total, and you can unlock them by purchasing or using them during a run in which they haven’t yet been added to your collection.

Planet Cards

Planet cards enhance specific poker hands, making them more powerful by increasing the number of chips and the score multiplier they generate. There are 12 Planet cards in total, but three of them — Eris, Ceres, and Planet X — are secret and won’t appear in the shop at first.

To unlock these hidden cards, you need to play the corresponding poker hand at least once during a run. After that, the related Planet card can appear in the shop for the remainder of that run. All other Planet cards are available from the start with no special requirements.

Spectral Cards

Spectral cards are somewhat similar to Tarot cards — they also modify the properties of cards in your deck. However, their effects are much more powerful. Of course, such power comes at a cost: they might reduce your hand size, destroy some of your cards, or even wipe out all your money.

There are 18 Spectral cards in total, and they’re available from the start. However, they’re usually found only in booster packs (unless you’re using the Ghost deck). In some cases, they can be generated by specific Jokers or, rarely, purchased in the shop — in which case they will take up a consumable slot.

Boosters

Boosters are card packs that allow you to choose one or two cards (depending on whether it’s a standard or large pack) and add them to your existing deck.

Starting Decks

In Balatro, you can choose from several unique starting decks, each offering a different playstyle and bonus. Here’s what the main decks do:

Red Deck – Grants +1 discard per round.
Blue Deck – Grants +1 hand per round.
Yellow Deck – You start the run with $10.
Green Deck – At the end of each round, you earn $2 for every unused hand and $1 for every unused discard. No interest bonus applies.
Black Deck – Adds +1 Joker slot but reduces hands per round by 1.
Nebula Deck – Starts with a Telescope voucher but -1 consumable slot.
Ghost Deck – Spectral cards can appear in the shop; you begin with a Hex card.
Abandoned Deck – You start the run with no face cards in your deck.

There are also additional decks that can be unlocked by completing runs with specific decks. Each offers its own twist, encouraging different strategies and approaches.