Balatro released just over a year ago, and in that time, I’ve managed to log roughly 120 hours in the game. That’s not a lot of time to dedicate to any game over the course of a year, especially one like Balatro, but it’s a lot for me, as I can count on one hand the number of games I’ve put 100+ hours into. It’s a sign that I really love the game, but signs can be misleading.

When I first started, it took me a few blinds to get into Balatro. I still didn’t exactly “get” it, though. I understood how to play and had fun but couldn’t see what drove everyone crazy about it. The first handful of hours could be understood as the “Two Pair period,” since I mostly played Two Pairs. I imagine this is a common starting point for players: it’s an easy hand to make, and with two decent hands, you’ll overcome the first Small Blind. It’s not a very good hand, though, especially when taking into account its scaling with Planet Card upgrades. That meant many runs ended due to inefficient playing.

Typically, I hate doing the same thing repeatedly as a result of failure in video games. That’s why it took me so long to try out the Dark Souls series. Balatro can be extremely unforgiving in this regard. You could have the most “fixed” deck with a great lineup of Jokers and still get taken out by the exact right Boss Blind in Ante 7. The Astronomer Joker could show up with its $8 cost while you have $7 and nothing to sell. You could mistake a heart for a diamond or a spade for a club and play High Card when you meant to play Flush (thanks for high contrast mode, localthunk). It seems the ways to lose significantly outnumber the ways to win, or loss is far more commonplace than victory.

So, I played a ton of Balatro in the first few months. I had fun, but I didn’t have that much fun, certainly not enough to understand why everyone designated it a GOTY contender for 2024. But you know when you learn how to do something well enough to accomplish the goal, and whatever method you learned is all you know, so you don’t question it or try to figure out a better way? For example, my grandfather used to Google search his bank’s website when he wanted to log in and take a look at his checking account. I eventually noticed, and taught him about bookmarks, which blew his mind and changed the way he used the computer. That’s basically what happened with me and Balatro.

Roughly one month ago, I told my friend Steve that I really wanted to find a Balatro coach or an easy way to learn how to get better at the game because I’d seen people pull off crazy wins with unimaginably big numbers, and I knew if I could do that I’d have a much better time. This is when I discovered the YouTube channel, Roffle Lite. Roffle Lite is a spinoff of Roffle, a channel made by a guy—going by the name Roffle—who was really good at Hearthstone. Roffle Lite then is all about Balatro. I started watching Roffle’s videos because they were entertaining. He’s pretty funny, albeit a little mean, and he’s obviously skilled at Balatro. From “The Triple Triboulet Dream” to “Who Needs Luck When You Have Money?” to his many “Photochad” runs, I was thoroughly entertained, but more importantly, I learned a lot.

Thanks to Roffle, I understand the “core” of the game, which I will now explain here. To do well at Balatro, you pretty much need to achieve sufficient “deck fixing.” Deck fixing or fixing a deck is when you modify or alter your deck to fit a particular strategy. For example, if you get The Idol Joker, you’ll want to change your deck so you only have one possible rank and one possible suit, so you’re guaranteed to activate its x2 mulitiplier for every scored card. You could use Death, The Hanged Man, or Immolate to make a deck comprised of nothing but kings of diamonds or 8s of hearts (for example). And if you don’t have money for booster packs or individual cards, then you can’t fix your deck, which means you will always be inefficient. So, you should probably prioritize getting rich, so you can reroll as much as necessary and afford everything needed to make the strongest build.

Since incorporating what I learned into my strategy, I’ve had a lot more fun. I’m winning more, and I’m reaching insanely high numbers. However, even the richest players can’t overcome sheer luck, so don’t get cocky, otherwise your super buff “Photochad + The Idol” build may just get humiliated by The Plant. Maybe that’s the whole point of Balatro. Anything can end at any moment for any reason, so appreciate the good times while you can and don’t get overconfident.

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