If you learned the hands in Balatro
From Balatro to real poker
Balatro's hands are real poker hands: Pair through Straight Flush have the same names and the same order in poker, and a Royal Flush is the same thing too. Three don't exist (Five of a Kind, Flush House and Flush Five), and nothing gets scored: the best hand takes the pot, or whoever is left when everyone else folds.
What does change is everything around the cards. There are opponents, there's betting, their cards are hidden, you play seven cards and keep the best five, and ties are settled card by card.
Balatro's twelve hands at a real poker table
In the game's order, highest first. Nine exist in poker exactly as they are, in the same order. The top three can't happen with a real deck, because they need duplicate cards.
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In Balatro
Flush Five
160 × 16
A duplicate card: a deck has only one A duplicate card: a deck has only one A duplicate card: a deck has only one A duplicate card: a deck has only oneIn poker
Doesn't existFive identical cards. A deck has exactly one ace of spades.
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In Balatro
Flush House
140 × 14
A duplicate card: a deck has only one A duplicate card: a deck has only one A duplicate card: a deck has only oneIn poker
Doesn't existA full house all in one suit needs three sevens of diamonds, and there's only one.
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In Balatro
Five of a Kind
120 × 12
A duplicate card: a deck has only oneIn poker
Doesn't existThere are four aces, one per suit. It only happens in home games played with wild cards.
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In Balatro
Straight Flush
100 × 8
In poker
Straight flush
No. 2 of 10When it runs up to the ace, Balatro calls it a Royal Flush but scores it as a Straight Flush. In poker, the royal flush is the best hand there is.
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In Balatro
Four of a Kind
60 × 7
In poker
Four of a kind
quads
No. 3 of 10 -
In Balatro
Full House
40 × 4
In poker
Full house
a boat, or a full boat
No. 4 of 10 -
In Balatro
Flush
35 × 4
In poker
Flush
No. 5 of 10 -
In Balatro
Straight
30 × 4
In poker
Straight
No. 6 of 10 -
In Balatro
Three of a Kind
30 × 3
In poker
Three of a kind
trips, or a set when you hold a pocket pair
No. 7 of 10 -
In Balatro
Two Pair
20 × 2
In poker
Two pair
No. 8 of 10 -
In Balatro
Pair
10 × 2
In poker
One pair
No. 9 of 10 -
In Balatro
High Card
5 × 1
In poker
High card
called by its top card: ace-high, king-high
No. 10 of 10
Under each name, the hand's base in Balatro at level 1, in Chips × Mult. Poker uses the same names, plus some table slang.
Five of a kind, outside Balatro
Nothing gets added up
In Balatro every hand has a value and every scoring card adds Chips. In poker a hand isn't worth any number: it's compared with everyone else's, and the higher one takes the pot, which is the chips that were bet on that hand.
In Balatro
A flush: ace, jack, 8, 5 and 2
(35 + 11 + 10 + 8 + 5 + 2) × 4 = 284
A Flush starts at 35 Chips times 4 Mult; the ace adds 11 Chips, the jack 10, the rest what they show. 284 points gets you closer to a number you have to beat.
In poker
The same flush against a king-high straight
You
Opponent
The flush wins. That's it.
There's no number. A flush with a deuce beats the straight just as surely as one with an ace. What you win is the pot, and its size depends on what was bet, not on your cards.
What changes at a real table
You know the hands already. This is what Balatro doesn't have, and what you actually need to learn.
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1
The blinds are something else
In Balatro, the Small Blind and the Big Blind are score targets. In poker they're two forced bets, posted before the deal by the two players to the left of the button, so there's always something in the pot to play for.
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2
There are opponents, and betting
You don't play against a number but against people. Each hand has up to four betting rounds, and you can win without showing anything if everyone folds, or lose with good cards if you fold first.
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3
Their cards are face down
You don't see what anyone else holds until the end, if you see it at all. You decide with incomplete information, and so do they. That's why bluffing exists.
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4
Seven cards, best five
You don't pick which cards to play. You have two hole cards and five on the board that everyone shares, and your hand is the best five of those seven, even if it uses neither of yours.
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5
The other cards count
In Balatro, cards outside the hand don't score. In poker a hand is always five cards, and with the same pair, the player with the next-highest card wins. That card is the kicker.
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6
A tie splits the pot
If two players' best five cards are the same, the pot is split down the middle. Suits never break a tie: no suit outranks another.
There are no discards in Hold'em either, and no jokers that rewrite the rules mid-game. The cards you get are the cards you have; what you decide is how much to bet with them. One kind of poker does let you discard: five-card draw, the game in old westerns.
One hand, street by street
Texas Hold'em, heads-up against one opponent. You hold ace-king. Answer before you open each one: it's how you check that the rest of the page stuck.
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1
Flop
The board
Your hole cards
King, seven, deuce. What do you have?
Show the answer
A pair of kings. Your ace isn't part of the pair, but it counts: it's your kicker, the card that breaks the tie if your opponent has a king too. In Balatro it wouldn't score.
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2
Turn
The board
Your hole cards
Another seven. Now what?
Show the answer
Two pair, kings and sevens, with the ace as your fifth card. The sevens are on the board and belong to everyone: anyone holding a king has the same two pair.
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3
River
The board
Your hole cards
Your opponent shows
A three, and your opponent shows king-queen. Who wins?
Show the answer
You do. You both have king, king, seven, seven, so the fifth card decides it: your ace beats their queen. If the fifth card matched too, you'd split the pot.
Questions from Balatro players
Are Balatro hands the same as poker hands?
Nine of the twelve are, in the same order: high card, pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind and straight flush. The other three, Five of a Kind, Flush House and Flush Five, need duplicate cards and don't exist with a real deck.
Is five of a kind a real poker hand?
Not in Texas Hold'em. There are four cards of each rank, so five of a kind is only possible in home games played with wild cards, where it's usually the top hand.
What is a royal flush?
The ace-high straight flush: ten, jack, queen, king and ace of the same suit. Balatro gives it the name but scores it as a Straight Flush. In poker it's the best possible hand.
Does a flush beat a straight?
Yes, in poker and in Balatro. In poker it wins because it's harder to make: of the 2,598,960 possible five-card hands, 5,108 are flushes and 10,200 are straights, almost twice as many.
Is Balatro poker?
No. It's a deck-building game that borrows poker's hands, with no opponents and no betting. Its creator, LocalThunk, has said he doesn't believe it contains gambling, and wrote into his will that the game may never be sold or licensed to a gambling company.
Keep going
The ranking
Poker hand rankings
All ten hands, how often each one comes up and how ties are broken.
The classic
Five-card draw
The old saloon game: five cards each, one draw, two betting rounds.
Quick reference
Who wins in poker
Fifteen tiebreakers settled in two lines: kickers, split pots and suits.
What's new is the table
You already know the hands. The course starts with the cards and moves on to what Balatro doesn't have: betting, opponents and an order of play, all in path 1. The hands come back in path 2, “My cards and everyone's”, now with seven cards, kickers and split pots.
First lesson · 6 min The cards Every card has two facts: rank and suit. You'll learn to read both, and which one says which card is worth more. Play nowNo sign-up · No money · In your browser
