4.5/5 ★ – SilenceOfTheLamy's review of Balatro.

As someone who’s never played Poker and therefore doesn’t know the value of a Poker hand, I was initially confused about how the game works. My interest in the game was merely pure curiosity as I’d heard great things about it and how addictive it was. So I gave it a try and was initially overwhelmed and dispirited. You start out with the basics. Basic multipliers and basic poker hands. But you soon get to grips with what the game is all about and, sure enough, you’re seeing that there’s layers and strategy to it. You’re developing your own play style. You start looking for Jokers, Tarot cards, Planet cards and booster packs that compliment your play style. Pretty soon I found myself addicted and didn’t put it down until I won a complete run. I think the easiest strategy for me was to play Flushes and then build my deck and Jokers around that. It’s a very simple yet very fun game and I absolutely adore games that employ an ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ mentality. On a side note, my god was it rage inducing when your incredible run gets spoiled by bad hand draws or when the Boss Blind has an ability that completely destroys your strategy.