How many cards is too many? (High Stakes Balatro)

ko-fi.com/drsp...
/ drspectred
Playlists:
• Gold Stake Lessons
• Gold Stake Challenges
• World Records
Gold Stakes on different Decks everyday. We continue to experiment with how consistently we can beat Ante 9 and Ante 10.
BalatroU has a bunch of talented artists, but Kitty is the one who did most of the emotes you see in the video thumbnails. She does pixel art, too, including many of the Jokers for the Extra Credit Mod.
Commission her here: bsky.app/profi...
/ kitty._knight
For more information about the mods I use, you can join the Balatro University Discord either by one-time Twitch subscription or minimum Ko-Fi contribution. After signing up, go to your Discord Settings and look for "Connections."
(Version 1.0.1n)

[@GoblinWar]

55:57 Me, a warrior in an early qing dynasty morality parable

[@QuantumConundrum]

😭💯🙏

[@cantcommute]

lmfao

[@colindanger3396]

Does anyone else occasionally forget they’re watching a KZbin and try and interact with the Professors game as if it were your own Balatro run

[@KindOfWitch]

no

[@squidgypollard1561]

I mouse over stuff on the screen all the time

[@Cheetahhh]

No but that's awesome

[@rchopra535]

Nope, coz I can never get past orange stake and never be good enough as these KZbinrs 😢😅😅😅

[@Anto-y8s]

Sometimes , how many hours you all have played balatro?

[@colindanger3396]

“I think I’ll take a short break from Balatro” :watches latest BU upload: “Ok which deck shall I play?”

[@johnfranklin878]

Was working on the graduate gauntlet right after my last sticker- I can consistently get 2/4 of the challenges, with only one loss in between. I don't think they'll let me walk with my cap and gown, but maybe they'll mail me my diploma, because during finals there was a death in the family (my productivity). Also, just want to thank doc for the excellent lessons and very pleasant videos. I need to step away from the game to work on other things, but Balatro and BU have been one of the most enriching experiences I've enjoyed this past year. So, thanks!

[@teck8777]

I haven't started the video but I can answer the title. More than 8 is already too many!

[@theanimerapper6351]

Really gotta commit to playing 2 hands per round 😅

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic563]

I mean, you only need to play 5 cards against The Psychic. Anything more is unnecessary.

[@cEighteen]

Hi Prof! Just beat my first Gold Stake run! I was running Abandoned Deck & limping my way through the run. I probably couldn't have even beat a regular Final Boss Blind, but I got to Ante 8 & saw Violet Vessel. Luckily my 2nd last shop gave me the nuts, & I managed to 1 shot Violet Vessel for over 3.9m chips in a single hand. My deck was mostly all hearts, with like ten 3 of Hearts that I was scaling into 4 of a Kinds. Joker setup was Hack, Bus(+40~), Constellation (5X), & in the final shop I got Driver's Liscence & Bloodstone (!!)

[@Steaveanator]

Hologram runs are the most fun Just absolutely massive and unwieldy decks and just making it work somehow

[@itsesperbtw]

Balatro University is my favorite youtuber! never stop posting balatro teachings!!! (unless you get burned out ofc)

[@MenyeMC]

He took a break recently I was starved 😭😂

[@sugariimarii]

I recently got a 2 streak with gold stake because of these videos, it felt awesome

[@haxihoovis1]

Here's a challenge for your win streaks: Joker Sacrifice! Once you win with any joker, you can no longer pick it up in future runs. How long can you last before resorting to constant jokerless?

[@haxihoovis1]

53:06 Gru, planning what to do next (Despicable Me)

[@riverthesheep]

Feels like about 90% of the time doc forgets about the ox and honestly I also forget about it and it sucks every time

[@TwentySeventhLetter]

Polychrome blue seal gold 8 of clubs might be the single greatest card I've ever seen in a natural standard pack wow

[@comp.lex4]

hey prof! i have this intuition that the best way to manage your suits in the early game is not to make all of your cards into the same suit, but instead start by trying to get rid of one suit completely. so even if clubs is your most common suit, a sun card could still be worth it to get rid of some diamonds. would you agree?

[@Epic_Ducks1]

*yes.*

[@SalvageET]

Thanks for the video, prof! Although I had a question, was getting the red card the right play at the start, even before you got the blue seals? Since you had the telescope voucher and two holograms you highly benefit from taking the items from the celestial and standard packs, while with the tarot packs the items you can get from them are often more compelling than 3 mult. I feel like it wasn’t the type of joker that would excel with your current setup.

[@drspectred]

It's hedging. You take it just in case you don't find anything else. When you already have a good amount of Planet cards from Blue Seals, additional Planet cards from Celestial Packs are devalued, and it's better to take +3 Mult than Mercury, even with Telescope guaranteeing that Mercury shows up.

[@BagelEnjoyer]

51:03 cat meow

[@danielj.8876]

Good catch

[@LavishDMG]

playing gold stake runs out to ante 10 this past week cause HOMEWORK ‼️

[@toastedtoast6126]

How many pints is too many? The amount i've had, still enjoying your funny little card game I guesss

[@GermanCutz]

Posted this on the last video but maybe you missed it with all the comments. So I figured I’d try one more time to pose my question…s I don’t know if you’ve talked about this elsewhere or if you’ve somehow explained this in a way I just didn’t get but if I can ask - How do you approach the game as far as the mental aspect. I know you talk about the decisions you make pretty thoroughly but I want to ask maybe a step further back from that. HOW did you adjust your mentality and strategy to achieve “success”? Maybe to help frame the answer I’m looking for - when you first opened the game and started learning how to win, what decisions were you making and how did you change them? Why? And what told you they were the “right” decisions? A good tip you constantly give which was amazing for me was to care way more about the MONEY. Eye opener. Money = more fun in this game is how I received your advice. So to open more options… look for ways to generate money. Cool. Easy to wrap my head around and seeing how you prioritize things like mail in rebate or devil tarot cards makes it clear HOW that’s achievable. But for a long time I was “scared” of even using those and I didn’t make the connection by myself “more money = more options” it just wasn’t obvious. I literally had to hear it from you for that lightbulb to click. Now that’s fine and all… but I want to be able to come to some of those conclusions myself. So how? How do you do it? Maybe that will help. What were other “Aha!” Moments? I understand you have a doctorate in math which to many, I can imagine, is something to fallback on and say “Oh of course he’s good at this game… he has a PhD in MATH! Duh!” But I can also imagine you started somewhere like the rest of us. Not immediately good at the game but you probably did things and had “learnable” approaches that helped you master this game. What do you think that was or is? I don’t know if the question makes sense but how did you approach thinking about the game to improve? That’s basically my question. If it doesn’t make sense or you have already talked about this somewhere please let me know!

[@drspectred]

I think you're overthinking it, or maybe focusing on the wrong thing(s). Start from the goal and work backwards. There is a presumption that the game designer put in place game pieces and game systems to help the player achieve that goal (possibly a sequence of smaller goals). The goal is to score points, not necessarily a crazy amount of points, just "enough" points each round. What are the game pieces which increase your score? Which individual game pieces are more impactful than others? What combinations are especially rewarding? With any decision, what are the costs and benefits, pros and cons? Celestial Packs make specific Hands stronger over time, while Arcana Packs make it easier to draw/assemble specific Hands. A lot of games have similar systems (risk/reward, short term vs long term benefits), so I didn't really have any big "aha" moments, just learning each card (Joker, Tarot, Planet, Spectral) "when would I want this? when wouldn't I?" With Balatro specifically, I actually got to work on the game. I had a lot direct of influence over the balance of the game. So in a very real sense, the game is designed to present the player with choices I already understand.

[@GermanCutz]

@drspectred Yeah you’re right. I am overthinking it! But what you just said again, believe it or not, eye opener too lmao start from goal. Work backwards. That sounds super easy. Huh. Neato Thanks prof!!

[@sinaarya9680]

Hi Dr Spectred, i have a question about an old seed. The seed T9ARC32P you used on a white chip ghost deck with a soul perkeo in the first shop. However when I tried to recreate the run, the arcana pack doesn’t show in the first shop. What could be the reason? I’m playing on iPhone if it matters. Maybe the random number generator functions differently?

[@drspectred]

About one or two months after launch, there was a balancing update which added an important feature: the first shop of every run always has a Buffoon Pack. Additionally, some Jokers changed rarities. As a result, runs which were recorded before that will have slightly different shop contents.

[@bunniesarecute3135]

40:13 i'm curious, do you think that the invisible joker would be more fair/balanced if it removed stickers?

[@acantilado]

I kind of like the Invis joker. Yes it falls short of Blueprint/Brainstorm in most cases but it has something special going for it that no other joker can replicate: copying the editions that are on jokers! Also, an eternal sticker is not always bad. It can be good with things like Madness

[@randomflowers-k2f]

how come u start with more money out the gate

[@Chantz0]

The yellow deck's ability is to begin the game with +$10

[@randomflowers-k2f]

@@Chantz0 ty

[@Glss3ss]

The answer to the question is there is no such thing as too many

[@placeholder6415]

16:10 pov you are a mole

[@GeekyNerd_FTW]

Why do you call it hung man instead of hanged man

[@Frenchhornhero]

It’s more fun

[@raphaelonoue921]

presente