Should You Skip Blinds in Balatro? Explained

Although actually playing rounds in Balatro is crucial because of potential rewards from card abilities and getting money, the game gives you options to skip them. These options come in the form of Tags that give you some bonus in exchange. However, as strategy is everything in Balatro, we’re here to help explain if skipping blinds is ever worth it.

Is Skipping Blinds in Balatro Worth It? Explained

The simple answer is that it entirely depends on your current Stake difficulty. If you are playing on White Stake, you typically need every dollar possible to buy important Jokers and make it through to Ante 8.

However, starting from Red Stake, you’ll never get money from beating small blinds. The small blind is the first round of every Ante, meaning a decent amount of money is lost. That makes it okay to skip small blinds, especially in the beginning. For instance, I typically never play the first small blind on any run.

Stakes work by incorporating the traits of all previous ones, so by the final Gold Stake, you are dealing with the difficulty increases of six Stakes. Regardless of how high you go, you will never be able to make money from a small blind, which makes it fine to skip for the most part unless you have plenty of cards that could replace the money you would otherwise be getting.

When to Skip Blinds in Balatro

The best Tag in the game is the one that will make cards and packs in the next shop completely free. Finding this early, especially in the first round, is an important setup. Therefore, I recommend skipping the first small blind for this Tag or skipping straight to the boss blind if that Tag is part of the big blind.

One of the best times for this strategy is when you get the Coupon Tag and Uncommon/Rare Joker Tag in the same first Ante. This combination will make that Joker entirely free. Of course, also be on the lookout for Tags that promise a special edition Joker, such as a Holographic or Negative.

The only time this strategy doesn’t work is when the boss blind is The Flint, because you’ll never be able to beat it without a Joker providing extra Mult. If that happens, just restart your run.

The bottom line is that you can absolutely skip blinds in Balatro, but you’ll need to be selective about it. Please ask in the comments if you have any other questions about the game we have yet to cover.