Blinds are the main obstacle that the player must overcome in Balatro. For each round, the player has to get enough score to beat the Blind, losing the game otherwise. Defeating the Blind may earn some reward money.
An Ante is made up of three Blinds in succession: a Small Blind, a Big Blind, and a random Boss Blind. Special Boss Blinds called Finisher Blinds only appear on the last level of a run, at Ante 8. The player can choose to take on a Small or Big Blind, or to skip one or both and claim tag(s) instead; Boss Blinds must always be played.
The score required by a certain Blind is determined by the Ante level. Generally, you start at Ante 1 and go up a level for every Boss Blind defeated.
Small and Big Blinds have no other effects and can be skipped to get a tag. The score required is 1x base chips for Small Blind, and 1.5x base chips for Big Blind.
On Red Stake or higher, Small Blinds will give no reward money.
Boss Blind[]
Boss Blinds are the last blind of an Ante, most of which require a score of 2x base chips. Boss Blinds have certain special effects that add difficulty to the round, for example:
Debuffing some category of cards. The debuffed cards, which appear with a red cross, can still make Poker Hands but won't be scored. Most effects made by holding, scoring or discarding the card, from Card Modifiers or Jokers will also be deactivated. Debuffed Wild Cards will return to their basic suit.
Causing some cards to be drawn face-down, making them entirely hidden before being played. A hand played including face-down cards will have its type displayed as "???"; scoring and other effects will still perform as normal. When sorting cards by rank or suit, face-down cards will still be placed in the correct order. Face-down cards can be briefly uncovered by using Tarot Cards to modify them (for example, The Empress).
Restricting the size or type of poker hand that can be played. Hands that don't meet the restriction can still be played, but will not be scored or activate other effects, acting like a discard.
Boss Blinds are randomly selected. Each Boss Blind has a minimum ante in which it can appear, with Ante 1 having only eight possible bosses. Boss Blinds cannot reappear in a run until all other blinds have appeared or been defeated once.
Boss Blinds cannot be skipped, but there are other ways to avoid them:
The VouchersDirector's Cut and Retcon enable players to reroll Boss Blinds. Rerolling on Ante 8 (or a multiple of 8) will always roll a Finisher Blind, and other antes will always roll a normal Boss Blind.
Luchador and Chicot can disable the effect of Boss Blinds. For blinds with an extremely high score (The Wall and Violet Vessel), the score will return to normal.
Finisher Blind[]
Finisher Blinds are a special type of Boss Blind, that appear at the end of the game (Ante 8). In endless mode, Finisher Blinds will appear again in Ante 16, 24, and 32.
Apart from their timing, they are otherwise identical to regular Boss Blinds (can be rerolled, disabled by Chicot, and so on).
List of Blinds[]
Blind
Name
Description
Minimum Ante
Score at least...
...to earn...
Small Blind
No special effects - can be skipped to receive a Tag
1
1x base
$3
Big Blind
No special effects - can be skipped to receive a Tag
1
1.5x base
$4
Boss Blinds
The Hook
Discards 2 random cards from your hand, after each hand played
1
2x base
$5
The Ox
Playing your most played hand this run sets money to $0
6
2x base
$5
The House
First hand is drawn face down
2
2x base
$5
The Wall
Extra large blind
2
4x base
$5
The Wheel
1 in 7 cards get drawn face-down throughout the round
2
2x base
$5
The Arm
Decreases the level of Hand you play by 1 (hand levels can go to Level 1, and are permanently reduced before scoring)
2
2x base
$5
The Club
All Club cards are debuffed
1
2x base
$5
The Fish
Cards are drawn face down after each hand played
2
2x base
$5
The Psychic
Must play 5 cards (they do not need to be scoring)
1
2x base
$5
The Goad
All Spade cards are debuffed
1
2x base
$5
The Water
Start with 0 discards
2
2x base
$5
The Window
All Diamond cards are debuffed
1
2x base
$5
The Manacle
-1 Hand Size
1
2x base
$5
The Eye
Every hand played this round must be of a different type and not previously played this round
3
2x base
$5
The Mouth
Only one hand type can be played this round
2
2x base
$5
The Plant
All face cards are debuffed
4
2x base
$5
The Serpent
After playing a hand or discarding cards, you always draw 3 cards (hand size is ignored)
5
2x base
$5
The Pillar
Cards played previously this Ante (during Small and Big Blinds) are debuffed
1
2x base
$5
The Needle
Play only 1 hand
2
1x base
$5
The Head
All Heart cards are debuffed
1
2x base
$5
The Tooth
Lose $1 per card played
3
2x base
$5
The Flint
The base Chips and Mult for playing a poker hand are halved this round
2
2x base
$5
The Mark
All face cards are drawn face down
2
2x base
$5
Finisher Boss Blinds (only appearing at Ante 8, 16, etc.)
Amber Acorn
Flips and shuffles all Joker cards
8
2x base
$8
Verdant Leaf
All cards debuffed until 1 Joker sold
8
2x base
$8
Violet Vessel
Very large blind
8
6x base
$8
Crimson Heart
One random Joker disabled every hand (changes every hand)
8
2x base
$8
Cerulean Bell
Forces 1 card to always be selected
8
2x base
$8
Antes[]
An Ante is made up of three Blinds. A run will always begin at Ante 1. After beating the Finisher Blind in Ante 8, the run is won, but the player can choose to continue in Endless Mode to set a personal high score. Endless Mode begins from Ante 9 and purports to offer infinite Ante levels to ascend, with additional Finisher Blinds every eight Antes, but Ante score requirements also scale much faster. Ante 16, which presents a second Finisher Blind, is the highest Ante that the game tracks in the Collection. Ante 0 can be reached by purchasing a Hieroglyph Voucher on Ante 1 (or Petroglyph on Ante 1 to reach Ante 0 a second time).
In Ante 39, the score requirement exceeds 21024 (1.8e308), which is the largest number that can be represented in double-precision floating point format, causing the score to overflow to nan (not a number). Scoring over 21024 points results as the score showing as naneinf (nan exponent infinity). Since nan is incomparable to any value, scoring even naneinf is not sufficient for beating a score requirement of nan (even with Mr. Bones), meaning that at the current moment, Ante 39 is the highest Ante reachable in Endless mode. A player is considered to have "completed" or "beaten" endless mode if one scores naneinf on Ante 39.
A calculator for the score requirements for antes can be found here.
Trivia[]
The names Small Blind, Big Blind, and Ante are based on poker terminology.
The symbols and names of most of the Boss Blinds are based on the letters of the Phoenician alphabet. The sole exception is The Flint, which is an original creation by the developer.
The symbols and names of the five Finisher Blinds are based on alternate playing card suits: Hearts, Bells (replaces Diamonds in German decks), Acorns (replaces Clubs in German decks), Leaves (replaces Spades in German decks), and Vessels (replaces Hearts in Italian and Spanish decks).
The scaling in Endless mode is super-exponential, proportional to x^x^x. The common Endless build of Mime/Baron with Perkeo/Cryptid and Red Seal Steel kings can only scale double exponentially (proportional to e^e^x), which means that mathematically, the Endless mode score requirement will eventually exceed the scaling of this build, although the Ante 39 naneinf overflow usually happens first.
Luchador and 
Chicot can disable the effect of Boss Blinds. For blinds with an extremely high score (The Wall and Violet Vessel), the score will return to normal.
Plasma Deck doubles the Ante requirement for all stakes.
Mr. Bones), meaning that at the current moment, Ante 39 is the highest Ante reachable in Endless mode. A player is considered to have "completed" or "beaten" endless mode if one scores naneinf on Ante 39.
Mime/
