Even Steven is a Common Joker that provides +4 Mult when cards with an even rank are scored. In Balatro, the even ranks are 2s, 4s, 6s, 8s and 10s.
Synergies[]
Even Steven is a decent source of +Mult that triggers through cards, effectively being +20 Mult if all played cards are even and trigger once. It works very well as an early-game source of Mult, but can fall off unless heavily built around (and even then it isn't the best Joker to build around).
Decks[]
Abandoned Deck works very well with Steven, since it allows the player to find even ranks more easily. It makes even cards about 20% more common to draw (in an unaltered deck).- Magic Deck's Fools can be used to turn many odd cards into evens with Strengths, or copy a strong even card with Deaths.
- Erratic Deck may have many more even cards than normal.
Poker Hands[]
Steven works best with hands that play five even cards. This is mainly Full House, though Four of a Kind may work well with its higher base chips, and later Five of a Kind. Flushes can serve as a decent alternative, since they can be easier to find and will still (ideally) contain some even cards.
Jokers[]
Even Steven is, in essence, a more effective version of the sinful Jokers (the ones that give +3 Mult per scored card of a certain suit). In an unaltered deck, the chance an even card is drawn is ~38%, compared to the 25% of a specific suit, and it gives more Mult. In exchange, it's harder to build around, since there are fewer rank-changing methods than suit changers, and it can be harder to make a Full House than a Flush due to the specific even cards being harder to find.
- As with every Joker that triggers an effect when a card is scored, retrigger Jokers increase the effect of Steven by an order of magnitude. Steven itself isn't a great Joker to build a retrigger strategy around, but combined with a source of X Mult from played cards, like Ancient Joker or Glass cards, it can be a valid strategy.
- Tarot generators also work well with Steven, because of Glass cards and even rank preference from Even Steven.
- Because Steven is best used as an early-game method of boosting Mult, combining it with Economy Jokers is very beneficial. The earlier Antes can be easily cleared in 1 or 2 hands with Steven, meaning you will be looking for more powerful Jokers or other forms of scaling, which is what Economy Jokers help you afford.
- Walkie Talkie lets you give another boost to 10s and 4s, though without retriggers having both can be a bit of a waste of Joker slots.
- Wee Joker gets buffed for every 2 that scores. Comboing it with Steven lets you play weaker 2-based hands and still gain a decent score.
- Ride the Bus provides a decent source of scaling that uses Steven very effectively, since even cards are already more desirable with Bus.
Trivia[]
- "Even Steven" is a way of saying something is evenly matched or evenly split between things. "I split the cake with my friend even-steven."
- Even Steven is similar in style to Odd Todd, which gives Chips for odd ranks instead.
In other languages[]
| Language | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Simplified) | 偶数史蒂文 | |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 互不相欠 | |
| Dutch | Gelijke Pijke | |
| French | Pair gagnant | |
| German | Gerader Gerd | |
| Indonesian | Even Steven | |
| Italian | Numeri pari | |
| Japanese | イーブンスティーブン | |
| Korean | 이븐 스티븐 | |
| Polish | Równiacha | |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) | Osmar Vados | |
| Russian | Все че(с)тно | |
| Spanish (Spain) | Pares | |
| Spanish (Latin America) | El par |
