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The Jolly Joker is a Common Joker that conditionally provides Additive Mult to played hands. It will give +8 Mult if the played hand contains a Pair (i.e., 2 or more cards of the same rank). In spite of its description, the hand played does not specifically have to be a Pair, as long as the hand itself also contains one. Assuming no other Jokers are held and a completely vanilla Deck composition, it will trigger on every played hand except High Card, Straight, Flush, and Straight Flush.

The rationale for using this Joker is mostly comparable to that of the standard Joker Joker, with its effect being stronger at the cost of a mild condition and a higher buy price. While cheap, and a reasonable pickup in the first few Antes, its Additive Mult bonus is overall insignificant, compared to what some scaling or more specialized Jokers can offer. Unless better options are encountered, it should be sold the moment a better Joker contends for its spot.

Synergies[]

Decks[]

Virtually all of the Decks work comparably well with Jolly Joker, as Pair is the easiest hand to assemble - barring High Card (which always is assembled), and it is all but guaranteed to find one after a discard or two outside of the most extreme circumstances.

  • Abandoned Deck Abandoned Deck: This Deck is favored by this Joker, as it contains less overall ranks, and total cards, which makes it that much easier to find a Pair.
  • Nebula Deck Nebula Deck: Scaling Mercury using this Deck's integral Telescope Voucher can make it a worthwhile choice.
  • Plasma Deck Plasma Deck: Has very slight anti-synergy with this Joker, as Additive Mult is overall not a good complement to the Deck's strength; Chips are preferred in the non-Endless Antes, and past that, several sources of Multiplicative Mult are preferred.

Poker Hands[]

Jolly Joker can trigger on any hand except for High Card. Through deck manipulation, even Flushes can benefit. Straight Flushes can benefit under very specific cases when combined with Four Fingers Four Fingers; Straight can benefit under similar circumstances if these two Jokers are also combined with Splash Splash, although this is a highly impractical combo and should be avoided.

Jokers[]

  • Sly Joker Sly Joker and The Duo The Duo pair well with this, as both will trigger on the same activation as this joker.
  • Half Joker Half Joker can be easily triggered along with this joker.
  • Square Joker Square Joker also becomes easier to use, as playing a pair doesn't require playing five cards.
  • Spare Trousers Spare Trousers pairs well with this joker, as triggering it will always trigger Jolly Joker.
  • Jokers that discourage discarding, such as Banner Banner, Delayed Gratification Delayed Gratification, or Green Joker Green Joker, work well with this joker, as pairs are easier to achieve than most other hands.
  • Similarly, Jokers that rely on having no discards between hands, such as Burglar Burglar or Mystic Summit Mystic Summit also work well.
  • Stuntman Stuntman can also work well due to the hand size not mattering as much.

Trivia[]

  • Jolly Joker can never trigger on a High Card, even with Splash Splash.
  • This joker is part of a series of Common Jokers which provide a Mult boost for playing a specific hand type. The others are Zany Joker Zany Joker for Three of a Kinds, Mad Joker Mad Joker for Two Pairs, Crazy Joker Crazy Joker for Straights, and Droll Joker Droll Joker for Flushes.
  • Jolly Joker is the center of various miscellaneous card effects included in the purposefully unbalanced Balatro Cryptid Mod made by programmer MathIsFun0. This Joker could be considered a calling card of theirs.

In other languages[]

Language Name Notes
Chinese (Simplified) 开心小丑
Chinese (Traditional) 開心小丑
Dutch Vrolijke Joker
French Joker joyeux
German Lustiger Joker
Indonesian Jolly  Joker
Italian Jolly allegro
Japanese ジョリージョーカー
Korean 쾌활한 조커
Polish Wesoły Joker
Portuguese (Brazilian) Curinga Alegre
Russian Веселый джокер
Spanish (Spain) Comodín contento
Spanish (Latin America) Comodín alegre


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