playing a ridiculous hand only for your jokers to start activating and ramp up in speed because they're taking too much time to set up all of their effects so you can end up with a quintillion chips total hits in a way that i can only imagine would spark a gambling addiction if this were about real money.

it's always enjoyable to exploit a game enough to break it wide open while still abiding by its rules, and balatro has that core idea built into its very own dna. in fact, it has managed to create such a picture perfect compulsion loop that the game ends up exploiting you in the process. every ka-ching is gratifying, every mult hits like a pure dopamine boost that will keep you coming back for more. no wonder this game has so many people saying it hooked them for hours: that's by design.

despite being highly dependant on a successful early game so you can ride the waves of adding chips, mults, upgrades and such, each round will keep you clicking "new run" until either you get tired or until you realize the lights went off and you haven't eaten dinner yet.