This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker review: Mesmerizingly moreish

Finding the best clicker games can be tricky, but there have been some exceptional releases in recent years. One gambling clicker that stands out from the crowd is This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker – it’s a simple but stylish addition to the genre.

Here’s The Escapist’s full review of This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker, looking at everything from its minimalistic yet engrossing style of play to the smart inclusion of the expeditions feature, along with a summary of whether it’s worth it as a non-idler fan. 

The Escapist recaps

• This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is a gambling-themed incremental clicker game, developed by Mash and published by both Oro Interactive and Drillhounds.
• In This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker, you’re trapped in a carnival by a jester and tasked with earning a billion coins by flipping cards and creating poker hands. Every successful poker hand – like a straight or a flush – rewards coins over time.
• As you progress, you’ll be able to pick up further cards, upgrades, and buffs to help you earn even more coins, getting you closer to escaping the clutches of the strange jester that’s holding you captive. 
• The gameplay is simple and pared-back, with the hands-off approach that you’d expect from an idler, but it’s stylish and engaging, too. There’s a decent upgrade tree, along with an expedition system that lets you collect obscenely powerful cards.
• Folks who aren’t keen on clickers won’t have much to get excited about here – it is a divisive genre, after all. Fans of the niche will love This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker, though, as it’s a best-in-class example of a gambling clicker. 

Simple but effective

In This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker, you’re trapped in a carnival by a strange jester – not a joker – who wants you to earn a billion coins in return for your freedom. You’ll need to do this by flipping cards to play poker hands, with each hand rewarding you with coins.

Different poker hands are worth different amounts of money, so you’ll get more for a straight than for a high card or pair. As you progress and begin earning coins, you’ll be able to pick up handy upgrades from an upgrade tree, providing you with everything from extra decks to bonuses for specific hand-types.

It’s a simple style of play, but it’ll be familiar to folks who enjoy clickers and idlers. For any other genre, saying it’s easy to put down would be insulting; for a clicker, saying that it’s easy to dip in and out of is nothing but a compliment. 

If you played the This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker demo, there won’t be too many surprises waiting for you in terms of gameplay. Everything felt a little more polished than the demo, with the playing field looking smoother and the upgrade tree being easier to navigate; however, no major mechanical changes were implemented.

The presence of the ledger scroll on the playing field was a small but impactful decision that helped with tracking progress nicely. For those who aren’t great with numbers – this reviewer included – having a tracker that updates constantly will be very helpful.

Strengthened by expeditions

Alongside the standard gameplay loop of clicking or automating card flips, the mechanic that stood out the most was the expedition system.

After you progress with the game, you’ll unlock the ability to start an expedition with a particular hand. This expedition will take a set amount of time, then it’ll present you with a chest, allowing you to pick up new, wacky cards.

These cards aren’t standard playing cards – they can include multiple numbers, suits, or other special abilities, greatly enhancing your chances of scoring highly. While This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker does have elements of luck to it, the expedition system and upgrades tree added a nice element of strategy to the game.

A smaller detail worth mentioning is that the cards obtained from expeditions sometimes featured lively artwork, adding a nice visual variety to the game. 

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker didn’t throw up any major performance issues, quirks, or glitches during the review session. It ran well, and it looked lovely, too, with a pixel art style and jewel-toned color palette. 

Ultimately, this is a game that’ll go down a treat with fans of gambling clickers, rather than fans of traditional poker games. It’s a simple yet engrossing title that’s clearly been made with love, and while a hands-off style of play might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s a stellar example of a high-quality incremental clicker game. 

If you’re not generally a fan of clickers and idlers, though, this might not be the game for you. Games like Balatro or even the demo for The Devil’s Due may be more your speed, with a hands-on style of play. 

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