OpenPassagewaysBalatro should just be renamed to Flush, every single time I win it’s because I use the “discard until you have a flush” strategy, and augment that with Jupiter, wild cards, steel cards, and jokers that give bonuses for flushes or single suits.
The pair will get you there. I know it sound crazy, but hear me out.
I plateaued at purple ante with flushes and two pairs, and had a eureka moment with pairs after some rng gave me a ton of mercury cards. My strategy to get through gold was to run nothing but pairs and try to get as many hands in as possible. You focus on getting some scalable jokers; my best were green joker and supernova. Then you get selective and find a good joker or combination of jokers to get at least x3 mult. At the same time take card packs, spectral, death tarot or whatever else can get more blue seal. I was able to beat gold stake with nothing but green joker and stencil, and I’m pretty sure I suck at the game.