This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker: Idle clicking meets Deckbuilders

What has caused the recent resurgence in the incremental game genre? While recent titles like Gamblers Table put a pleasing new coat of paint on some very firmly established game mechanics present in many titles, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker throws all of those aside in favor of customization to the nth degree.

Here, we will cover everything you need to know about this title, from gameplay to a brief overview of the development process. All this is to have you be as prepared as possible before you face off against the maniacal “jester” in the game. For more, we recommend reading our full This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker walkthrough, which offers an encompassing view of the game. 

What is This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker?

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is a card-based incremental game in which hands are played randomly and scored depending on their value in poker. The crux of This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker’s gameplay is utilising the expansive upgrade tree alongside adding new cards with unique values and abilities into the deck, all to create higher value hands. 

Many of the upgrades will add value to the combos; however, with the main aim of the game being the reduction of player input, arguably the most useful upgrades are the ones in which more decks to the table, or they are automatically played for you. 

Like many other incremental games, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker features a “prestige” mechanic, in which a run can be abandoned to restart with upgrades purchased using materials obtained from prestiging (in this case, red chips). You unlock this after beating the jesters’ initial milestone of one billion. 

With the vast amounts of upgrades available to both improve the deck you have and create new interesting combinations with one of your other decks, there’s a hefty amount of customization in the game. All this combined results in the main objective being to reduce This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker’s gambling and create builds in which hyper-valuable hands are always played.

When did This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker release?

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker’s release date was December 11, 2025. Like with many other incremental games available on Steam, it originally had a demo version, which is no longer available. 

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker’s demo was released on October 12, 2025. This is a fairly quick turnaround for a game to leave its demo stage, as it was only a demo for just over two months. Immediately after its release, content creators on streaming platforms recognized the value in the game and thus began to promote its exposure. As with many other games in the genre, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker got most of its initial “advertising” from these content creators. As the game is easy to understand and play, it was likely appealing to many as both a viewer and a player. 

Who developed This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker?

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker’s developer, who goes by “Mash” on Steam, is additionally published by Oro Interactive and Drillhounds. Not much is known about the developer, as they have a fairly small catalog of games, with only one other listed on Steam. 

As for the publishers, they have a slightly more extensive repertoire available to the public. Something worth noting is that This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is their first published incremental game, with Oro Interactive focusing mostly on horror games. The same can be said for Drillhounds, who actually published “A Game About Digging A Hole”, another game that was popular with streamers and is overwhelmingly positively reviewed on Steam. 

How does This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker compare to other Deckbuilders? 

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is a truly expansive incremental game. With the level of customization and the depth of the upgrade tree, this game could feasibly be played for hours, idle or otherwise. While it has many of the same pitfalls as other incremental games, where the player can feel detached from the gameplay almost immediately, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker has a good level of constantly occurring unique interactions paired with visual and audio flair that watching the decks constantly flip to reveal hands is mesmerising.

In terms of comparing to other deckbuilders, unfortunately, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker is not as rich. While there are some interesting cards to be obtained, they will obviously take a backseat to the plethora of upgrades available to the player, so much so that it’s easy to forget this game is a deckbuilder. With that in mind, the cards with special abilities that are available are very fun to use, and making specific decks with said cards in mind is a great way to achieve those previously spoken about combos.

This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker price is currently $5.99, and we believe that it is very much worth that, especially if you are a fan of incremental games. When considering the amount available to you, paired with the individually customisable decks so that no two playthroughs are the same, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t worth the cost. 

Additionally, if you are a fan of this game or it appeals to you, This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker updates and patches are frequent, meaning that Mash is clearly giving a lot of care and effort to this game. This could mean that more content is planned for the future, but either way, what is present now is a hypnotic experience that will always draw you back to the table. 

References

1. This Ain’t Even Poker, Ya Joker on Steam (Steam Store)