I finally beat Balatro on gold stake. Early on, I got the Ankh, which copied my infinite Vagabond. So, I had two Vagabonds that I could never be rid of. I wasn’t sure if they’d ruin me by the end, but it wasn’t until endless mode that I ran out of things to do with them, so it worked out.
They provided a constant stream of tarot cards, which I used to get myself down to mostly five ranks: 7, 3, A, 9, and 4. So, by the end, the whole deck was enhanced, and I was able to hit a lot of multiples hands (full house, (three/four/five of a kind, flush five).
I think the key thing to realize for me was that I needed to lean hard into standard packs because good jokers do come by in gold stale, but not that often. So, you need to count on something else. Also, trying to pile up money is often not worth it because it competes without your ability to survive early antes.
Anyway, I feel I can stop playing this for a while now!