How about the l in salmon?
I grew up in Southern Oregon, so here’s my take on things.
yolk - I pretty much just say “yoke” but I wouldn’t think it odd to hear the l pronounced.
folk - I definitely say the l in this word, but I don’t think it odd to hear it pronounced as “foke”
almond - I have never heard it pronounced without the l. That’s just bizarre.
Cork - there’s no way this rhymes with anything else here. WTF?
Polk - Definitely pronounce it with the l, never heard anyone say “James K. Poke” and would think it was weird to hear that
Walk - no l sound here, no one ever pronounces this with an l. If you think you do, you are wrong. Sounds exactly like wok.
wash - my dad pronounces this to rhyme with Porsche. I think it sounds dumb. My dad is from southern California, but grew up in southern Oregon.
salmon - no l pronounced. Never heard it that way. Would laugh at anyone who pronounced the l.
Holmes - Definitely say the l. If you say “homes” then you sound uneducated. Plain and simple.
balk- the l is pronounced, but does not rhyme with Polk. If anyone pronounced balk without the l, I would think they were a chicken.
chalk - no l is pronounced. rhymes with chock (as in, chock-full). I do hear it with an l sometimes, so it’s not that weird if you say it that way
caulk - rhymes with cock. You can say it with the l if you want, but what’s the fun in that??? (I do say it with the l when I really want people to know I’m not talking about cock)
No, the ‘l’ in salmon isn’t pronounced. The only time I hear ‘sal-man’ (or ‘sal-mon’, IRL) is from native Spanish speakers.
So your dad pronounces ‘wash’ like ‘wor-sha’? 
If we’re being complete, here’s my Chicago take:
yolk - with “l”
folk - I usually say with “l,” but I’ve been shifting my pronunciation to the “l”-less variety, because that seems to be the more common version
almond - with “l” (although “ommond” doesn’t sound too weird to me.)
Cork - with “r”
Polk - with “l”
wash - no instrusive “r”
salmon - no “l” (only hear it in non-native pronunciations)
balk- no “l” (can’t remember ever hearing this one with an “l.” Same with “walk.”)
chalk - no “l”
caulk - no “l,” does not rhyme with “cock.” (We don’t merge cot/caught here.)
often - no “t.” For some reason, pronouncing the “t” grates on me a little.
I was thinking the same thing. 
And native Thai speakers.
Well, just non-native-English speakers in general. If you hadn’t learned that the “l” in “salmon” is silent, you most likely would try to pronounce it,
Sorry, I forget that Porsche has the “uh” or “ah” sound at the end of it. I just meant the first syllable of the word. He says worsh, basically. But not warsh (which would rhyme with marsh, as someone else said that some people pronounce it).
balk = if you don’t say the l, how do you not end up sounding like a chicken?? I balk at those who don’t pronounce the l. And I’m not boking at you, I’m balking.
The L does get pronounced, just with the back of the tongue to the soft palate rather than with the tip of the tongue up forward. That is the “dark-L” that has been mentioned (in some roman-based scripts, there is a specific character for the dark L, that is typically written “ł”). The sound a chicken makes is a shorter vowel sound, closer to how a midwesterner would say “bok”.
I pronounce them. Also the L i walk and talk. And the full ks in both Xs in xerox.
I draw the line at the K in knight.
You’re arguing with a man who’s been dead for several years.
Generic US perspective: It’s spelled “balk” and pronounced “bawhk” with maybe a hint of an “l” embedded in the “hk”. The vowel sound is the same as in “thought”.
By contrast, “Polk” has a fully-formed “l” in there and the o sound is more round, a true short “o”, not like an “aw” at all.
Remember, my accent doesn’t merge cot and caught, so bok and balk have different vowels. There isn’t even a hint of “l” in balk.
By the way, just click on the pronunciation here for “balk.” That’s how I say it. (A pronunciation with an “l” isn’t even given.)
I know that a root of the word “folk”, the old english word “folce” (conjugation aside) would be pronounced “fohl-keh”, where “fohl” rhymes with “hole” and the “eh” in “keh” is the “e” sound in “men” (as every letter is pronounced, including trailing Es). Over time it was most likely dropped or supressed as a dialect trait.
As pulykamell mentioned, when he says “balk” without the “L” sound, it does not sound like “bok.” It’s a different vowel sound.
You probably pronounce “cot” and “caught” exactly the same, but pulykamell and I say them so they sound very different. Same with hock/hawk.
I think I say “balk” with the “L” sound, but for people who don’t merge cot/caught, the sound without the “L” is really close to the sound with the “L.”
Yeah, it’s almost certain he merges the two, as he says “caulk” and “cock” rhyme, and they don’t in my dialect.
In IPA, I say /bɔːk/, whereas for Peter Falk’s name, or the Falkland Islands, I pronounce the “Falk” as /fɔːlk/, with a definite “l.”
I am aware of the cot/caught merger (I grew up with it being from the West Coast where the merger is prevelant).
But the sound a chicken makes, whether that’s bawk bahk or bok (it could go either way), is quite different than balk.
However, the dictionary only gives one pronunciation, that doesn’t include the l. So I guess I’ve been putting an l in there unnecessarily. Like how some people say the t in often.
I guess you all have the right to balk at me now!
“Often” with a “t” makes me twitch, but it’s a common enough pronunciation that I hear it, well, quite often. I don’t think I’ve personally ever heard “balk” with an “l.” That would just sound odd to me, but, then again, I’m sure I have plenty of oddball pronunciations, as well. Such is dialect.
Native Maine-iac here, and I think you pretty well described how I would pronounce folk. The L is sort of there, but I stop short of fully pronouncing it. My tongue does not make contact with the alveolar ridge.
I’ve always pronounced yolk and yoke the same, however.