November 1, 2024
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Sophia is a software QA Tester and web developer with experience testing multiple survey and task apps. She has two years of...
Jessica is a writer for SideHustles.com. Her side hustles include freelance academic writing and editing, which she's done for...
Pool Payday is an app for playing virtual pool games with your friends or the app’s other users. You can play to win:
Pool Payday is fun, and it tests your skill as well as your luck. But is it a viable side hustle, or is it just a good way to pass the time?
We sent our tester to find out.
Pool Payday is an app made by Hidden Pixel Games, LLC. It offers the chance to win real cash prizes by playing in virtual pool tournaments.
Pool Payday is one of many gaming apps hosted on the platform Skillz, which is a portal for competitive mobile gaming tournaments.
At the time of writing (May 2024), Pool Payday has 88,500 reviews and an average score of 4.6 in the App Store, and 1,777 reviews with an average score of 4.5 in the Samsung Galaxy store. It’s a legitimate app, but the real question is whether you can use it to make money.
Yes, you can win money on Pool Payday. If you win cash games in the app, you’ll get real cash prizes, delivered via a check sent to your address.
When you win, you’ll also get your entry fees refunded, although not in the same way; instead of having it tacked onto your check, you’ll get your money back via PayPal, Apple Pay, or your debit or credit card, depending on which method you originally used to pay.
Although the money you can win by playing Pool Payday is real, most users won’t earn very much money. In fact, it’s easy to lose more than you make.
That’s what happened to us. We spent about 2 hours playing Pool Payday, and ultimately, we lost money.
In total, we spent $10 on entry fees to play games. When we finished testing, we had no withdrawable cash left (only $0.50 in credit for playing new games). This means we lost all of our money, in practice.
Consequently, we don’t recommend using this app as a side hustle. It can be fun—at least if you like playing pool—but it’s not a practical way to turn a profit.
No, you don’t have to pay to play Pool Payday, at least in theory. Pool Payday has practice games you can enter using credits that you earn in the app. You don’t need to spend your own money if you stick to playing these practice games.
It might also be possible to enter cash games without paying—if you’re extremely patient and motivated. You can perform certain in-app tasks to get another type of credit, “Ticketz,” which you can swap out for yet another type of credit called Bonus Cash. You can then use this to enter Pool Payday tournaments (including ones with cash prizes).
However, you need a staggering 20,000 Ticketz to get just $1 in Bonus Cash, and it’s not clear whether the app will continue giving you Ticketz if you strategically avoid spending any money on games.
The upshot is that although it might be possible to enter cash games without paying, it’s highly impractical, and our hunch is that virtually all users end up forking over real money to play.
If you’ve ever played pool (or a pool-based video game), Pool Payday will be pretty familiar to you. The aim of the game is to pocket balls and score points.
The game is competitive; you have to score as many points as possible and beat other players’ scores.
The number of points you’ll score for pocketing a ball will depend on:
The total number of points you score when you pocket a ball is equivalent to the ball’s number multiplied by the pocket’s.
You can also get bonus points for certain types of trick shots, such as potting two balls at the same time.
Some Pool Payday games last 3 minutes; others last just 2 minutes. You can also get disqualified before the end if you get enough penalties, in which case the game will be shorter.
You normally start each game with either three or four cue balls—one on the table, plus two or three spares. Each cue ball represents a “life.”
During the game, if you take a shot and fail to pocket a ball, you’ll lose one of your cue balls. If you lose all of them, you’ll lose the game.
You can also get penalties for certain types of fouls (“scratches”). For example, if you pocket the actual cue ball on the pool table—a common type of scratch—you’ll lose it, along with the corresponding life.
To enter Pool Payday games, you have to pay an entry fee. For practice games (which have no cash prizes), the entry fee will consist of credits called “Zs” (or “Z coins”), which you can earn in the app.
For games with cash prizes, you have to pay entry fees in real cash or Bonus Cash. As mentioned, Bonus Cash is another type of credit that’s specifically used for entering cash games. There are a few tasks you can do to earn Bonus Cash in the Pool Payday app (described below); we aren’t sure whether these are available to players who spend nothing on the app or if they’re reserved as incentives for players who actually spend money.
You can also purchase Bonus Cash using Ticketz (again, this is yet another type of in-app credit). You can earn Ticketz by playing cash games, even if you lose, and completing other tasks.
To reiterate, we’re not sure whether it’s possible to earn enough credits to play cash games without spending any of your actual money. Even if it’s a theoretical possibility, doing so is probably impractical for most (if not all) users.
Pool Payday’s overly complicated credit system (which features three types of credits, plus actual cash) is confusing, and is one of the downsides of using the app.
The only way to win money on Pool Payday is to win cash tournaments (including special events, which cost money to enter and award cash prizes). In general, the more you pay for an entry fee, the bigger the prize will be.
When we used Pool Payday, we saw cash games with entry fees ranging from $0.60 to $25 and prizes ranging from $1 to $90.
When we first logged in, we started with a novice game, which we won and were awarded 5 Zs for. We suspect that all Pool Payday newbies will get the same result, so we’re not sure that our victory really counts for much.
We also played several other practice games. However, most of the games we played were cash games. Here’s how they went:
Unlike other Skillz games we’ve tested, Pool Payday didn’t always give us a large selection of tournaments (with different entry fees and prizes). We usually saw just a few games available when we signed in to the app. However, this might have been because we used it fairly sporadically—it’s possible that more frequent use would have unlocked a greater variety of games.
In total, we spent about 2 hours using Pool Payday to play games (and trying to earn in-app credits so we could play more). The final result was that we lost more money than we won, so Pool Payday was definitely a failure in terms of earnings, although we had a lot of fun losing our money.
As we’ve already mentioned, the only way to earn actual cash on Pool Payday is to win cash games.
However, there are many other tasks you can do to earn Ticketz, which you can swap for Bonus Cash, which allows you to enter cash tournaments.
You can also swap your Ticketz directly for gift cards or merchandise. However, doing so requires a very large number of Ticketz.
The smallest denominations we saw for gift cards were $10 (for 600,000 Ticketz) and $50 (for 3 million Ticketz). Of the merchandise on offer, our favorites included a Tesla, a margarita machine, and a Gucci poker set.
As you can see in the screenshot above, even the least valuable prizes and gift cards cost hundreds of thousands of Ticketz, and the most valuable ones cost billions.
Our hunch is that the vast majority of users never earn enough Ticketz to get any prizes at all, much less the more expensive ones. If any Pool Payday users have managed to earn Teslas by using the app, we encourage them to contact us.
The Pool Payday “Daily Challenge” provides a way to earn Ticketz (which you can use to enter cash games) and other rewards. However, the Daily Challenge sometimes only gives you Zs (which you can only use for practice games), so the rewards aren’t always worthwhile.
We did the Pool Payday Daily Challenge a couple of times. On one occasion, the challenge was to play a practice match. When we did this, we got a reward of 10 Zs (although this took a few days to actually reach our account).
On another occasion, the challenge was to play a pro match. We did this and won 250 Ticketz.
Pool Payday gives you free bonuses every day just for logging in to the app.
Sometimes, these bonuses just consist of credits to use for playing practice games on the app. You can also get Bonus Cash or Ticketz. It’s unclear what triggers this or if it’s simply random.
We collected Pool Payday Login Bonuses six times. On one occasion, we got 17 Ticketz. The other times we checked, we got only Zs.
You can qualify for the Pool Payday leaderboard by earning medals, which are one of the prizes you’ll see on offer alongside cash and Ticketz when you enter each game.
We checked several times to see whether we’d won any prizes from the Pool Payday leaderboard. We won quite a few Zs, but we never won any cash prizes or Ticketz.
Pool Payday has tiers you can work through according to the number of Ticketz you’ve earned. After you move up from the lowest tier, you’ll get bonus Ticketz as a reward for each subsequent graduation.
Here’s how the tier system works on Pool Payday.
You must reach these Ticketz thresholds within a calendar month to qualify for the respective tier. You’ll then remain in that tier until the end of the next calendar month.
We graduated to the silver tier on Pool Payday. This means we got a 2x multiplier on the Ticketz we earned. The way the system worked was a bit opaque, and we couldn’t tell whether our multiplier applied to all of the Ticketz prizes we won or just certain ones.
Trophies are a reward you can get for passing in-game milestones on Pool Payday, such as winning a certain number of cash games in total, or a certain number of games in a row. When you get trophies, you’ll also be awarded various prizes, including cash and Bonus Cash.
Over the course of about 2 hours playing Pool Payday, we won trophies for various achievements, including the following:
We were a bit confused about which trophies gave us what, but overall, we won some Zs, some Ticketz, and, most importantly, $1 in Bonus Cash.
Skillz randomly selects users of their apps—including Pool Payday—to win Bonus Cash (and possibly other prizes).
To check the Pool Payday Sweepstakes results, go to the main menu and then click “FAQs.” Select “Special Events” from the “Select Support Category” dropdown menu. You should then see a list like the one in the screenshot below:
We checked the Pool Payday sweepstakes twice and saw a sweepstake with a prize of $200 in Bonus Cash. We entered, but we didn’t win anything.
You may be able to win extra rewards on Pool Payday by using its Missions & Items feature. This also allows you to decorate your Pool Payday interface with badges, frames, banners, and other paraphernalia.
We clicked around “Missions and Items,” but we couldn’t see any ways to get quick rewards from this feature, so we didn’t waste too much time trying to work out how to earn money from it.
Gaming apps like Pool Payday often publish promotional codes on their social media accounts, such as their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They may also send them via email or push notifications. Entering these codes into the app will usually earn you a small reward.
We checked Pool Payday’s social media accounts and our email in case there were any promo codes available, but we didn’t find anything.
You can get Bonus Cash for referring up to two people to play Pool Payday. You’ll get $1 for each of these referrals.
We didn’t refer anyone to play Pool Payday, so we didn’t try out this feature.
One interesting feature of Skillz games is that, if you’re using the same email on multiple gaming apps run by the company, you have to merge your various accounts to play cash games on all of your apps (and to use certain other features).
When you merge your accounts, they’ll start sharing a balance. This can be useful if, for example, you have a small balance on one app that you’ve lost interest in. This gives you the option to use your balance on another app that you do still want to play instead of simply withdrawing it.
Consolidating your Skillz balances also allows you to collect the Ticketz you’ve earned on different apps in one place, where you can swap them for gift cards, merchandise, or Bonus Cash.
We’d previously used Blackout Bingo (another Skillz game) before trying Pool Payday, so when we tried to send a message to the Pool Payday customer support team, the app forced us to merge our accounts.
This meant that the Ticketz and cash we’d won on Blackout Bingo were both combined with what we’d earned on Pool Payday. (Unfortunately, Ticketz are worth so little that we still didn’t have enough to buy any of the prizes we mentioned above, or to get any extra Bonus Cash.)
To start playing Pool Payday, you just have to download the app and create an account.
To download Pool Payday, visit the Skillz platform and scan the QR code. Alternatively, you can download the app directly from the App Store or the Samsung Galaxy store.
Pool Payday isn’t available on Google Play, which doesn’t allow apps that venture into territory that Google considers “gambling”, so if you have an Android device that isn’t a Samsung, you’re out of luck.
As we’ve already emphasized, we recommend that you avoid paying to play on this app and instead stick to the games and tasks you can do for free.
However, if you decide to put down a deposit and play for money, there are several methods you can use:
There are various denominations available for your deposit, starting from $5. When you put down larger payments, you get free Bonus Cash (presumably to entice you into parting with more money).
When you withdraw from Pool Payday, the method the app uses to pay you will depend partly on how you originally paid to enter the game (or games) you won.
Initially, you’ll get a refund for the amount you paid as a deposit. You’ll receive this payment via the method you used to pay (i.e., you’ll get it via credit or debit card, Apple Pay, or PayPal—whichever one you used).
For the rest of the money you withdraw (if, indeed, you won more than you put down), you’ll be sent a paper check delivered to your address.
According to the help pages on Pool Payday’s site, withdrawals may take 4–6 weeks, although they also say that Pool Payday often processes withdrawals much faster. To be safe, it’s best to allow up to 6 weeks for your check to arrive in the mail.
Pool Payday doesn’t mention any minimum amount you have to withdraw, although it has fees for smaller amounts.
You’ll pay a fee of $1.50 when you withdraw $10 or less on Pool Payday. Withdrawals over that limit aren’t subject to fees.
This means it’s less worthwhile to withdraw smaller amounts, as you’ll lose a sizable proportion of your earnings.
One important point to bear in mind about withdrawals on Pool Payday is that, when you cash out, you’ll forfeit any Bonus Cash remaining in your account.
This is vexing, because there’s no way to spend your Bonus Cash without also spending your withdrawable cash. When you enter cash games, Pool Payday automatically uses real cash for 90% of the fees (if you have any in your account). They only use Bonus Cash for 10% of your fee.
This sneaky feature is common among these types of apps, but it’s still a major downside of Pool Payday because it significantly disincentivizes withdrawals.
Anyone can play Pool Payday, but not everyone can play in cash tournaments, which are essentially gambling.
Because gambling isn’t legal in all states, cash tournaments aren’t available in:
You also have to be at least 18 years of age to play cash games in Pool Payday or other apps on the Skillz platform. 2
If you want to get paid to play games but you’re not sold on Pool Payday, here are some alternatives:
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