Papaya Solitaire: Can you really make thousands?
We’ve all seen the adverts, offering the opportunity to win thousands in a week. But how does it work? Is it legitimate or a scam? Can you actually make serious money from it?
I’ve been playing Papaya Solitaire (also known as Solitaire Cash) for a few months now, and have made a decent chunk of money from it.
But… you won’t make the thousands weekly as the ads claim, there’s a lot of strategy involved, and you can also very easily lose lots of money too.
Read on for an honest review, and some tips and tricks for how to win…
Rating: 3 / 5
Money making potential: £££
Pros: Fun, nice functionality as a game, can make money relatively quickly, can be done from the couch
Cons: Not possible to win significant sums, very addictive and potential to lose money
What is Papaya Solitaire
Papaya Solitaire is an app downloadable from Apple AppStore or Google Play, that is owned and run by Papaya gaming - the same company that do Bingo Cash and Bubble Cash.
With Papaya Solitaire, you play the basic card game Solitaire, entering tournaments, competing with other players to make the top of the leaderboard.
Papaya Solitaire has both free tournaments (playing for the in-game currency “gems”), and cash tournaments, and prizes vary depending on where you place in the tournament.
The app also offers login bonuses, special events, tournaments, and popular and addictive trading card, with cards collected as you play, that can be traded with other players via facebook to complete “sets” and “albums”.
Watch-out: It is important to note that this game is essentially gambling. If you do put your own money in, there is a decent chance you will lose it, so please be cautious. I recommend to not play with any of your own money at all, and if you do, please don’t put in more than you can afford to lose!
How does it work?
Papaya Solitaire offers different tournaments, with a range of entrance fees. Players compete against each other to win one of the prizes, typically with different rewards for different rankings on the leaderboard.
Each player is given the same game of solitaire to play, with a 5min clock countdown, and the players are ranked by a score based on completion of the game and speed.
The entry fees always total more than the total of the prize pot, so Papaya always take some money from the extra (e.g. 6 people pay 20$ and the prize pots total only $110).
There are free games that can be played with the games’ currency “gems”, to allow players to practice their skills before waging real money.
Download the game from the app store, and sign up with an email address and phone number.
Do I need to deposit money?
Making money is a very simple concept with Papaya Solitaire. It is semi-skill-based gambling. You play cash games, and get the highest score to get money (see below how to do this!)
You need to have cash in the app to play the cash games to win real money… The game will try to encourage you to deposit money, with lots of adverts every time you open the app. But this can be a very slippery slope, and most people will find they lose the money they deposit. So I suggest you use the free ways to get playable cash, without needing to deposit.
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Gems Factory allows you to play games with an entry fee of 20 gems, and prizes of up to 50 gems.
Play enough games to eventually play Freeroll - 1.2K gem entry fee, but with cash prizes for the top 3 players to help you convert gems to cash!
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Every day you login you get a bonus, either gems, xp or even sometimes cash.
The bonus increases with every consecutive day you login, so even if you don’t want to play one day, it’s worth logging in just to get the bonus.
You can also send and receive daily gems to facebook friends.
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There are daily promo codes available. Most of them will give you gems (which can be converted through play to cash), but some directly give you cash.
Sign up on facebook for them to send messenger codes directly daily. People also share them liberally in facebook groups.
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Collecting cards can be another way to get cash to play with, with completed sets earning between 1$ / 80p and $18 / £14, plus gems.
These are primarily collected through gameplay, but you also get a free daily pack, and can trade the cards with others to get the ones you need.
See below for more tips on card trading.
Watch-outs: Cash that is won from the above methods is classed as “bonus cash”.
How do I clear the board and win the game?
Can we always complete the game?
In short, no… some games are not completable, and this will be obvious after, as nobody in the leaderboard will have a high score.
However, you are always advised to get as far as you can in the game, and there is nothing more frustrating than seeing others complete a game you thought was impossible. So how do we maximise your chances of completing the game…
To start with, play some gem games to just get familiar with the game. Even if you have played before, it’s helpful to get used to the functionality of Solitaire Cash, start to familiarise yourself with patterns, and train your eyes to see moves quickly…
The basic gameplay of solitaire:
Tableau to Foundation:
Move cards from the tableau to the foundation piles in ascending order (Ace to King) and by suit.
Only Aces can be moved to empty foundation piles.
Tableau to Tableau:
Move face-up cards within the tableau columns to build descending sequences of alternating colors (e.g., a red 6 on a black 7).
Move a group of cards in the proper sequence if the top card of the group can be placed on a card of the opposite colour and next rank.
When a face-up card is moved from a tableau column, the face-down card beneath it will be unhidden.
Only Kings or a sequence starting with a King can be moved to empty tableau columns.
Using the Stock Pile:
Turn over cards from the stock pile three at a time (except for in some special games like “One Draw Glory”).
Move the top card to the tableau or the foundation, if possible, to allow access to the other two.
After going through the stock pile you can recycle and continue turning over cards.
There are unlimited cycles of the stock pile in Solitaire Cash (this may differ from other versions of the game you have played)
Winning the Game:
You win the game by successfully building all four foundations from Ace to King in each suit.
Advanced tips to help clear the board:
Sometimes it’s beneficial to hold off on moving cards to the foundations too quickly. Avoid putting high numbered cards up too quickly to keep an even foundation and prevent an imbalance (e.g. having an 8 in one suit, but only Aces in other suits). Keeping some cards in the tableau gives you more flexibility
If you have multiple options to choose from in the Tableau, try to clear the bigger piles first (e.g. in this scenario, if I had a red King, I would move the left hand side black Queen first)
The stock pile turns in multiples of 3. If you pull 3 cards from the pack (or a multiple of 3), you will end up seeing the same cards the next round. You want to get exposure to as many different cards as possible, so unless a card is useful to you, sometimes it’s beneficial to leave it up so you don’t have a multiple of 3 and can see new cards next round. For example, in the above picture, I would recommend to take the two 8s, but leave the King
Use “undo” liberally. Trial and error a bit to see which path is best for your game (e.g. if you have two red 6s, turn both of them over using the undo feature to see what is underneath)
When you do have two options, always check (using undo), but don’t always be too keen to make the move, unless you have a move ready to go after it, to increase the flexibility later
In the beginning you may find you play a bit slower than normal until it becomes natural to incorporate this way of playing into your regular play. Practice these tips on gems or low cost games, until it just becomes the way you play by default.
These will help maximise your chance of completing the board, but to win the leaderboard, you need to get the highest score…
How do I get the highest score?
Scoring
The total score is based on two things:
Base Score - how you play the game
Time Bonus - how quickly you play
How does the scoring work:
Base Score:
100 points - putting a card up into the build pile
20 points - bringing cards down from the draw pile
20 points - uncovering a card on the bottom
-20 points - restarting the draw pile
There are no bonus points for completing the entire game
There are no penalties for using undo (it just takes away the points you gained in the action)
The maximum score you can get from the Base Score is 6100 points.
Time Score:
The maths behind how they calculate this score is a bit more complicated:
Base score x time remaining / 5 mins.
So if you got 5000 points, and completed in 1 minute, your time score would be 5000 x 1/5 = 4000
Of course this means that the quicker you play, the higher this score is, and the more you completed the game, the more this matters.
Once the game is a guaranteed winner (no uncovered cards and no cards in the deal pile), the timer stops and the game autocompletes.
Based on this, some top tips to get a great score:
Start the game asap. If there are no brainer moves (e.g. putting Aces up) then do them before all of the cards are dealt even, as the timer hasn’t yet started!
Always take a card down from the draw pile, before putting it up (to gain an extra 20 points), you may find you don’t need the extra time / click to put it up later anyway (see point below)
Don’t waste time unnecessarily putting lots of cards up manually when it’s possible to let the game autocomplete (this stops the clock so you don’t get penalised on the time bonus)
Try to get as far as you can in the game, and even if it becomes obvious you can’t finish the game, put all the cards you can up before quitting, to maximise your score
Recognise when the game cannot be completed any further, and don’t be afraid to end the game quickly. Many times the game is not completable, so you can top the leaderboard with a half-complete game played quickly
Watch-out: The game’s algorithm assigns players of similar “ability” in tournaments. Therefore if you get high scores, you will find your competitors also start getting higher scores and you will stop winning. One trick to “fix” this, is to complete a few cheaper cash games intentionally a bit slower than usual to bring down your time score and reset the algorithm.
Withdrawable cash vs bonus cash
Bonus cash cannot be directly withdrawn, and is lost in entirety if a withdrawal of real cash is made from the account. You can always check how much bonus cash vs withdrawable cash you have in the “Account” section (found by clicking the button in the top right hand corner with the three white lines in a purple circle)
This is a point of frustration for many people, as you can think you are doing really well, but the money is essentially fake until it’s withdrawable.
Don’t underestimate the value of bonus cash though, as it allows you to enter tournaments, where you can earn real money!
To convert bonus cash into withdrawable cash, you need to use it to play games and win. This can be quite time-consuming, as only additional winnings become withdrawable cash, and the wager is returned as bonus cash. To break that down simply with some examples of what that looks like:
| Entry Fee | Withdrawable | Bonus Cash | Prize Total | Withdrawable | Bonus Cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | $1 | $0 | $3 | $3 | $0 |
| $1 | $0 | $1 | $3 | $2 | $1 |
| $1 | $0.5 | $0.5 | $3 | $2.6 | $0.4 |
| $1 | $1 | $0 | $0.5 | $0.5 | $0 |
| $1 | $0 | $1 | $0.5 | $0 | $0.5 |
| $1 | $0.5 | $0.5 | $0.5 | $0.3 | $0.2 |
By default, wagers are taken using both bonus cash and real cash, if you have both in your balance (in top right hand corner), which can be frustrating as you end up losing real withdrawable cash and remaining with bonus cash. One way to minimise this, is to avoid collecting your winnings until you have used all of your bonus cash, so that the winnings cannot be used as wagers.
Watch-out: When you withdraw money, you lose all of your bonus cash. Top tip is to play with all of your bonus cash and then only “collect” what you are going to withdraw, this helps to protect the bonus cash.
Collecting cards…
You collect cards as you play, which can be traded with others. Each card has a character with a cute graphic and fun name.
Completing the album
Each album has 9 sets, each with 9 cards. The season lasts for ~50 days, at which point there is a new album, and you start fresh. Old albums can be seen in the library, but cannot be added to.
Completing a set gives you a cash reward, and if you manage to complete the whole album you get £117 ($150) + 1.5K gems!
Watch-out: Many people don’t realise this money is “bonus cash”, so cannot been immediately withdrawn. You need to play with it to convert it to withdrawable cash
Earning Cards:
You will naturally collect cards through playing games. The different tournaments have different odds of winning a pack and your chances are the same regardless of winning or losing a tournament. Higher value tournaments have higher chances of getting cards.
| Entry Fee | Chance of a card pack |
|---|---|
| $1 (e.g. Rookie) | 11% (1 in 9) |
| $1-5 (e.g. High Stakes) | 13% (1 in 8) |
| $5-12 | 15% (1 in 7) |
| $12-40 | 25% (1 in 4) |
| More than $40 | 30% (1 in 3) |
There are 6 different types of packs, each with different chances of getting different rare cards. Higher level packs are more likely to (but not guaranteed to) give higher star value and rarer cards, however you have a chance to get both 1☆ and 5☆ cards in any pack… the brackets below show the most likely star values*:
Beginner = 2 cards (1-2☆)
Classic = 3 cards (1-2☆)
Magical = 4 cards (1-3☆)
Royalty = 5 cards (1-3☆)
Extra Rare = 5 cards (1-5☆)
Diamond = 6 cards (2-5☆)
Missing Card Pack = 3+ cards incl. one that you don’t have
*Note this is different from what it says on their website, but this is based on actual experience having received thousands of packs
The games show you which packs they might give you, and you can also get packs through completing special limited time challenges that come up like pop-up adverts. Sometimes there are special themed packs that come up too.
Every day, you get a free beginner pack for logging in. As per the odds above, these are often basic 1☆ and 2☆ cards, but I have had some really good rare ones occasionally.
You can also buy classic, magical and royalty card packs in the “Shop” tab - though honestly they are expensive and I wouldn’t recommend this.
Trading Cards:
You can give / trade up to 5 cards each day with other players. You need to be connected to Facebook to do this.
How do I trade cards?
Find players to trade with: There is the main solitaire trading group that anyone can join (run by Papaya), or there are also many other side groups on Facebook that people join.
Agree the trade: Each card has a star value (the number of stars at the top of each card), that indicates the rarity of the card. People then trade differently depending on the card, how nice they are feeling, and where they are in the season. A good rule of thumb based on what I’ve seen on the trading market:
Gifting - people are nice… sometimes just because, or sometimes because they want to help you to complete a set, or because they have collected all the cards to finish the album already
1-1 trade - typically for cards of similar rarity, where you each have one the other needs
“double stars” - typically where they have one you need, but you don’t have anything they need. This just means that you need to send them cards that have total value of double the card you are asking for (e.g. if you are asking for a 4☆ card, you may send them a card worth 2☆ + two cards worth 3☆ each)
20+ - the maximum stars you can send in a day is 25 as you only have 5 trading slots per day and the highest card is worth 5☆. Some people collude in “teams” to send hundreds of stars to players for the rarest cards. Some of the rarer cards aren’t actually available till mid-way in the season, when people then pay ridiculous amounts for them as they are only waiting on one or two cards. I don’t recommend this…
Send them a link: Click on the card you are missing at hit the blue button “Request Card”, then “Share” to create a link. Send that link to your trading partner. Alternatively, on the main album page, you can “Request Cards” with the purple button at the bottom, which creates a generic link that allows people to send you any cards.
Send them the agreed cards: Clicking on their link connects you to the Solitaire Cash app, and if you have the card they need, you can send it to them, or alternatively send other cards.
I would personally recommend waiting till later in the season for the rarer cards, as they become significantly more common in the last week or so, and hence much cheaper.
Gold cards cannot be traded for. You can only get these independently. Often it is not worth trading until you have the gold card in your possession so you can complete the set and get the money.
Card Chests:
Opening Chests
In the top right hand corner of the album is a chest with little arrows. This opens a screen that allows you to “purchase” chests with stars.
You can only use cards that you have duplicates of, and the “Card Stars” is the total of the star value of each of the duplicates.
Chests contain cards and gems, and higher value chests also give you cash
Watch-out: You can only open one chest per day, so don’t leave it until the end of the season to open the chests!
Opening chests can be a great way to get rare cards, and the gold cards you really need. However, many times you don’t get anything useful, so don’t be too disappointed if this is the case!
The 250☆ chest is the most economical, and even if you get bad cards, you get some extra bonus cash and gems to continue playing with.
Watch-outs
This game can be REALLY addictive. So many people on the facebook groups claim to have lost thousands… If you are someone who has had a gambling problem, or gets easily addicted, please beware, as you can VERY easily lose lots of money. I get around this by not putting any of my own money into the game, thus not being able to actually lose any money…
You will never become a millionaire playing Solitaire. After withdrawing ~£300+, the game restricts play, preventing you from playing the limited time games which actually allow you to make good money, or doing the challenges that let you collect cards more quickly. Other users have reported the same experience, and I am yet to find a way to get them back.
If withdrawing larger amounts (~£1000), you have to prove your identity with bills and ID cards, which prevents you from just opening new accounts each time. If they catch you opening new accounts they will ban you fully from playing, as this is against the terms and conditions.
There are rumours that sometimes Papaya is using bots instead of players, thus meaning the game can be unfair. Many people complain about this in the Facebook groups, often that they think scores are unrealistic for the game, or that the “replay” of the person top of the leaderboard didn’t show a real game. This could just be a glitch of the game but they were being sued by Skillz (a competitor) for this in March 2024… so perhaps there is some truth to the rumours.
Other Solitaire alternatives
Papaya Solitaire isn’t the only solitaire app out there…
Other options you can choose from include:
Solitaire Clash
Solitaire Cube
Blitz