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Sharking is designed to bend or break an opponent's concentration and ability to focus on the game. These and thousands of other tricks have been around a long time. It is so pervasive in the world that Sun Tzu incorporated it in his "The Art of War", and that was written 2,500 years ago.

If you do a close study of newspaper accounts of the great billiards and pool championship that were played in the 1800’s, there were plenty of accusations and counter-accusations of distractive tricks. Continue reading →

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Sometimes you have an opponent who travels as part of a pack, similar to wolves and hyenas. Wherever he goes, they go. They cling together, traveling from place to place. Every locale they enter, they take over and change the atmosphere. With loud and boisterous behavior, they overwhelm any other activities. If the environment was quiet and peaceful, they turn it into a loud, obnoxious party. Continue reading →

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This shark is very popular among amateur golfers. It has migrated into the pool room because it has been so effective in making shooters less able to concentrate on winning. Continue reading →

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Few people are able to compete with deadly intentions against an opponent who has just informed you about a personal tragedy. It’s just kind of hard to get into the competitive mood. If you are normally a kind and gentle person, beating up on a suffering human being just is insensitive to the max. In the wide world outside of the pool hall, this is a completely acceptable, even praiseworthy, reaction. Continue reading →

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This little hustling trick is designed to confuse and destroy your playing rhythm. It is most affective on players who have a passive response to people – the “go along to get along” attitude. Continue reading →

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This hustling trick is designed to affect the playing abilities of players who are envious of other people’s possessions. It’s a refinement that uses “Keep up with the Jones” psychological profiling. To make this work, the pool hustler MUST invest a significant amount of money into his pool tools. Continue reading →

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This is another delaying shark that is often observed in pool. To implement this effort, the hustler simply slows down his basic shooting routine. Used by a master gamesman, it becomes less a game of pool and more of a game of Patience. This tactic stretches out the amount of time that he is in control of the table – which extends the time you spend sitting down. Continue reading →

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A pool hustler can take this medical accessory and use it to split off part of your competitive intentions. The basic aluminum medical supply cane makes it obvious that he is suffering some sort of physical mobility limitation. Continue reading →

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It's hard to believe that this pool shark actually works so effectively. The trick is simple and straight-forward. The pool hustler apparently decides to give you an unexpected gift. It starts when you have committed some kind of foul. It might be an accidental touch or movement of an object ball, or a similar accidental tip to ball touch or hand/clothing touch to the cue ball. The foul must occur during the shot setup and before a complete stroke is made. Continue reading →

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This distractive shark is designed to test the far reaches of your patience during the time when your opponent finishes his turn and your turn begins. Depending on how smoothly he can present this delay, he can prevent the beginning of your turn from 30 seconds to two minutes. This trick creates a timing obstacle. It prevents you from being able to immediately take control of the table after your opponent misses. Continue reading →