All this talk about getting sharked

Bishop We don't need a perfect setting and environment to succeed and win. JUST PLAY THE GAME.[/QUOTE said:
Yeah, real easy to say. Most everybody who plays serious pool can be sharked at one time or another. There is HUGE difference in be distracted and being sharked. Distractions are just something you deal with, but sharking is deliberate attempts by your opponent to make you miss and lose. Off the top of my head, I can think of only two times I've actually been sharked but those tactics worked and I lost. You have to try to learn from those incidents, I did.
 
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rackmsuckr said:
If they know how to play ball in hand rules, then I expect them to know enough about pool etiquette and what is considered sharking. If it was insignificant, there wouldn't be a term for it.

In tournament play, I expect my opponent to be sitting down with their mouth shut and absolutely still while I am down shooting, period.


lol, I am assuming you don't gamble very much.
 
We all expect people to behave like decent human beings but the reality of it is most don't. There is a fine line between someone banging pots and pans over the table and some dude excessively chalking or shaping his cue in your line of sight.

The latter just comes with the territory, stop whining and learn to play with it.
 
Pushout said:
Yeah, real easy to say. Most everybody who plays serious pool can be sharked at one time or another. There is HUGE difference in be distracted and being sharked. Distractions are just something you deal with, but sharking is deliberate attempts by your opponent to make you miss and lose. Off the top of my head, I can think of only two times I've actually been sharked but those tactics worked and I lost. You have to try to learn from those incidents, I did.

Finally! Someone got it right. Sharking is a deliberate attempt at throwing you off. I consider anyone who sharks during a money/tourn/league game a coward because they don't have the courage to beat you with skill alone.
Pushout, I would guess that you are getting sharked more often than you think. I've seen some deliberate but subtle sharks over the years.

Vinnie
------------
Stroke
 
you gotta know how to make that shot

mike253 said:
I was playing an APA league match, my opponent left the cue ball sitting in one corner, about 1/4 of the ball hanging over the pocket, and the 8 ball sitting dead in the middle of the opposite corner. I called the pocket and got down to shoot and that jackarse squatted directly behind that pocket (almost with his chin on the table) and was waving his stick and his arms and making odd noises. I resisted the urge to go kick him in the face and simply got up and told him to sit down and shut the hell up, then made my shot.

You just have to know how to execute that shot with the sharker in place. Elevate the rear of your stick only about twenty degrees, line up so that when you visualize the cue stick going all the way through the cue ball and hitting the table it is just below the centerline of the cue ball on that angle and use a very firm quick stroke. The results should be very rewarding! :D :D :D

Hu
 
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Bishop said:
We all expect people to behave like decent human beings but the reality of it is most don't. There is a fine line between someone banging pots and pans over the table and some dude excessively chalking or shaping his cue in your line of sight.

The latter just comes with the territory, stop whining and learn to play with it.

Exactly, I don't mind if anyone is moving around, smoking, lighting a smoke, taking a drink, scuffing their tip, tapping whatever, stroking their shaft, chalking up, talking, etc. As long as it isn't within 3 feet of my table, I really do not even notice. Unless they are running at you, doing jumping jacks, and banging pots and pans together (like you mentioned), it is part of the game; it's called concentration or focus. Little sharking complaints are just excuses to suck, I think...
 
I consider myself fortunate that most things going on around me don't seem to affect my game. If it's something big, or obviously targetted at me, that's a different story - but your average waitress walking by, etc., isn't a worry.
 
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