A cue for success?

His hobby became a skill and he showed a talent for shooting the round balls into the pockets. Soon it helped solve his financial problems as he began betting on his games and winning. These days he earns about $300 on a good month by playing pool, he says.

He's not the only one. The majority of Zimbabweans earn a living from informal activities, which include selling tomatoes at roadside stands and also by playing pool, according to an October labor survey by the country's statistics agency. About half of young people aged between 15 and 34 are unemployed and not engaged in education or training.

Some, such as Chisakarire, are finding a livelihood at pool tables.

"Pool became popular as a form of entertainment in bars, but it is now proving to be more popular than soccer in many places," said Michael Kariati, a veteran Zimbabwean sports journalist for over 30 years. "It has evolved into a fiercely competitive sport with people placing bets and surviving off it."

In Harare alone, the number of professional players has quadrupled to about 800 in the past five years, according to Keith Goto, spokesman of the Harare Professional Pool Association.

"Then there are the money games that have grown exponentially. You find pool tables everywhere you go in the townships," he said. "It is offering a form of employment and it is paying through betting."

Others warn that betting is a dangerous habit that can have disastrous impacts on families. But with so many people out of work and Zimbabwe's economic outlook so dire, many people are desperately scrambling to make money through a cue stick.

Makeshift pool arcades flourish in bars, verandas in front of shops, and just about any open space. Some enterprising residents have pool tables at their homes where they charge people 50 cents to play and place bets in violation of city laws that require such enterprises to be properly licensed. The tables are often worn and wobbly, but people don't seem to care.

In Warren Park, a Harare township, people ignored the country's biggest local soccer derby at the country's biggest stadium nearby to congregate around pool tables where money changed hands fast.

For quick money, betting takes ingenious means. Instead of playing the entire 8-ball game, some bet on the position of the black eight-ball after the first shot of the game, also called the break. Others punt on the best of three balls. One expert player offered to play using only one hand because people were too hesitant to bet against him.