TheSharks Clan was one of the first four clans that came together on Railbirds.com. The exact founding date is unknown, but the first blog announcing that there were four clans took place on June 2nd. TheSharks were likely founded in the latter half of May, 2007. The three other clans at that time were the Dogs, Lizzards and Donkeys. The Clan names were based on the Full Tilt avatars that the clan members used when playing in the Railbirds Freerolls. TheSharks first clan leader went by the name of Shakalicious, and at that time the clan was called Shaka’s Sharks. Chip.Snatcher was her co-leader, and he kept TheSharks Roster up on his page. Kahlen and Foot Patrol later joined the Clan and became members of the first Sharks Council, although it was not called that at the time. Foot was the Clan's Statistician and posted the monthly Freeroll Rankings for members of the Clan.
 

The Sharks were a force to deal with. It did not take long for the clan to grow and at one time we had over 120 active members. We were feared as a Clan and won a lot of Clan battles, including the 3rd (Alpha3m - Aug 5, 2007) and 4th (Vorlon1- Aug 26, 2007) Battle of the Clan (BOTC) tournaments.

As the Clan grew, we started experiencing growing pains. Shaka went AWOL for a few months and the Clan was left without a leader. Kahlen tried to hold the Clan together, but we had some Drama Llamas that did nothing but stir up trouble. By the time Shaka finally returned to the Clan, it was in disarray and members were leaving in record numbers. To hold the Clan together, Mrs. Magoo took over as the Clan’s leader and renamed the clan “JAWS”.
 

This was, however, short lived, as the environment at Railbirds was also going through some tough times. In about a two month period, a lot of the outspoken Railbird members got themselves banned or left on their own, including a few of JAWS members. The most significant members to leave were Kahlen and Mrs. Magoo.
TheSharks went leaderless for the second time.
 
Foot Patrol began a process of identifying members within the Clan that had leadership qualities to help him run the clan. Since we ended up several times being leaderless, Foot decided that it was important to have two Co-Leaders. Breedsblood was his first choice as Co-leader, but Ray turned him down due to the hours he was putting in at work. Ray did say that he would be interested in being on the Clan's Council, however. Rhyno was the second person asked to be Co-Leader, and he accepted. Rounding out the new Council was Smiley Chicky.

The first Council meeting was held in January 2008, where it was decided that we were going to change the name of the Clan again. We decided that the name of the clan should simply be “TheSharks” and the Council would be called “TheSharks Council.” In February 2008, Storm Lindgren, Rhyno and Smiley Chicky set up the first TheSharks Forum so that we had a place of our own off Railbirds. With all the drama on Railbirds, we needed a place that we could speak freely and not worry about being banned.
 

During the year, we added some new Council members and lost a few Council members. All in all, TheSharks Council has never been stronger... especially since ncbluez and AcekickerCA were added. You can see their touches everyday in the look and feel of the Forum, the weekly newsletter, the never ending Shark tourneys we have weekly, and the new members that we are bringing in. Ray’s tips are sought after and help members improve their game at all levels.

2008 was a pivitol period for TheSharks.  A key moment in our history that pulled us together as both a clan and a family was winning Season #1 of the Railbirds Clan League (RBCL). We then added Shark of the Month (SOTM) to recognize members for showing outstanding contributions to the clan. Also in 2008 we had TheSharks Jacket Tourney that AcekickerCA won, the Ruler of the Ocean Tournament that ncbluez took down, and the first Annual Christmas Invitational Tournament that was won by Silent Knight and PocketPairs.
(Special thanks goes out to jsc88310 for donating TheSharks Jacket and also setting up the Coffee Cup Tourneys that will extend into 2009).


December, 2009 we unveiled a new forum... TheSharksPoker.com... that will allow us to expand the services that we provide to the Clan members. This is a really exciting time for us. ncbluez worked overtime to get this all up and running to ensure a smooth transition from the Free Forum to our new home. The new forum brought with it new logos for TheSharks, which were made by Railbird members in a contest for a new logo... Here are the winners!

  
The three above were made by Lottie531

Runner-up was made by Sherry524
As for the membership, we again have one of the strongest Clans on Railbirds. Today we have approximately 50+ strong and active members. Several of our members are in the top 10 Freeroll Rankings for Railbirds (Pike and Hemi), we are the RBCL Season #1 Champions, and there is not a single tourney that we do not have one or two Sharks at the final table. Our Winners section is the most posted and viewed area on the Forum, and rightfully so. Guppies or Shronks, we can all play good poker, and like to brag about how well we all represent TheSharks!!! Chomp Chomp!!!!
We also want to expand our membership through selective recruiting to continue to bring into the family people who love poker, have respect for the game, and can be lovingly called guppies and shronks. At the same time we want to keep out the riff raff and Drama Llamas.

If you are interested in joining the best of the best, please contact jerm31 on the forum, or simply fill out our join request form!