Don't be snookered

A newspaper headline this week suggested that Canada's Opposition parties might have been "snookered" into pressing for an election.  We knew what this meant, but were curious about the etymology of "snooker" in meaning "to bamboozle, to dupe, to hornswoggle." 

The game of snooker was invented in 1889 by British officers in India as a variation on billiards. In this game, to snooker an opponent means to leave the cue ball in a  position where it is difficult to play (in Canada, this is called "hooking"). 

The use of "snooker" to mean--bluntly--"to cheat" began in the early 1900s. No one is quite sure why.

The question now is: did "Calgary Fats" Harper leave "Fast Mikey" Ignatieff behind the eight ball? Or have we all been snookered?