Kajenka’s Rule

Kajenka’s Rule

My son has a pool table in his basement.  Recently he was telling me that his sons, 10 and 8 were getting pretty good at the game.  He explained how they play “Eight Ball” and that they had some special “house rules" for the game.

It reminded me of playing pool in college.

There was a regulation table at our fraternity house.  Some of the members were pretty good players.  We mostly played “Eight Ball” as the game was quick, and there is an element of luck. 

Eight Ball is played with one team having to clear the table of either the solid or striped balls and then hit the solid black ball, the eight ball, into a “called” pocket to win the game.

There were several rules to the game. 

1.       The first player to sink a ball could choose solids or stripes as their balls to sink.

2.       If you sank the eight ball on the break you win.

3.       If you sink the eight ball before all your balls were sunk, you lose.

4.       If you scratch while shooting the eight ball it gets respotted and you lose your turn. (Many tables rule this an automatic loss.)

5.       You only had to call your pocket on the eight ball.

One of the best players in the house was a senior, Mike Kajenka.  One day he lost a game and declared,

“Wait, if I can sink the rest of my balls still on the table, and then also sink the que ball it is a tie.”

The other player on the table agreed.

Mike cleared the table including sinking the que ball on his last shot for a tie.

From that day on, after every loss the losing player declared,

“Kajenka’s Rules!”

Most did not make a tie; the Kajenka Rule was pretty difficult to complete.

This was 55 years ago.

I recently read in a college fraternity newsletter, that “Kajenka’s Rule” was still in effect.  A current fraternity brother did some research about the origin of “Kajenka’s Rule” and apparently was even able to track down Mike to have the story of the rule explained.

I understand that Mike was honored that his “Rule” was still in effect.