House Rules for Home Table

I was down at my friend Bobby's house over Thanksgiving weekend a few years ago, shooting a bunch of pool in his outdoor man cave (that kind of thing actually works in San Diego), along with his kid and a friend of ours from school. At one point, I made a kiss shot, which I didn't call, and prepared to continue shooting, but Bobby said that was a foul. I protested (citing standard BCA/WPA rules), but he pointed to a framed document sitting on a shelf by the table, his House Rules, which did in fact specifically state that kisses had to be called. I had to acquiesce--local sovereignty totally does beat out righteousness.

So, when I was able to build out my own billiard room earlier this year, I put together my own rendition of House Rules, in order to try and get local sovereignty and righteousness to align, at least in my eyes. Here is the current revision:



Obviously, the first section (rules of the game) is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather to preemptively take the most common/egregious misconceptions or bastardizations of the game out of play--which I think is important, even just among friends.

But, as you can probably tell (especially by the last rule), these standards are really primarily for me, and not to be authoritarian to my friends. I want ensure that I hold myself to respecting the table, the room, and the game...always.