Forty Hands: Official Rules

Finish both bottles before the tape comes off.

Each player is given two 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor, opened. A designated taper tapes one bottle securely to each of the player's hands with duct tape, around the bottle and the hand, with fingers wrapped around the bottle. The player now has bottles for hands.

Rule 1. The tape

Rule 1.1. The tape stays on until both bottles are empty. A player may not remove it, chew through it or ask a friend to cut it.

Rule 1.2. The bottles may not be set down and freed from the hands, but they may rest on a table.

Rule 2. Drinking

Rule 2.1. A player may drink from either bottle, in any order, at any pace.

Rule 2.2. No other player may drink from a player's bottles. No one may pour a player's bottle into anything else.

Rule 3. Finishing

Rule 3.1. A player is finished when both bottles are empty. The taper confirms it by turning each bottle upside down. The tape may then come off.

Rule 3.2. If several players compete, the first to finish wins. Players who finish later have also finished, and the Commission congratulates them less loudly.

Rule 4. Stopping

Rule 4.1. A player who wants to stop says so. The tape comes off at once, with no penalty and no argument (Provision 1.8).

• Smaller bottles. Two 22-ounce or 24-ounce bottles, or two cans. Approved. Many tables play this version.
• The bathroom exception. The tape may come off one hand for a bathroom visit and be replaced afterward. Approved. The Commission will not be issuing further guidance on the subject.
• Phones may be used with bottles attached. Approved. The Commission would like to see it.
• Teams. One bottle each, taped to one hand of each teammate; the team finishes when both are empty. Approved.

A player's bottle is knocked over and spills. Is it empty? No. A spilled bottle is refilled to where it was. The Official may require evidence, and should not require much.

May another player hold the bottle up for a player whose arms are tired? Yes. They may hold it. They may not drink from it.

• Removing the tape early. Penalty: the player has stopped (Rule 4.1). There is no other penalty. Signal: end of game (Provision 7.1).
• Tape check. Signal: the Official mimes pulling a strip of tape across one wrist.

Forty Hands takes its name from the bottles: forty ounces in each hand, and no hands left over. The Commission's archive contains more questions about this game than about any other, and nearly all of them concern the bathroom.

Tape two large bottles of soda or sparkling water to each player's hands. The handicap is the same.

This is a long game with a lot to drink. Read the Commissioner's Caution at the start of Part 5. The tape comes off the moment a player wants it off.