Hungarian fisting is a reaction game which requires that all players sit around a single table with each arm overlapping the arm of the player on that side. Initially, each player places their hands palm-down on the table. The finesmaster invites someone’s left or right hand (or, later, fist) to start, which is done with the incantation “to my clockwise” or “to my anticlockwise” (both as seen from above the table). The player must then strike the table either once or twice with the active hand.
If a hand hits the table once, the next hand in the specified direction must play. If a hand hits the table twice in rapid succession, direction of play is reversed. Once a player makes an error, either by playing out of turn, being too slow, or twitching at the wrong moment, the game breaks down, they must drink a fine, and the offending hand is turned into a fist. In addition to hurting more when banged on a table, the fist inverts the sense of a single and double knock. An error by a fisted hand reverts that hand to a flat configuration.