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As far as I know psyching a conventional bid is illegal. Mike B) Well, this isn't exactly true. You can psych plenty of conventional bids, although some are specifically banned. You can not psych a "strong forcing opening bid" like a precision 1C, GF 2C, benjamin 2D, acol 2Bid. I think I remember where Multi 2D is allowed (not legal in plenty of ACBL events), you can't psych that. But other "conventional" calls are psyched... things like flannery, splinters, 2NT "strong and forcing" to a weak two bid, exclusion blackwood, etc to name a few. I should have added one more don't. I don't think it is proper to psych against beginners or novices. Ben Oops I ment opening bids. Mike :D

This is what I play. After 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif = some Splinter - 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif is asking where. 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif = 6 card in opening suit 3 NT = 5-3-3-2 4 Minor = 4 card side suit 4 Major = Nothing to mention, not really interested in Slam After 3 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif 3 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif = 6-3-2-2 3 NT = 5-3-3-2 4 other Suit = 4 card Side suit I used to play some sort of Italian relay system after opening a Major. But I can't find my notes anymore B) I remember that it worked real well and it was actually fairly simple, when I find it I will share :) Mike :D

As far as I know psyching a conventional bid is illegal. Mike B)

Ben, I agree with you to get people out of playing NT, but interfering with a 5-3-3-2 6 count in direct seat is just madness. You have a pd who can bid agressively in passout seat, if need to. B) But please let people keep on bidding against me on hands like that, can't get enough of them 100%. Mike :D

Let me be the first to start what might be an avalanche of examples of expert players psyching in topflight events. I will just give two examples from recent bermuda bowls... One hand, a polish player opened 1NT in third chair (not surpisingly not vul) 1NT when holding a bunch of hearts and out... something like xx, Kxxxxxx, xx, xx A few years ago, Meckstroth made a great responding psych in the FINALS of a Bemuda Bowl when he responded 1S with something like S-xx H-xx D-Kxxx C-xxxxx to his partner's 1H opening bid. Everything was perfect for this psych. He was not vul, his partner was limited by the 1H opening bid (precision). His vul oppoennts had their suit picked off by the psych and he got to play 3C when 3NT makes. Ben I don't say they never do, but with Meckstroth you had to go back several years. And his psyche was a lot easier playing Precision, were his pd is limited so he couldn't get in to much trouble. And that kinda psyching is also not destructive, since his pd opened and he did have some points. He just lied a litte about the amount of spades he had B) Mike :D

I play 10-12 NT NV and 12-14 VUL, biggest thing I noticed is that people really think they have to bid against weak NT, especially the weaker players, because they think we play weak NT so we can steal from them hehehe. Against weak NT I play Capp or Multi-Landy in direct seat and Meckwell in pass out seat. As long as you have a way to X for penalty, any system that allows that is fine with me. In passout seat we act more agressive, but in direct seat we do have what we are supposed to have. Mike :D

I agree, as long as the X have been discussed in that situation. Does it show other 2 suits and some support for pd's overcalled suit ? I think it does. Mike :D

My opinion is that destructive bidding, aka psyching, is only for players who really don't think their skills are going to get them where they need to go. With other words if you can't beat them with normal, regular bridge they have to do it some other way. And that is big reason why organisation frown upon psyching. And I am not talking about have a few points less then what you should have for opening a hand. But the complete destructive psyches, pretty soon they might be completly banned. :D And the reasons why beginners don't psyche, is because they don't know what it is, and they will as soon as they get psyched against the first time. And the advanced players do it because they are getting frustrated that they don't have the skils to beat the experts. :D And I have not seen an expert psyche in a very long time, still wondering why :D Mike :D

Partnership understanding you have to disclose, Bridgejudgement you don't. Simple as that. Mike :D

I totaly agree. Mike :D

Yes, 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif is NONforcing. But somehow people seems to think that pd with 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif's and 4+ http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif's is going to correct to 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif. Unless people play it as some sort of asking/ waiting/relay bid and then it has to be alerted for sure. Mike :D

Pass I understand bridge is a biddersgame, but that doesn't mean you have to bid. :D Mike :D

2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif - 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif - 2 NT (forced) 3 Minor = http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif and bid minor 2 suiter 3 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif = Major 2 suiter 3 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif = http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif 3 NT = 5/5 minors with short in http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif With 6-5 in minors you bid 6 card first and next bid is your 5 card minor, but this will force you already to the 4 level. Good thing these hands don't come up to often :D but I treat them almost always as 5-5 in minors, unless very strong 6-5's or better. Mike :D

Actually if you play Kokish over 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif 2 suited hand are no longer a problem, especially with both Majors or Major/Minor. 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif - 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif - 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif(forced) 2 NT = 25-26 HCP 3 Minor = http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif and bid minor 2 suiter 3 Major = Major bid 3 NT = 5/5 minors with short in http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif Mike :D

Mike, how to handle 5s4h invitational hand? if 2c-2d-2s show balanced gf hand? perhaps better to list ur whole nt structure b4 i evaluate this:) fly I use Smolen for 5-4 hands in majors. And I don't open 1 NT with 5-4 in majors. I use my 3 level responses to 1 NT as follows 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif= Puppetstayman 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif= 5-5 in Minors Invitational 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif= 5-5 in Majors Invitational 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif= 5-5 in Majors Slamforcing, even though I have been playing with this to be a Transfer to 3 NT to show a singlesuited slamtry in a specific minor. Which will leave my regular Transfer to minors for only weak or invitational hands. And all this is based on opening a 15-17 NT. I also play 10-12 NT NV and 12-14 nt VUL. I still play Smolen, Stayman, 4 suit Transfers and my 3 level responses are all GF and either 4-4-4-1 with the suit you bid being the singleton or 1-3-5-4 with the suit being bid showing singleton in Major and 5-4 in minors. As you can tell this is mostly set up for IMP's were the occasional extra 30 or 60 not going to cost you the match :D Mike :D

I agree, playing pd for a perfect hand is not my style. And by bidding http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif's twice you are warned that pd probably doesn't have the cards you need. Mike :D

I actually agree that this a textbook, at least mine, 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif opening. Vul against Not and in first seat. But everybody has different style and that's ok. Not sure if I would leap to 6 NT though, maybe playing rubberbridge at 4 in the morning. There are other ways to find out where to play :D Mike :D

It sounds nice, but now you are getting in a relaying system after you open a major. If that's what you want to do, I think you maybe want to play a Relay system, like Precision or Keylime or something to that extend. And the other downside I see is that the 1M-2M, 0-8 HCP range is way to big of a range for my taste, unless y have again some relaying involved to find out what the responders point count is. Mike :D

If you bid 4 NT in your second round of bidding or thereafter it doesn't not have to be alerted. Any bid after 3 NT in secound round of bidding should not be alerted. And after the bidding when you tell opps you had a RKC auction and for what suit, but that is all you have to tell them. You don't have to play the slam in the suit you are RKC-ing for. If you already have AKQ in trumpsuit yourself, why do you need to know from pd if he has the King and Queen in the trumpsuit <_< As long as opps know what suit you were RKC-ing for you have no problem. Mike ;)

Question is going to be what pd will do, if he has 4-5-2-2 and let's say an 18 count ? Or a hand where he would bid 4 SP if you actually never have psyched before and he takes you for real spades. As long as he bids like you have real spades it is ok, but if not ;) I guess you can make it systematic, with opener relaying to find out if you really have spades or not, but what is the point of psyching then <_< Mike :D

You can use same any defense you want against 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif. I use Exclusion Transfers, basically whatever you bid is a transfer to next higher suit, either you have that suit or you have a TO for that suit. And if you transfer to NT, you have any 2 suited hand. And you can bid this at any level. ;) Really makes a mess of opps, gotta love it. So, 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif - 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif = a Transfer to http://mnet.bg/~mfn/h.gif, which you either have or you have the 3 other suits. And bidding 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif gives them actually 3 bids <_< Pass by responder has a meaning too. Mike :D

I agree, looks fairly straight forward. On second hand depends on style, but after you bid 3http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif you will get to best spot. On first hand West has to understand that to have a play for 3 NT pd needs to have Ax or xx of http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif, and at least 2 quick tricks if you want to make 3 NT. And that is not looking good after the 2 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif, so better sign of in 3 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/c.gif. <_< Mike ;)

Totally depends on agreement, but I would X if I had both minors, but I think if you agreed upon that, it should also show tolerance for http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif, so pd has a bid in case no minors. With many not so regular pd's I think this 4 NT should just be RKC. And this is just a prime example why preempts really can stick it to you <_< And the 1 http://mnet.bg/~mfn/s.gif overcall can, at least in my case, be based on very light overcall. My overcalls are about 7-16 HCP, the fewer the points, the more concentrated in overcalled suit they are. As long as RKC bidder knows I am, probably, not going to show the world to him. ;) Nice bidding to use bridgejudgement. :D Mike :D

I agree with this, but when you do this against better players you will get in some trouble very quickly. In that auction I play that X by me is a very weak hand and pass by me after 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif shows a positive hand. And the only thing by bidding 2http://mnet.bg/~mfn/d.gif is that you are giving me more space to let my pd know what is going on, and on top of that, we might occasionally totally destroy you for interfering on nothing ;) Maybe this might work a few times against some little old ladies <_< hope they werehave fun doing it. Mike :D

As long as your pd bids as if you have a regular opening. And alerting your opps that you might have a psych, you cannot do. What you can do is prealert your opps before you start playing that these are the type of sistuations you like to psyche in. But you lose most of the positive part of having a psych. And I think your biggest problem is when pd starts adjusting for your possible psych, that is illegal. And maybe try to win at bridge with regular bidding ;) Don't see many psyches at high level competiton, wonder why <_< Mike :D