Practicing Psyching

[kfgauss]

Reading Justin's recent blog entry on psyching led me to wonder how one should practice psyches (for your benefit, not partner's of course). Doing this with a regular partner seems like a bad idea for obvious reasons, and finding random partners online and then psyching seems rather unfriendly (and also, one's random opponents will probably be less capable of dealing with them than your desired opposition). Also, any organized attempt to practice psyches will presumably let the cat out of the bag (say I'm playing a bunch of boards with people who I know won't mind and then I psyche on 1/4 of them -- clearly they'll get the idea).

 

Any ideas?

 

Perhaps wanting to practice psyches is silly, but it seems like some experience is good if you're thinking of wheeling one out in any important setting.

 

Andy

[dogsbreath]

hi

why not spend the time reading ' The Expert Game' or 'Adventures in Card-Play' .. might learn something useful

 

 

Rgds Dog

[Flame]

I dont think you can practice it at the table, because the hands that you should psych are rare and wont come up the day you decide to practice (justin said 2 a year is about enough) What you can do is read a book about psychs, and also when you have a hand you wonder if psych could work but you dont psych cause its not a classic, take alook at the movie at the end of the game and try to honestly check what would happend if youhad psyced.

Last thing, Justin didnt mention one thing in his article, psyches dont only has long term effect on your opponents, they also has one on your partner, and he might be less confident when things get tough. also psyching is taking control over the hand, you get partner to be irelevant, not many partners like that, we all want to be usefull. Basically i am trying to say that psyching is very problematic for partnerships and you should be carfull with it.

[Guest Jlall]

Flame,

 

I did specifically mention that to attempt a psyche you need to meet three criteria. One of which was an understanding partner ;) If partner will get very upset and blow a board or two and never play with you again, obviously you shouldn't try it.

 

As for taking control over the hand, you are certainly masterminding. This is why I suggested having a limited partner, so that the risk is smaller. Again, if partner can't deal with this don't try it.

 

Psyching occasionally should not take away from trust partner has in you. He should trust you to try and get the best results possible. In certain circumstances, I feel and you may agree that psyching offers this. The laws basically imply that you shouldn't be psyching enough to ever have partner doubting you, and he cannot field your psyches unless the auction combined with his hand shows logically that something is not right. Partner is not legally allowed to think "I wonder if partner is psyching, maybe I'll underbid a little."

 

As for your question, it is a tough one. I often play at midnight or later with my friends, most of whom are juniors and up for a little horse play. Psyching against this kind of opposition in that setting can sometimes happen routinely, especially if drinking is involved.

 

If you have no serious partners who can handle a psyche that doesn't work, don't ever try it. If you are practicing online though and one of the situations described in my blog post comes up or any situation where you feel psyching will increase your expected value and you have not psyched it before with that partner, just try it. The worst that can happen is it doesn't work and you lose some imps on BBO.

 

BTW, at some point someone is likely to psyche against you in a serious event. If you have no exposure to them and no experience, you will likely not know how to handle it. Trying a psyche out on BBO can help you learn what the opponents did wrong, and you may feel a little more comfortable when it happens against you.

 

Note, I do not propose or condone random psyches. Those ruin the game for everyone. However if you feel that a psyche is tactically beneficial and it is a strategic bid with logic behind it, go for it. Just don't do it very often.

[Free]

Practicing psychs is really hard! I psych around 4-6 times a year in f2f bridge, but online it may be a lot more. This has been my practice.

 

First time someone psyched against me, I didn't know these things existed. However, I immediatly got a cure for it, since it was the well known 1♥-Dbl-1♠! auction. My opponents explained that Dbl from me would expose the psych to partner.

 

Knowing about psychs made me very interested in all sorts of possibilities. First one I discovered on my own: 1NT with passed (= limited) partner, overcall or opening. I did it a few times, and it actually made us change agreements when overcalling that it could be 0-5 or 15-17, because it was quite successful and frequent. :)

 

I've made some random psychs in the past, not really with a purpose, just for fun, and some even worked out ok. Even V vs NV I opened 1♠ in 1st seat on a singleton and got opps playing the wrong contract. It's crazy if you think about it, but the adrenaline shot you get during the bidding is worth it. ;) But most interesting was a book about psychs: "The art of psychic bidding (and it's pitfalls)". Here, many sorts of psychs are explained, and countermeasures are suggested. Zia pops up a lot :D

 

Most important is that your partner can handle it. If you get a bottom by psyching, and there was no way for partner to know, then he has to be able to say 'nice try'. Let him psych as well, but try to find some balance. Make some really poor psychs so you know you shouldn't do that anymore. Perfect setup to practice psychs are online or in unimportant club tournaments against opponents who don't mind as well. You can always have a laugh afterwards.

Psych in 1st seat as well. You'll notice that it doesn't pay off that often, but it really does sometimes! You'll learn from your mistakes, which is best practice imo. Learning from success isn't that hard anyways, because opponents usually don't realise you lied until the board is played, which is waaaaay too late ofcourse.

Psych in 2nd seat, and you'll realise this position is the worst of all for babypsychs! You won't do it again :)

Also important is to know your opponents' style. For example, if you know they intervene almost always over a 1NT opening, try passing quickly with a GF hand. This one I did on purpose once, and it worked out ok since LHO intervened light and got penalty doubles all over the place. He was stunned by my pass, and these days, they don't interfere as much anymore in 4th seat! They always give me a look to try to figure out if I have values or not. B)

 

Want to practice psychs? Just do it (any seat, any vulnerability) where it doesn't matter much, get the good and bad experiences, and find some balance. Perhaps it's also better inform partner about your training, so he won't get upset by bad scores.

[glen]

...I often play at midnight or later with my friends, most of whom are juniors and up for a little horse play...

Exactly the right practicing situation, and yes, you do need to practice them, both doing them yourself and having your opponents or partner doing them. So look for 3 other players who want to play anything-goes never-a-dull-hand quick bridge, and have lots of fun, including a few psyches, by all of the players. For online, you can open a late night table, with "anything goes total fun quick bridge" type comment to attract the right players. These tables are also a good time to try out things one might not normally play such as 10-12 notrumps, 4 card majors, canape, heavy preempts, walking-the-dog bidding, and fast arrival slams.

[ochinko]

Good job, Justin, I hope you'll continue with your blog.

 

I almost never psyche, but met a partner who isn't shy about psyching, and that inspired me to make probably my first successful one last night.

 

Partner (dealer) opened 1D, passed from RHO, and I looked gloomily at my hand:

 

J9

Q8

Q764

Q10753

 

It was all white, mp where figthing for the part score is fierce. Opps are likely to have at least one major fit and the better part of the controls. So I bid 1NT, two passes follow and a double. I bravely pass. Doubler's partner pulls to 2Sp with 5:4 in the majors, two more passes, I pull to 3D, doubled. -1 for 100 - 78%. One spade was discarded on a heart.

 

Partner's hand was

 

102

AK10

10985

AJ64

 

CK and DJ are off-side. Three pairs bid and made 4Sp, obviously a heart trick was spared. Some defended up to 5C, and ended at the bottom of the traveller.

 

What I am most proud of is that all my bids were in tempo.

[Finch]

I'm not sure this is totally to the point, but I thought I'd add a couple of comments about psyches.

 

As Justin said in his blog, psyches against poor players are like taking candy from children. It's easy to get a good score, but they get cross and upset and you would have got a good score anyway, so why bother?

 

The well-known psyches often don't work against good players. Something like 1H x 1S with a big heart fit is less effective than simply a big heart pre-empt against a pair who know what they are doing.

 

Also, if you get well-known as someone who often psyches their 1NT opening or overcall (say) then not only does lose its effect, but eventually the TD will rule that you have a concealed agreement to do so.

 

The most devastatingly effective psyches satisfy some or all of the following:

 

- You are not a player known to psyche frequently. Even better, you are known to psyche almost never.

 

- You follow them through. Opening 1NT and passing partner's Stayman or transfer response is a bit of a giveaway. If you just keep bidding confidently you won't be found out until the end of the hand.

 

- The more dangerous the psyche is, the more likely it is to work. Dodgy 3rd in 1NT openings or favourable overcalls, bidding new suits without support after a take-out double - these are all well-known tactics. Opening in first seat on a balanced 4-count is very (insanely?) dangerous and will usually lead to a bad score - that's why people don't do it very often. But it's much more likely to fool the opposition, so is a better idea if you are a long way down than one of the more obvious psyches.

 

In his list of times to psyche, Justin missed out the psychic pre-empt, which is another dangerous psyche that can work well even against good pairs: try opening 2S holding xx KQJ109xx xx xx and see what happens... or 3NT (showing a solid minor) with a solid major. I've even seen a psychic WJO of 2S on Kx xx KQJxxxx xx over a 1C opening put a real spanner into the works.

[pclayton]

I've probably psyched more in real life than I have online (really....); probably 12-15 times over the past 3 years I'd say, which is about once every 10 sessions, although I'll never do it in a club game against a known "C" pair.

 

The results have been mixed at best. Usually pard isn't in on the joke is the reason they fail. And frequently, a psyche will just lead to a random result at the table - either good or bad. To me, this is the most bothersome element about psyches; you frequently set something in motion that you have no control over.

 

I did open a strong NT on an unbalanced 6 count near the end of a KO where we were stuck about 35 at the half. Pard had about a 15 count and the opponents got up to the 3 level hammered. Even though we only nipped it for 200, it was good enough for about 8 IMPs I recall in a match we won by 5.

 

What seems to be more effective than psyches (and to me the concepts are related) are the card plays designed to totally confuse the opponents about your holdings - like opening up Txx opposite Jx in 3N when the suit isn't led.

[mycroft]

What I have always said about psyches is that they are a very public, very noticable, losing tactic. When you psych, you will get a spectacularly good result 25% of the time, a spectacularly bad result 40% of the time (which you *must* take 100% of the blame for, no matter how insane your partner's actions were afterwards), and no real change the rest of the time (but the opponents, and partner, *will* notice). So, unless your psychic judgement is much better than mine, you will lose when you psych.

 

But if you get a reputation for psyching, that is a winner. Look at Zia. He's a great player, of course, but everybody *knows* that he plays games, and even when he doesn't, and even against world class players who know better, there's that niggling thought in the opponent's mind that is worth tricks upon tricks upon contracts throughout the year for him.

 

The best position to be in is to have partner believe 100% everything you say and play at the table, and have the opponents not believe you because "you psych". Then you win on every hand you don't psych on, and you can limit the psychic calls and plays to just enough to keep up your reputation. And of course, you make those sacrifices against the people most likely to spread the word, which minimizes the number of sacrifices you need to take even more.

 

Or, as Frances says above, have a reputation as someone who never psyches, and try to get the spectacular results when you do. Harder to keep *that* reputation, though.

 

Michael.

[han]

Back to the original question.. how does one practice psyches. I agree with Justin that BBO is an excellent place to practice psyching, and the people I play with tend to be very forgiving in this respect.

 

Here are some things that I have done:

 

In some thread here on the forum about psyching. Fred said that he rarely psyches, but does like to psyche 1NT every once in a while. So I thought about the kind of hands that would be suitable for this psyche, and when playing on BBO I kept my eyes open. I've done it a fair number of times now, sometimes with good results and sometimes with bad results. I think that not only do I have a better idea now of which hands are not likely to give good results, I'm also calmer when making such a psyche, which I consider a big gain.

 

There is another kind of psyche that I thought would be fun while watching a Vugraph match. The auction was something like (1H)-2NT-(dbl), and advancer had good diamond support and short clubs. I thought that it might be a funny idea to bid 3C, hopefully get doubled, and pull to 3D, and hopefully they would double again.

 

I made a note that I wanted to try something like this, and yes, something similar came up twice. The first time the auction went (1H)-X-(XX), and I had this weak hand with a decent club suit, 2CX looked appealing. I decided that 1NT would likely get me doubled, but no, the opponents ignored my call and quickly landed in the best game. My partner (cherdano) was quite surprised afterwards.

 

The second time was worse. Partner showed a 2-suiter, they doubled and I bid my short suit. Before they could double my partner raised (I hit his 6-card suit, surprise!) and now we were above my comfort zone.

 

So this was perfect pratice, I came to the conclusion that there is a lot that can go wrong with this particular psyche, and won't try it in a serious game.

[Free]

Trial and error :o Best way to learn something!

[cherdano]

There is another kind of psyche that I thought would be fun while watching a Vugraph match. The auction was something like (1H)-2NT-(dbl), and advancer had good diamond support and short clubs. I thought that it might be a funny idea to bid 3C, hopefully get doubled, and pull to 3D, and hopefully they would double again.

I think this psych just won't work against decent opponents. Pulling to 3D will reveal the psych, or at least make opponents suspicious -- they should not double 3D unless they were doubling a direct 3D too.

 

I think Jeff Rubens is constantly making the point in BW that a psychs is only a good one if you can carry through, i.e. not reveal it during the auction. I am not sure I completely agree with this (there is still a preemptive effect if you overcall 1N and then pass partners 2D transfer), but there is certainly a point to it.

 

Arend

[han]

I don't agree that the pull to 3D reveals the psyche. Wouldn't you try 3D when you have equal holdings in the minors? You guess 3C, and if there is an enthousiastic double then you pull to 3D.

 

Assuming that the opponents don't suspect a psyche, they might very well be tempted to double you with holdings that they would normally not double with. Or sit for partner's penalty double with holdings that they would have pulled a first double with. Because obviously, the opponents don't have a good fit.

 

Anyway, those were my thoughts, I tried it and got two bad results. Not enough data to draw a reliable conclusion but rest assured Arend, I won't do it again. :o

[Guest Jlall]

I think Jeff Rubens is constantly making the point in BW that a psychs is only a good one if you can carry through

This is true only in an ideal world. In the real world, even expert pairs will not know the meaning of followup bids when the auction starts this way. Not only does it have a preemptive effect like you said, it's like a preempt where the opponents don't know what any of the followup bids mean.

[awm]

To support some of what Justin said about psychs....

 

In a recent swiss teams we had an auction start as follows:

 

Pass-Pass-Pass-1♦

2♣-X-to me

 

At this point I decided to bid 2♥ on two small, with a fit for clubs. My two opponents were multiple-time national champions (and a very well-established husband and wife partnership). The auction continued:

 

2♥ (psych) - X - Pass - Pass

3♣ - Pass - Pass - 3♥

All pass

 

The double from opener was penalty. No one was really confused about whether I had hearts or not. Nonetheless, we won a bunch of imps on the board! My LHO figured that her initial double showed a bit extra (she would pass and defend undoubled with bad 4th seat opening). She figured her partner was just protecting the partial on a hand where they had a fit and the majority of the strength. My RHO figured that his 3♥ showed a decent hand (he could pass out 3♣ with a minimum) and that his partner should raise with more than a minimum.

 

Anyways, the net effect was that my opponents (an established, national-class pair) missed a cold game at IMPs because of my psych, despite the fact that my not really having hearts was quickly revealed by the auction.

 

The effects of psychs are often more nefarious than they might appear on the surface.

[zasanya]

Can't resist the temptation of relating a story regarding what I consider the most perfect psyche.Although I can laugh about it now it was very painful when it happened.

Playing local monthly mp pairs I picked up a 12 point hand with 4 card ♠ and heard dealer my RHO ( an LOL ) open 1♠. LHO ( another LOL ) bid 2♠ which was passed out.I lead ♥A and the declarer exclaimed "Ayya! (A feminine interjection signifying surprise ) I also have ♥ A!"In our tournaments 2 boards are moved every round and while 3 of us had taken cards from board 7 , the dealer had taken them from board 8.!

The director ruled that it was a perfect psyche and asked declarer to play with the correct cards.We made 10 tricks.P had 13 points and 4 card ♠ Declarer lost -250 and earned a cold top.

[mr1303]

I hope you appealed. Director's ruling is wrong. Both boards should now be deemed unplayable, with your score being assigned as Ave+ (you were no way at fault) and their score as Ave- (for being mostly at fault).

[kfgauss]

I hope you appealed. Director's ruling is wrong. Both boards should now be deemed unplayable, with your score being assigned as Ave+ (you were no way at fault) and their score as Ave- (for being mostly at fault).

Really? It makes sense that the second board is unplayable, but why the first?

 

Andy

[mr1303]

Because there's too much information gone round. On board 7, you know that:

 

1) You would have passed over an opening 1S

2) LHO has a raise to 2S

3) YOu have the A of hearts, and a natural heart lead.

 

On board 8

 

1) RHO has an opening 1S bid (despite the fact that she wouldn't be dealer)

2) RHO has the A of hearts.

 

This is too much to make the board still playable IMO.

[kfgauss]

I agree as far as board 8 goes, but it seems we are playing board 7 and declarer has just informed us that she didn't look at her hand during the auction. It's fine that she didn't use her hand, and it's also fine that this information has been communicated, as she's declarer.

 

I could see there being a law making this sort of situation an exception (ie specifically for bidding with a hand from a different board), but unless there is one, I see nothing wrong with keeping the score on board 7.

 

Andy

[Trinidad]

Fortunately, the Laws of Contract Bridge tell us what should have happened. Here is Law 17D:

 

"D. Cards from Wrong Board

If a player who has inadvertently picked up the cards from a wrong board makes a call, that call is cancelled. If offender's LHO has called over the cancelled call, the Director shall assign artificial adjusted scores (see Law 90 for penalty) when offender's substituted call differs in any significant way from his cancelled call . If offender subsequently repeats the cancelled call on the board from which he mistakenly drew his cards, the Director may allow that board to be played normally, but the Director shall assign artificial adjusted scores (see Law 90) when offender's call differs in any way from his original cancelled call."

 

So, the TD is supposed to let the dealer take the correct cards out of the board and let him make a bid. If it is 1♠ then play continues as it was. In all other cases, the board is cancelled and an adjusted score is given.

 

Rik

[zasanya]

I hope you appealed. Director's ruling is wrong. Both boards should now be deemed unplayable, with your score being assigned as Ave+ (you were no way at fault) and their score as Ave- (for being mostly at fault).

I didn't appeal because I thought the ruling was quite logical and fair.Moreover I am secretary of our district association and I did not want to antagonise the director and thought it more important to comfort the LOL who was most embarassed.Last but not the least we had done rather poorly on earlier boards and wouldn't have secured 1st/2nd place even if we had got all tops on the remaining boards. ;)

BTW the directors ruling for the board was even more innovative.He advised us to treat the 1♠ bid as bid out of turn and the ♥A was to be treated as penalty card/lead out of turn depending on which one of us became the declarer and asked me dealer on board 8 to bid .The bidding went p p p 1♠ p 2♠ p p p.No penalty. :D

[jchiu]

My favorite psych is the McCabe Adjunct response psych. For those who aren't familiar, the adjunct applies when partner has opened a weak two and RHO has made a takeout double*. Responder may bid any suit directly as a lead-directing raise of the weak two, directly raise the weak two to promise a control in the suit, redouble to suggest defending, or bid 2NT as a relay to 3C after which responder may signoff in another suit, or make a non-control showing raise.

 

First psych: November 27, 2005, First Final Session of the North American Swiss. This certainly meets the criteria of strong opposition. On the first board, I doubled them in a cold game that made an overtrick on a lead misfire. The second board was relatively uneventful.

 

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=s9xh10xdqxxxxcxxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

Pass (Pass) 2♠ (Dbl!) ... where double shows either a traditional takeout double or a strong balanced hand (22+). With a straight face, I quickly bid 3♥, pointed to it as to indicate an alert (we were playing behind screens). Although I felt clearly nervous when LHO asked me to write down the explanation, he apparently did not notice the psych until after the auction. The auction continued

 

Pass (Pass) 2♠ (Dbl!)

3♥!! (Dbl) 3♠ (3NT)

All Pass

 

Twelve tricks all day, for a satisfying -690. Our teammates Barry Harper and Mike Levy had absolutely no trouble getting to 6♥ for a 12 IMP gain. Since he was sitting out, our teammate Gerry Marshall walked by their home table as they finished comparing. They told Gerry "Your teammate psyched!". He echoed the statement, and before he could ask Barry about it, I quipped "So? I wanted a heart lead if they put Warren [Foss] on lead".

 

Second Psych: April 22, 2006, Gatlinburg. In a twenty-four board KO match, my partner and I brought back a reasonably unspectacular card, but with one disaster where I had gone for 500 on a partscore deal. I figured to be down by anywhere between the nine IMPs I surrendered on that hand and twenty-nine, based on the cards that were coming back that week. At halftime, we were down 31 IMPs and I had enough. While I reassured our teammates that we could come back, I was clearly steaming and was determined to swing.

 

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=s9xh10xdqxxxxcxxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

2♥ (Dbl)

 

Sure, I could bid 4♥ like most experts would. But I thought the opponents (their third pair, brought in to sit on the thirty-one IMP lead) were complacent. I therefore bid a quick and confident 3♠, which was duly alerted by Warren. This sequence is not explicitly defined in the version of McCabe that we agreed, but I did mention to him that "any weird jump not a splinter or otherwise conventional is a fit jump". So he called my psych a fit jump, and with three baby spades was content to let me try 3♠ Doubled. The auction continued

 

2♥ (Dbl) 3♠ (Dbl)

Pass (Pass) 4♥ (4♠)

All Pass

 

which was a satisfying -680. Our teammates had no trouble finding the spade slam, which brought home +1430 for 13 IMPs. This set the tone for the second half, and our stunned opponents left by saying "we think you may have come back". We won the second half by a margin of 32 IMPs.

 

After this incident, I asked Warren whether he suspected prior to my LHO's double that he suspected a psych. He did, but for ethical reasons was planning to bid 4♠ had my LHO not doubled. However, the double gave him bridge reasons for exposing my psychic call, so he was not obligated to raise but with no clear-cut lead was still obligated to lead spades against any non-spade contract. He also mentioned that it would be legal to psych this conventional response as long as partner led the suit as requested whenever necessary. At this point, I promised that despite its effectiveness when properly timed, I would never make this psych when playing with Warren again.

 

Third Psych: April 30, 2006, Sectional Flight A Swiss. I was playing with Richard Popper, who had no suspicion that I psych McCabe occasionally. Here, I made a semipsych 3♣ in response to a second-hand 2♦ opening with

 

[hv=d=s&v=e&s=s9xh10xdqxxxxcxxxx]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

which caused RHO to misplace the clubs in a difficult 4♥ contract. He allowed my ♠Q to score a trick, along with Richard's ♣Q, a diamond trick, and my ♣A. Had he not suspected both club honors offsides, he could have executed an endplay on me to make the contract. My teammate Jay Apfelbaum had little trouble doing this to my counterpart, and scored up +620 for 12 IMPs.

[han]

Jason, I guess this means that I should alert your McCabe's from now on as "likes to psyche these". I wish you had not written this ;).