psyche

[LoneMonad]

i assume there better circumstances to psych bid than others

¿what are the basics?

[jillybean]

3rd seat :P

[nigel_k]

Firstly, if you play to win, you are probably best not to psyche at all, ever.

 

Having said that, the best time to psyche is at pairs against strong opponents, just because you stand to gain more and lose less compared to letting them do their thing.

 

Also, at pairs, don't wait until you are white vs red. Usually the vulnerability won't save you when things go wrong. The main effect is on believability - a vulnerable psyche is more likely to be convincing.

 

There are a couple of situations where a psyche has a better chance of working:

 

A 1NT opening or overcall, because partner usually won't bid much over it especially when they double. You probably won't fool anyone but at least it takes them out of their comfort zone if they can't profitably double your runout and instead have to try to find their own best spot.

 

If RHO opens a multi 2♦, and you have a weak two bid in spades, try jumping to 4♥. Quite often LHO will bid 4♠. If this works, try to suppress laughter until opponents have left the table. Jumping in hearts when you have spades works in other situations too.

[Quantumcat]

My partner did the last one to me two sessions ago. He bid 2♠ over their 2♦ multi, the other guy bid 3♥, but unfortunately I had a 4♠ bid, and the multi bidder had a weak two in spades.

 

Another good opportunity is this:

 

1♣ (X) 1♦ (X)

?

 

If you have a couple of diamonds or long clubs and a short major, bid your short major. If they have agreed takeout doubles, they can't double you. Partner either doesn't have a major or has a good hand with diamonds and a major, but that's unlikely with both opponents in the auction. Even if they manage to make a penalty double at the one-level, you can run to clubs with long clubs or to diamonds.

 

And one more. If you open a multi 2♦, and your partner bids 2♠ (happy to play higher in hearts if you have them), and you have hearts, you know your probably have a 9 or 10 card fit. Try passing. The opponents probably have game in spades. I was vugraphing when Peter Gill (famous aussie player) did this! It was awesome.

[the hog]

Firstly, if you play to win, you are probably best not to psyche at all, ever.

snipped

I disagree with this. Having said this, I rarely psyche, though I do not at all think psyches are unethical. You need to pick your opponents and the appropriate time in the auction.

[Quantumcat]

Also, even if you make a really good psyche that will work well for almost anything your opponents have, but it backfires, and your partner doesn't sympathise with your decision, he/she will be pissed off and throw the next five boards.

 

Even if it works out and you get a good result, they may still be pissed off and throw the next five boards anyway.

 

If you psyche it should be with a person sympathetic to psyching and someone easygoing who won't get annoyed and just laugh when it backfires, or else in the last few boards when you won't be playing with them ever again, or if they are clueless and won't even notice.

[Free]

Firstly, if you play to win, you are probably best not to psyche at all, ever.

snipped

I disagree with this. Having said this, I rarely psyche, though I do not at all think psyches are unethical. You need to pick your opponents and the appropriate time in the auction.

I agree with Ron, if you want to win, you might want to psych occasionally. It's very useful if people know you've psyched in the past. It sometimes puts doubt in opponents' minds when the auction 'looks' suspicious while it's not. ;)

 

When to psych is actually difficult to answer. If you want to psych as safely as possible, do it in 3rd seat NV vs V with a long suit to run to.

[Cascade]

... or when partner has shown a weak hand - passing has been discussed above but also after partner's preempt - bidding non-existent suits or 3NT with insufficient values or Blackwood;

 

on the way to a slam when you don't have a control in a side suit but think you have 12 tricks - false cue-bid;

 

after the opponents have shown strength e.g. a strong 1♣ or 2♣ opening, or they make a takeout or negative double - non-existent suits often a major although a very successful one i saw recently was in diamonds;

 

with a great fit for partner - change to a non-existent suit very often spades when you have hearts in an attempt to make it hard for them to outbid you;

 

with a long suit that you can run to - comic no trump style (but without an agreement of course) - or perhaps a choice of alternative suits;

 

when you are prepared for the most likely continuations - strange 1NT openings on 5/5 in clubs and hearts where the likely continuations are Stayman or a spade Transfer;

 

when going to game make up a psychic game-try - depends on your agreements

 

probably many other situations that I cannot think about off the top of my head.

 

Be warned that many members of the bridge playing community are very poor sports when they are successfully and sometimes even not so successfully psyched against.

[helene_t]

Agree with what Nigel said about pairs (matchpoints).

 

Some classical psyche situations:

 

- Responses to partner's preempt. Try a nonvulnerable 3NT if you have a weak hand with 3-card support. Opps will be alert that this is often a psyche, but if they both have some 12-14 points, neither of them will be able to tell. If they double you can always go back to four of partner's suit.

 

- 3rd seat 1M opening, or 1M overcall when partner has passed, on a 3-card suit. You sometimes psych them out of their fit. If partner raises with 4-card support it is not the End of the World.

 

Beware that if you psyche often in a regular partnership, partner will start expecting it, and it is then not considered a psyche anymore but an undisclosed agreement. And must therefore be disclosed and is subject to system restrictions.

 

Personally I never psyche in regular partnerships. If it works I would like to do it again later, but I can't do that with the same partner lets it becomes an implicit agreement. On rare occasions I will psyche with pick-up partners. Other things being equal I am most likely to psych playing with GIB, but then I will often play a best-hand tourney and it is rarely a good idea to psych when you hold the best hand at table ;)

[gnasher]

Firstly, if you play to win, you are probably best not to psyche at all, ever.

I disagree with this. You should occasionally psyche cue-bids, splinters and game tries, not only because it may gain on the actual hand, but also because it makes the opponents' lead problem harder on the occasions when you actually have your bid. The latter effect applies only if the opponents know that you're likely to psyche these bids, so you should make a point of publicising your psyches.

 

Other psyches are necessary to exploit weaknesses in the opponents' methods. Suppose, for example, that the opponents play an artificial double of 1NT. One assumes that they gain some constructive benefit from that. To compensate, we need to gain on some of the hands where they would have made a penalty double of 1NT. That means we have to psyche 1NT from time to time. If we don't, we let them gain a constructive benefit at no cost.

 

Another example: some people play

  1♦ dbl 1♠ dbl

as responsive. To counterbalance their constructive gains from that, you should sometimes psyche 1♠.

 

Edit: one other thing occurs to me. Even if you psyche very rarely, you should try to give the impression (without breaking any rules) that you psyche often - part of the benefit of psyching is that they may suspect you of psyching when you haven't, or may even change their methods to cater for the possibility. Anyone who has posted in this thread that they rarely or never psyche has done themselves a disservice.

Edited August 21, 2009 by gnasher

[hotShot]

If you want to psyche you should be sure that your side has the minority of points. You might end up playing in a suit you don't have or a NT contract with uncomfortable strength. So your likely to go down and this only pays off if opps could do something better on their own.

 

This is why psyching in 3rd seat is easier, because you have knowledge about your partners strength.

 

Standard psyches are e.g.

- Opening or overcalling 1NT when in fact you have a 3m opening.

- Psyching a major (usually ♠) over a 2nd seat dbl.

- Psyching a Cue-bid/ stopper to discourage opps to lead that suit against you impossible slam or NT contract.

...

 

If you psyche in 1st seat, remember that partner might raise your opening to the sky, because he is strong and believes in a fit

[Finch]

There are two aspects to psyching: when is a good time to psyche, and on what hands is a psyche a good idea.

 

 

There are basically three types of psyche: "fit" psyches, "strong" psyches and "dangerous" psyches.

 

 

"strong" psyches

By "strong" psyches I mean false cue bids or game tries or lead-averting bids in an uncontested auction. Anything you do when you are in charge of the auction and you are (mainly) trying to deceive the opponents as to where your strength is. The main trick on these is to choose your opponents carefully. If you cuebid a suit, hear nothing useful from partner, and jump to slam, listening opponents may conclude that you were trying to avert the lead and pick out something they weren't otherwise going to lead. e.g. a known psycher once bid against us uncontested 1NT - 3H (natural slam try) - 3NT - 5C (void, not exclusion) - 5H - 6H

and I led a club from 4 low to cash partner's AK of the suit.

 

 

I disagree with this. You should occasionally psyche cue-bids, splinters and game tries, not only because it may gain on the actual hand, but also because it makes the opponents' lead problem harder on the occasions when you actually have your bid. The latter effect applies only if the opponents know that you're likely to psyche these bids, so you should make a point of publicising your psyches.

In one partnership we alert our short suit game tries and describe them as "partner is expected to evaluate his hand opposite shortage in this suit, but I might just have a game bid anyway trying to avert the lead". Even if partner signs off and you bid game it doesn't give it away as you could have had a slam try.

 

"safe" psyches

These are the ones where you know nothing much can go wrong, either because you have a big fit for partner or because you have a safe runout suit. The most common ones are inventing a suit opposite a pre-empt when you have a fit, or psychic blackwood with a weak hand and a big fit, or bidding 1S after 1H x without many spades etc. Opening/overcalling 1NT at favourable opposite a passed partner with a minor suit pre-empt just bout fits into this category... how 'safe' it is depends on how good your pre-empt is. Or overcalling 2S over a strong 2C opener with a 2713 distribution.

 

With these, it's the identity of your opponents and their methods that matter. Against good opponents who have the tools to deal with a psyche you are better to pre-empt as high as possible. After 1H x 1S it is easier for the opponents to get to their making spade slam that after 1H x 4H if they know what they are doing. Similarly 3C x 3S gives room for the next hand to double, while 3C x 5C gives them a 5-level problem. Similarly psyching 1NT is much more tempting if they don't play double as penalties, or even if they do, if they haven't discussed forcing passes etc. These psyches work best against people who would never suspect one.

 

You do have to be careful not to do the same psyche too often in the same partnership, or it can start to turn into a partnership agreement. People tend to have one particular psyche they like to do, it's wise to mix them up a bit.

 

Dangerous psyches

These are the ones with no safety net, such as opening 1S in third seat on a 3334 3-count. These are the most effective, because they are unexpected. As a general rule, most pairs find it very difficult to deal with e.g. an out-and-out psychic 1-level suit opening or overcall because they are so rare, and so dangerous for the side doing it.

 

Something like this you really need to pick your moment for. You are likely to be creating a swing (one way or the other!) so that has to be what you want. The two typical times are when you are significantly down in a teams match, and at pairs against a much stronger pair.

 

These should be very rare, as they destroy partnership trust if you do them too often. I've seen this type of bid called a 'grotesque' psyche. Also, if you do them a lot for no reason you may be accused of not taking the game seriously.

[rd6789]

imho the best time to pysche is early in a teams match (esp v opps you dont know that well). The gains at teams are greater, eg if you talk them out of a vul game/slam that may win you the match, and even if it backfires you may unsettle opps who won't be certain about your bids for the rest of the match.

 

In the long run in your local area you want a reputation that you pysche without actually psyching that much if at all. And remembr, if you psyche too much you'll lose partners.

[skjaeran]

I've seen a couple of very successful psyches by very strong players.

 

The first one was by Ulf Tundal in the 1987 European Open Teams. Holding a near Yarborough he bid 2♠ invitational facing Grøtheims 10-12 1NT opening, white vs red. Opponents were cold for 4♠ for 650, and Tundal went a few light.

 

The second one is more well-known. Geir Helgemo bid 2♥ over his partners (Lasse Aaseng) 1♠ opening on vugraph vs Germany in the 1993 Junior World Teams final, after registering his RHO screen mates slight problem. After a 4♦ splinter from Aaseng he played in 4♥, escaping for -250 (I believe) - a decent save vs +660 scored in 3NT in the closed room.

[pashadia]

Also, even if you make a really good psyche that will work well for almost anything your opponents have, but it backfires, and your partner doesn't sympathise with your decision, he/she will be pissed off and throw the next five boards.

 

Even if it works out and you get a good result, they may still be pissed off and throw the next five boards anyway.

Then, in any case, I don't actually want to partner them again. People who tend to lose focus are not really competitive anyway.

[ArtK78]

imho the best time to pysche is early in a teams match (esp v opps you dont know that well). The gains at teams are greater, eg if you talk them out of a vul game/slam that may win you the match, and even if it backfires you may unsettle opps who won't be certain about your bids for the rest of the match.

 

In the long run in your local area you want a reputation that you pysche without actually psyching that much if at all. And remembr, if you psyche too much you'll lose partners.

Back in 1974, I attended my first National tournament for the full time - New York City Summer Nationals (they were called Nationals back then, not North American Championships). I stayed in a room with several others, one of whom was a prominent local player (local being Southern New Jersey). He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

 

For the rest of this players lifetime, whenever I played against him in a team match (including short Swiss matches), he would psyche on the first board. Of course, I knew he would, so it was not effective against me. What I never worked out was whether his partner(s) knew what he was doing.

 

This player has been gone for about 15 years, but his tactic apparently lives on.

 

By the way, I do not endorse this. It is wrong on many levels. I rarely psyche, and I have rarely seen psyches by my partners or teammates. The odds of winning with a psyche are not that good (and I don't want to hear about a psyche fooling two opponents and only one partner, because the opponents don't have to believe you, while your partner does).

[kgr]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

[jillybean]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

This is likely why some players want psyches banned. This underhanded tactic should fall under Conceled Partnership Understanding.

[barmar]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

Do you also need to inform opponents that you try for swings when you think you're behind? Or that you're going to bid games more aggressively because it's a team game?

 

These are just good bridge strategy, not special partnership agreements.

[Cascade]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

Shouldn't you tell the opponents if you do not do this?

 

If you have an arrangement explicit or implicit to psyche early in a match then I think effectively that means that you have an implicit understanding that is different than your explicit understanding and disclosure by way of your convention card to your opponents (unless this is actually written on your card). Depending on the nature of your likely psyches it seems reasonably likely that your implicit agreements would fall foul of the system regulations.

 

Nevertheless it gets problematic if you have to disclose psyching tendancies as who do you expect to make such a disclosure? Everyone - hence the question at the beginning of this post? If not where is the list of psyching tendancies that need disclosure?

[kgr]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

Shouldn't you tell the opponents if you do not do this?

 

If you have an arrangement explicit or implicit to psyche early in a match then I think effectively that means that you have an implicit understanding that is different than your explicit understanding and disclosure by way of your convention card to your opponents (unless this is actually written on your card). Depending on the nature of your likely psyches it seems reasonably likely that your implicit agreements would fall foul of the system regulations.

 

Nevertheless it gets problematic if you have to disclose psyching tendancies as who do you expect to make such a disclosure? Everyone - hence the question at the beginning of this post? If not where is the list of psyching tendancies that need disclosure?

...created new post for this:

http://forums.bridgebase.com/index.php?showtopic=33808&hl=

[blackshoe]

He told me that it was his belief that it was important to psyche early in any team match, so that for the rest of the match, the opponents would be uncomfortable, never knowing if you were being serious or were psyching.

Are opps not allowed to receive this info? Shouldn't you tell opps that you psyche early in the match and not so much latee on?

This is likely why some players want psyches banned. This underhanded tactic should fall under Conceled Partnership Understanding.

I would like to point out that Art was an opponent of the player who told him of this tendency, not his partner. However, if this player was doing that on the first board of every match, as Ark says, then his partner would have to have become aware of it eventually, even if they had not discussed it. In that case, yes, it has become a partnership understanding, and so must be disclosed. How to disclose it depends on the regulations in force.

 

It is also true that the ACBL deleted long ago that section of the system card in which players were supposed to disclose psyching tendencies. They did this, I think, for two reasons. First, there is the view that psychs are by their nature not something that should be disclosed in advance — they should be a surprise to all three of the other players at the table. Second, there has been for a long time (at least thirty years) a marked anti-psyching sentiment in the ACBL. Don Oakie even used (abused?) his position as President of the ACBL to try to get them banned. IAC, it seems clear that prior disclosure of psyching tendencies, at least in the ACBL, is neither required nor desired, at least by the rule makers. Whether it's desirable is another question. Certainly if one player's tendency is clear enough to his partner that his partner might say "he has a tendency to psych in X position" then the psych in that position is a partnership understanding, and may be a violation of the convention regs. So it seems the ACBL's position is that if you have enough expectation that prior disclosure would be appropriate, it's not a psych, it's an agreement.

 

OTOH, if a player psychs on the first board of a team match once in a blue moon, there's no CPU, and should be no problem.