Psychology

[Cave_Draco]

Misho commented <In my opinion you miss most important aspect of bridge - Psychology. Main difference between chess for example and great game Bridge.>

 

Aside from disagreeing about the implied lack of psychology in chess; you won't catch the Dragon playing e4, & I hate the QGA, B).

 

I agree that psychology is an important element of bridge but it applies across the 4 categories; bidding, declarer, defence & ethics.

 

Bidding? The obvious first candidate is the psych! Although, the Weak NT can be devastating if you've only ever played SAYC, ;D.

 

Declarer? Declarer has a lot of psychological ploys, my favourite is the pseudo-squeeze, :).

 

Defence? False-carding is bread & butter to a competent defender.

 

Ethics? Is tough, online there is no "stop" bid & you cannot see your opponents! It makes it easy to ignore unauthorised information from partner but things like "playing at an even tempo" are subject to the vagaries of the Net.

[Laird]

Hello Cave_Draco

 

You have intrigued me with the term pseudo - squeeze (false squeeze)? I am not sure of the meaning of this... I have often unintentionally sqeezed opponents by running a long suit.

Is this something along the same lines?

Can you give an example please.

 

best wishes

John:-)

[Cave_Draco]

The term, pseudo-squeeze, applies to a squeeze that isn't, ;).

 

John said... <I have often unintentionally sqeezed opponents by running a long suit.>

I would suspect that many of these "squeezes" were, in fact, pseudo-squeezes, in that no squeeze actually existed, and therefore wouldn't work against defenders who signal & count the cards!

 

However, it is possible to play a pseudo-squeeze against "expert" defenders but you have to be more consistent with the false information you are supplying. For instance, dummy's entries must "look" right.

 

The key to a pseudo-squeeze is trick order, before running a long suit try playing a Vienna Coup! If you can persuade a defender that they have to defend against a non-existant squeeze...

 

Of course, to be really effective you need a reputation as a squeeze player, ;D.

 

Thus, the pseudo-squeeze properly belongs under the heading "Psychology".