[Echognome]

One of the great advantages of playing online is that you can "practice" psyching a lot easier. For starters, opponents usually aren't as upset and also you are not often playing with your f2f partner so you won't have to worry as much about your partner adjusting their bidding for your psyches.

I just wanted to get some ideas of what components make for a likely successful psych. Here are a couple situations I recently came across:

1.
♠xx ♥xxx ♦xxxx ♣xxxx

W/R Partner opens 1♦ and RHO doubles.

Do you bid 1♠? 1♥? 2♦? or Pass?

2.
♠xxx ♥AKJ ♦Kxxx ♣xxx

W/W It goes two passes to you.

Do you open 1♥? 1♦? or Pass?


Can you think of any other opportune times to psych against good opposition? (e.g. a 1NT overcall with a long suit) What do you think makes a psych successful or unsuccessful? (obvious things like partner is a passed hand help)

[hrothgar]

As I've noted several times in the past, I think that "psyche" is the wrong way to frame this type of strategic question. With this said and done, here are the issues that I think are most significant when considering some table action:

1. Mixed strategies work best when parnter's hand is limited in some way (shape, strength, etc). The goal of a multi-meaning bid is to damage the opponent's constructive bidding, not to give partner a lot of rope that he can then use to hang you. There's a good reason why many of the classic "psyches" occur opposite a passed hand or a weak two opening. In a similar fashion, players who use a light/limited opening system have a lot more opportunities to muddy the waters than players using more standard methods.

2. Mixed strategies need to create some degree of uncertainty. When Frances made her original post I rejected bidding 2♥ or 3NT or some such. My reasoning had nothing to do with being an honest citizen. Rather, my hand was too weak. Suppose that the auction had started 1♠ - (X) - 3NT. LHO rates to be sitting on a fair number of points. My "Psyche" will be complete transparent. My 3NT bid won't inconvenience the opponent's nearly as much as an immediate 4♠ response.

3. Its often advantageous to employ a mixed strategy early in a match or a rubber. Its a lot easier to play against an honest citizen than a player who has a reputation for making lots of psyches. Make sure that the opponent's know that they need to think carefully about whats going on....

4. Zia provides some of the best lessons in these sorts of tactics. As noted in an earlier thread, Zia and Rosenberg's system summary form for the USBF team trials list the following

(a) 3rd seat weak NT
(B) 3rd seat 1M
© Game tries after 1M - 2M
(d) Cue bids for slam
(e) Splinters with no shortage
(f) Exclusion keycard with no void
(g) 2N response to a weak 2

[Apollo81]

Echognome, on Nov 28 2006, 09:59 AM, said:

One of the great advantages of playing online is that you can "practice" psyching a lot easier.  For starters, opponents usually aren't as upset and also you are not often playing with your f2f partner so you won't have to worry as much about your partner adjusting their bidding for your psyches.

I just wanted to get some ideas of what components make for a likely successful psych.  Here are a couple situations I recently came across:

1.
♠xx ♥xxx ♦xxxx ♣xxxx

W/R Partner opens 1♦ and RHO doubles.

Do you bid 1♠? 1♥? 2♦? or Pass?

2.
♠xxx ♥AKJ ♦Kxxx ♣xxx

W/W It goes two passes to you.

Do you open 1♥?  1♦?  or Pass?


Can you think of any other opportune times to psych against good opposition?  (e.g. a 1NT overcall with a long suit)  What do you think makes a psych successful or unsuccessful?  (obvious things like partner is a passed hand help)

A good psych is one that is likely to damage the opponents' bidding or play and unlikely to damage your side. Different kinds of psyches are effective against different skill level players. Some examples:

(3) Partner opens 1♦, RHO doubles, and you hold xx xxx xxxxx xxx
(4) Partner opens 3♣, RHO doubles, and you hold: xxxx Ax xxx Jxxx
(5) You hold AKJ10x Ax KJ97 Qx and the auction has proceeded 1♠-(p)-2♠-(p)
(6) You hold Qxx Qxx AKJxxx x as opening bidder.

Psyching on (3) and (4) would be most effective against weaker players. The best psych on (3) is probably 1♥ rather than 1♠, since if partner hangs you (bids 3♥ or 4♥) you will at least be in a 4-3 fit. This psych is easily revealed by a penalty double from LHO (and thus ineffective against good players), but many newer players do not know what this double means or fail to double when they should. The same goes for (4). If (4) had one more club and one fewer diamond, then I'd try a 4♥ psyche; it is less clear I am psyching when I do this, less clear what LHO's double means, and safer to run to 5♣ if needed. I would psych on (4) as it is given against weaker players.

(5) is a good hand for psyching against an expert LHO. A fake short-suit game try in diamonds followed by a jump to game by partner is likely to induce a diamond lead from pretty much whatever holding LHO has if he is a good player. Weaker players don't understand that it is safe/effective to lead from holdings like dAQx against this auction, so a psych wouldn't be effective against them. This is also a good psych since there is virtually NO risk of partner doing something bad because of the psych. You of course will bid game no matter what partner does.

(6) is a decent opportunity to psych against anyone. I like a 1NT opening with these cards. You may be able to play in 2M after a transfer when you'd normally play in 2♦, or your strong NT may scare the opponents off from finding their game, or the opponents may get the play or defense wrong since you have a singleton club and fewer HCP than advertised. The only thing partner can do to hurt you is insist on clubs.

I would not psych 1♥ on your example #2. Partner can easily hang you by overcompeting in hearts, and it is not clear that they deserve a plus score anyway.

[pclayton]

1. I've tried a lot of different things here, and they don't seem to work very well in this seat. Pard either buries you, or the opponents just laugh and bid around you. Maybe I'm not being creative enough, but next time I have a hand like this, I'm going to try a fit jump in spades or something like that.

2. I've 1♥ with a lof of success with hands like this, and I'll do it frequently at these colors and this hand type. I'm not worried about pard going nuts on me; thats what Drury is for.

[ArcLight]

>3. Its often advantageous to employ a mixed strategy early in a match or a rubber. Its a lot easier to play against an honest citizen than a player who has a reputation for making lots of psyches. Make sure that the opponent's know that they need to think carefully about whats going on....


SJ Simon in "Why You Lose at Bridge" says the opposite. Don't worry about the psychs, just play your normal game. Its when you start altering your bidding/play that you really start to get hurt. Admitedly these psychs are a bit different than the typical fake opening bid.

How often do Zia/Rosenberg psych? Once per match?

Also, does pard of the frequent psycher field the psych? Like not making an invitation with 9 HCP opposite a 3rd seat NT, just in case pard psyched, while they would do so in 1st / 2nd seat?

[hrothgar]

ArcLight, on Nov 29 2006, 12:47 AM, said:

SJ Simon in "Why You Lose at Bridge" says the opposite. Don't worry about the psychs, just play your normal game. Its when you start altering your bidding/play that you really start to get hurt. Admitedly these psychs are a bit different than the typical fake opening bid.

Simon wrote a wonderful book, however:

1. By and large he was writing for rubber bridge players. He audience did not have well established partnerships, nor was it particularly useful for them to establish complex sets of agreements.

2. "Why You Lose at Bridge" was written several decades ago. I know that some books are timeless and all that, but one would hope that our understanding of the game has advanced some over half a century or so...

As for Simon's advice, I'm not sure that many duplicate pairs follow it. Most regular partnerships have specialized agreements designed to allow them to expose psyches by the opponents. Think about auctions like

(1♣) - X - (1♠) - ???

Edgar Kaplan spent a long time studying the Italian bidding systems. He would occasionally find flaws in the Italian's methods. As I recall, he discovered that it was possible to make a risk free psyche during a fairly common Roman CLub sequence. (I think it was that the auction went (1♣) - P - (1♥) - 1♠ or some such). Kaplan nailed the Italians at the table and the Italians changed their methods...

[the hog]

ArcLight, on Nov 29 2006, 07:47 AM, said:

>3. Its often advantageous to employ a mixed strategy early in a match or a rubber. Its a lot easier to play against an honest citizen than a player who has a reputation for making lots of psyches. Make sure that the opponent's know that they need to think carefully about whats going on....


SJ Simon in "Why You Lose at Bridge" says the opposite. Don't worry about the psychs, just play your normal game. Its when you start altering your bidding/play that you really start to get hurt. Admitedly these psychs are a bit different than the typical fake opening bid.

How often do Zia/Rosenberg psych? Once per match?

Also, does pard of the frequent psycher field the psych? Like not making an invitation with 9 HCP opposite a 3rd seat NT, just in case pard psyched, while they would do so in 1st / 2nd seat?

Its no surprise that I totally agree with Richard. Its onle when you pull out the same old tired psyche again and again that pd will start to field it. Mixed strategies are the best philosophy.

[jikl]

And then when you get to know your opponents there is always the fake psyche

Sean