To Psyche or not to Psyche
Today, when I went to NUSS Guild House to play bridge, there was some talk about psyching, as my partner had partnered someone on Monday whose psyche landed her in the opponent's game contract. I was really very amused when someone actually greeted me by asking "Hi, you're not the psycher, are you?"
For those people who don't know how to play Contract Bridge, and don't know what psyches are, they are bids that don't represent the cards you are holding, and is not a bid agreed on by you and your partner to describe such cards. In short, it is a lie. And this is legal. While I have never psyched before, I used to not approve of psyching, I'm starting to get the idea that a correct psyche will probably be extremely useful as a competitive tool. As Hank Youngerman said, psyches are 'just another bidding option. Sometimes the call most likely to be successful is a psych.' [http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/psych4.htm]. Perhaps someday I will psyche too, but only if I am sure the contract will land up in the opponent's hands *giggle*. (I think the contract IS supposed to end up with opponents in an effective psyche anyway hmmm...)
There have been many interesting incidents about psyching at my table though. One of them is my amazing ability to produce spades for my partner when he psyches in spades. If he has only 2 cards, I will spawn 6 for him. If he has only 4 cards, not only will I spawn 4 for him, I will also spawn honours in spades for him. (This also seems to go for that certain partner's preempts. I have laid down a dummy with ALL the honours in the preempted suit several times, or at least all the honours in both our hands, even when we are vulnerable.) I have been accused by an opponent for knowing my partner psyched, because i refused to lead my partner's suit in NT. Obviously I didn't know, and I just didn't lead the suit because I was holding AQx in it and didn't feel like playing into the declarer's K (shown from the bidding). I've also had an opponent totally clueless that my partner had psyched 1S (showing at least 5 cards in spades) when her dummy came down and she saw she had 9 spades between them. She still didn't suspect a thing when I showed up with one spade. She thought I didn't lead spades because I had none and my partner had 4. (I think I didn't lead spades because the bidding showed both opponents having stops in my partner's bid suit, which is actually very expected because that partner, as I mentioned above, tends to lack honours in the suits he bids.)
For some reason, for all the psyches remember having been committed against me, I have never been defender or declarer. Yes, I contentedly sat there and stared at my partner declaring (or rather stared everywhere else and daydreamed). One of the psyches happily landed us up in a game contract that we would have not reached otherwise in the opponents bid suit (which was the correct contract to be in anyway). The other one was the more interesting one, where after my 1NT opening my LHO called 2H, so my partner decided to fantasize, and finally, he decided I had a ton of clubs, so he bid 6C. And because this partner is the abovementioned partner, even after providing him with 2 honours in clubs, and he loses to one of the opponent's honours, he claims saying he loses to the Jack of clubs o.O. Yes. No honours in his bid suit again >.<. (I don't know why this is a trend. It baffles me.)
And just on Tuesday, I had someone psyche 1C against me. I don't really know if that can really be considered a psyche, considering he was really holding a whole bunch of clubs. But he had no points at all. I think it's the influence of the Ernie, who really likes clubs. She has induced me to open 1C when I was holding 5 spades and 4 hearts (correct bid was 1S). Budi, this is what you get when you insist Ernie come and sit on you during a match, and then you leave her in the bag throughout the match. Not only will she induce your partner to pass your 2C opening, she will induce you to open 1C because you have so many clubs, notwithstanding your total lack of points.
But the funniest incident occurred thanks to the owner of this blog. He asked me during an extremely competitive auction if my partner could possibly have psyched one of the bids, and if that bid, if he psyched it, could mean that he actually had some other distribution. I was like 'Huh? How would I know?!' more because I didn't know what in the world he was trying to ask more than anything. His partner proceeded to scold him by saying 'If it's a psyche how could she possibly know!' (Turned out that my partner was not psyching anyway.)
So I guess a proper psyche at the proper place and time can lead to good results. Perhaps the reason I don't psyche is because I haven't found this place and time yet. Or perhaps it's the fear that I will land up declaring 4SX-8. =Þ.
For those people who don't know how to play Contract Bridge, and don't know what psyches are, they are bids that don't represent the cards you are holding, and is not a bid agreed on by you and your partner to describe such cards. In short, it is a lie. And this is legal. While I have never psyched before, I used to not approve of psyching, I'm starting to get the idea that a correct psyche will probably be extremely useful as a competitive tool. As Hank Youngerman said, psyches are 'just another bidding option. Sometimes the call most likely to be successful is a psych.' [http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/psych4.htm]. Perhaps someday I will psyche too, but only if I am sure the contract will land up in the opponent's hands *giggle*. (I think the contract IS supposed to end up with opponents in an effective psyche anyway hmmm...)
There have been many interesting incidents about psyching at my table though. One of them is my amazing ability to produce spades for my partner when he psyches in spades. If he has only 2 cards, I will spawn 6 for him. If he has only 4 cards, not only will I spawn 4 for him, I will also spawn honours in spades for him. (This also seems to go for that certain partner's preempts. I have laid down a dummy with ALL the honours in the preempted suit several times, or at least all the honours in both our hands, even when we are vulnerable.) I have been accused by an opponent for knowing my partner psyched, because i refused to lead my partner's suit in NT. Obviously I didn't know, and I just didn't lead the suit because I was holding AQx in it and didn't feel like playing into the declarer's K (shown from the bidding). I've also had an opponent totally clueless that my partner had psyched 1S (showing at least 5 cards in spades) when her dummy came down and she saw she had 9 spades between them. She still didn't suspect a thing when I showed up with one spade. She thought I didn't lead spades because I had none and my partner had 4. (I think I didn't lead spades because the bidding showed both opponents having stops in my partner's bid suit, which is actually very expected because that partner, as I mentioned above, tends to lack honours in the suits he bids.)
For some reason, for all the psyches remember having been committed against me, I have never been defender or declarer. Yes, I contentedly sat there and stared at my partner declaring (or rather stared everywhere else and daydreamed). One of the psyches happily landed us up in a game contract that we would have not reached otherwise in the opponents bid suit (which was the correct contract to be in anyway). The other one was the more interesting one, where after my 1NT opening my LHO called 2H, so my partner decided to fantasize, and finally, he decided I had a ton of clubs, so he bid 6C. And because this partner is the abovementioned partner, even after providing him with 2 honours in clubs, and he loses to one of the opponent's honours, he claims saying he loses to the Jack of clubs o.O. Yes. No honours in his bid suit again >.<. (I don't know why this is a trend. It baffles me.)
And just on Tuesday, I had someone psyche 1C against me. I don't really know if that can really be considered a psyche, considering he was really holding a whole bunch of clubs. But he had no points at all. I think it's the influence of the Ernie, who really likes clubs. She has induced me to open 1C when I was holding 5 spades and 4 hearts (correct bid was 1S). Budi, this is what you get when you insist Ernie come and sit on you during a match, and then you leave her in the bag throughout the match. Not only will she induce your partner to pass your 2C opening, she will induce you to open 1C because you have so many clubs, notwithstanding your total lack of points.
But the funniest incident occurred thanks to the owner of this blog. He asked me during an extremely competitive auction if my partner could possibly have psyched one of the bids, and if that bid, if he psyched it, could mean that he actually had some other distribution. I was like 'Huh? How would I know?!' more because I didn't know what in the world he was trying to ask more than anything. His partner proceeded to scold him by saying 'If it's a psyche how could she possibly know!' (Turned out that my partner was not psyching anyway.)
So I guess a proper psyche at the proper place and time can lead to good results. Perhaps the reason I don't psyche is because I haven't found this place and time yet. Or perhaps it's the fear that I will land up declaring 4SX-8. =Þ.
posted by Shelly at 2:16 PM
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