[matant]

When, if ever, do you use psyche bids? Do any well-known pros use them?

[manudude03]

I'm not sure about the pros, but I have 4 main criteria which at least 3 must all be satisfied for me to consider it.

1. I'm white vs red.
2. Partner is a passed hand, or is known to have a bad hand
3. I have a weak, but shapely hand
4. I have reason to suspect the opps have slam on.

I'm not sure what the pros do, but I'm sure they don't never psyche.

[Phil]

matant, on Aug 31 2010, 03:59 PM, said:

When, if ever, do you use psyche bids? Do any well-known pros use them?

Hi welcome to the forums.

Yes many pros psyche, but you need to know the 'secret handshake' to know which ones do, and how they psyche.

[hanp]

I don't know the handshake and I don't really psyche, apart from opening very light in third seat which we disclose.

[JLOGIC]

Well known pro Roger C Lee psyches 1N every time it's his turn to bid NV and partner has alreayd passed

[mgoetze]

JLOGIC, on Aug 31 2010, 10:26 PM, said:

Well known pro Roger C Lee psyches 1N every time it's his turn to bid NV and partner has alreayd passed

And now, let's discuss the difference between a psyche and a CPU!

[Cyberyeti]

JLOGIC, on Aug 31 2010, 04:26 PM, said:

Well known pro Roger C Lee psyches 1N every time it's his turn to bid NV and partner has alreayd passed

No, occasionally he's dealt a real one, or does he do something else with that ?

[Free]

I don't know about the well-known pro's.

There are 2 main types of psychs: mini psychs and maxi psychs. Maxi psychs are very rare (because you underbid your hand and hope opponents will bid so you can punish them), mini psychs are quite common (you bid something you don't have, and see where it gets you).

Sometimes I like to psych. It depends a lot on your partner and your opponents. If you know partner can't pass if he has a fit, don't bid suits you don't hold! If you know your opponents like to bid, you can do maxi psychs.

When I psych I prefer to have a good idea about partner's strength. For example: passed hand, weak two openings, or weak/mini NT. The vulnerability doesn't scare me too much, but obviously I prefer to be NV and my opps preferably V.

Some typical psychs:
- 1NT opening with a long side suit to run to when opps start Doubling
- 1♥-Dbl-1♠ with ♥ support and short ♠s
- bidding strong after a weak two instead of a simple preemptive raise
- over opponent's strong opening
- cuebids with small doubletons
- voidwood without a void (so they don't lead this suit)
- opening 1M in 3rd seat with ♣, hoping to get a Drury response.
- one maxi psych I've done many years ago: quickly passing my partner's weak NT with 13HCP. These opponents loved to intervene our 1NT auction, so I gambled and they did intervene on this auction. We played penalty doubles, so they got hammered!

[kgr]

manudude03, on Aug 31 2010, 11:06 PM, said:

I'm not sure about the pros, but I have 4 main criteria which at least 3 must all be satisfied for me to consider it.

1. I'm white vs red.
2. Partner is a passed hand, or is known to have a bad hand
3. I have a weak, but shapely hand
4. I have reason to suspect the opps have slam on.

I'm not sure what the pros do, but I'm sure they don't never psyche.

Maybe for when to psyche the most important one is when you really need a good result. E.g in a butler that you really want to win and you are 2nd or 3th.
You will almost never psyche in a weak field where you should normally win.

[hrothgar]

matant, on Aug 31 2010, 11:59 PM, said:

When, if ever, do you use psyche bids? Do any well-known pros use them?

Zia "psyches" quite frequently

The best known examples are

Cue bids that don't contain a control
NT openings with a weak, balanced hand

[helene_t]

No need to psyche, opps don't understand/trust our bidding anyway.

[ggwhiz]

I like Free's take on reasonable strategic psyching.

A teammate of mine once psyched a T.O. double of 1♣ in 3rd seat with 7 solid clubs and out. It went re-double, float.

Back in the 30's (?) a Brit star Adam Merideth, nickname plum was reported to have psyched 1♠ a gazillion times in the World Championships and the only 2 times he was doubled, he had them and made the contract.

In a local IMP league where our favoured opps were trying to work out a Polish Club system where every minor opening could be this, could be that, could be something else, I told my team non-vul to overcall 1♠ (almost) blind and it worked.

[fromageGB]

Having occasionally psyched in the past, in clubs where nobody else psyched, my partner dislikes the bad feeling engendered - legal cheating - so I now have to bite my tongue and refrain.

Should I put on my convention card "never psyches"?

[hrothgar]

Free, on Sep 1 2010, 10:52 AM, said:

- one maxi psych I've done many years ago: quickly passing my partner's weak NT with 13HCP. These opponents loved to intervene our 1NT auction, so I gambled and they did intervene on this auction. We played penalty doubles, so they got hammered!

One of my partnerships had a formal convention: "The Binkley Oriented Trap Pass" which were employeed against a rather infamous member of the local club.

Good old Binkley...
He'd balance on air...
Every time...

[1eyedjack]

I'm sure you could construct a genuine Haiku around that if you tried hard enough

[Bende]

helene_t, on Sep 1 2010, 12:20 PM, said:

No need to psyche, opps don't understand/trust our bidding anyway.

Very good answer .

[lmilne]

Not sure if it counts as psyching or just bidding tactically (maybe falls under Free's definition of a 'maxi psyche'?) but if the situation is such where you are expected to be overbidding/psyching, then creating this impression with a strong hand can have a good effect.

E.g. at favourable, after the auction (1♣)-1♠-(X)-? with a 4333 18-count (and a strong suspicion that partner was having a laugh, as per usual), I just bid 4♠, expecting that slam would be very unlikely and that this might look like a sacrifice. Opps had seen similar tricks before and doubled. There was unfortunately no overtrick. Another one is after something like 3♦-(X)-? with a decent hand with diamond support (but not enough to be confident of 5♦ or 3NT), psyching 3M with the intention of ripping whatever to 4♦ may create the impression of having a bad hand with diamonds, and you might get doubled in your likely making diamond contract (as making an outright psyche of 3M with some diamonds and not much else is well known here).