On psyching

There are a number of aspects of bridge which cause people to get hot under the collar. In the f2f game one of the most frustrating things is to get a board with a face up card, or 14 cards. Another is being given wrong information. A third is the psyche.

So what’s the problem? Well, there isn’t one. A psyche is a legal ploy, and is as much part of the complete player’s armoury as is Stayman, the mandatory false card or even Benjaminised Acol.

One plays Stayman because there’s a payback; one gives up on a natural 2 club bid in order to explore for a 4-4 major fit. Equally so with a psyche. One takes a risk in the hope of a payback, and many psyches are simply that. Some hands simply scream out to be mis-described, and as long as partner is not aware you’re doing it (technically, as long as partner does not make provision for a possible psyche from previous experience in this partnership) then everyone is in the same boat.

So, in a pick up partnership, one has no expectation, more or less, that any particular person has or has not psyched when the auction doesn’t stack up. Again, one may be playing pick up with a player whose reputation precedes him, in which case we’re in regular partnership territory.

And in a regular partnership which has known proclivities it’s a bit more complex… here one must take no notice of the knowledge that partner has psyched this call in the past and bid as though he hasn’t. … and the peculiar thing is you must also tell opponents he has done so in the past if it’s occurred more than once or twice. You are ethically obliged to do both.

It so happens that for a strong player, psyching against a weaker player has less merit than against a player of one’s own strength, as a weak player will make his mistake unaided, but the possibility still exists and cannot be legislated against.

There are two caveats to psyching. One is frequent and frivolous psyching – and this means on several hands in a session. The second is that if you are in a regular partnership and partner makes a call which could be a psyche and your actions thereafter show you’ve made allowances for the possibility, then you’re likely to get an adjusted score. If you make the normal call no-one can touch you.

Nowhere in the Law does it say you can’t psyche; nowhere in the Law does it say it’s morally repugnant to psyche and nowhere in the Law dos it say you can put pressure on players not to psyche.

I leave the last word to Max Bavin, the World Bridge Federation’s Chief Tournament Director. “ …. and tell me where in the Law it says you cannot psyche?”

John Probst; Hon CTD, BridgeClubLive!