April 2020 - 16

The Murky World of Psyching
BY SIMON COCHEME

hat is a psych? The definition in the Laws of Duplicate
Bridge is "a deliberate and
gross misstatement of honor strength
and/or suit length." Psyching is a
contentious topic, with widely differing opinions held by those who think
it is (and should be) part of the game,
and those who would ban it completely.
Psychs seldom pass off smoothly. If
they go wrong, your partner is upset;
if they succeed, your opponents are
extremely upset.
In the early days of bridge, psyching
was accepted, even celebrated. Bridge
columns regularly reported successful
psychs. Dorothy Sims, a contemporary
of Ely Culbertson, is credited with
inventing the psych. Maybe popularizing is a better word; in 1932, she even
wrote a book entitled "Psychic Bidding."
Adam "Plum" Meredith, part of
Great Britain's winning Bermuda Bowl
team in 1955, was a serial psycher,
nearly always doing so in spades. John
Collings became notorious for psyching 4♠ over a 2♣ opener in the 1965
European Championships when holding eight clubs to the A-K-Q. Unfortunately, his partner took him seriously,
and Collings played in 7♠ doubled and
went down 10! He always claimed he
had played it well to make three tricks,
and should have been held to two.
Say your partner opens 1NT, and
your right-hand opponent overcalls
with a natural 2♣. Be wary of bidding
3NT with enough points for game and
a double club stop. The late and muchmissed Colin Simpson, world and
European Senior champion, confided
in me that this was one of his favorite rubber bridge maneuvers, when
holding two or three low clubs and five
cashing hearts.
These are the sorts of risky bids
that led S.J. "Skid" Simon to write: "A
psychic bid is made in an attempt to

16 Bridge Bulletin April 2020

persuade an opponent that you hold
cards in your hand which, up to then,
he thought he held in his."
Occasionally a player makes a
psychic bid that is so successful you
have to applaud. England international
Graham Osborne heard his partner
open 3♣ in first seat. His right-hand
opponent passed and, holding:
♠Q J 10 8 6 5 3 ♥7 4 ♦9 7 ♣4 3,
Osborne chose to bid 4♥. He didn't
make it - no surprise there - but he had
kept his opponents out of a cold 6♥.
Here's another one, bid and played
by Phil King, in the 2002 Rosenblum
against a top Indonesian pair:
Dlr: West ♠ J 7 5 3 2
Vul: Both ♥ 10 8
♦94
♣J874
♠86
♠ K Q 10 9 4
♥AQJ9762
♥K
♦75
♦ K 10 6 3
♣ Q 10
♣963
♠A
♥543
♦AQJ82
♣AK52
West opened 3♥ and, after two
passes, King bid 3NT, a bid described
as "interesting" in the Daily Bulletin.
The ♠8 was led. Phil won with the ace
and cashed ♣A K. The sight of West's
queen was good news. South played a
club to dummy's jack and led the ♦9.
East covered with the 10 (not best),
and the ♦J won the trick. Declarer
went back to dummy with the ♣8 and
took a second successful diamond
finesse. Rather than hope that the diamonds were 3-3 (in which case West's
opening lead of ♠8 would have been
an unlikely singleton), King decided to
exit with a heart, confident that East
had started with a singleton honor
(otherwise West would surely have led
a top heart). West, of course, failed to

find the Crocodile Coup play
of the ♥A, and
his partner was
obliged to overtake the ♥J with the king. East cashed
two spades but then, at trick 12, had to
lead away from ♦K 6 into declarer's
♦A 8. Contract made. Bravely bid and
brilliantly played!
In the expert game, there are many
situations where high-level bids
are not always what they seem; call
them psychs or call them bluffs. Zia
Mahmood is the master of the psychic
cuebid and the phony lead-directing
double. And there are some famous
distributional deals where psychic
exclusion Blackwood has worked a
treat, dissuading an opponent from
leading a suit in which you have told
him you are void.
Experts very rarely psych against
weak players. They don't need to resort
to psyching to win, and they know it
puts weaker players off the game. If an
expert psychs against you, take it as a
compliment! Top American player Ira
Rubin had an interesting twist on this,
reputedly saying: "I psych only against
players better than me. I have never
psyched."
To psych is an irregular verb: "I make
tactical bids; you psych; they have concealed partnership understandings." A
light-hearted ditty, but that last phrase
is very important; a pair should not
have secret agreements or understandings. You may not assume (especially
if this particular partner has done it
before) that your partner doesn't have
his bid. This is known as fielding the
psych, and is illegal. You have to bid
on until bridge logic clearly tells you
otherwise.
◾
Simon Cocheme of London UK is a
frequent contributor to the Bridge
Bulletin.

April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2020