[kenberg]

12 board tourney, imps

---

And now? Or how about earlier?

2D was a weak 2 bid. This was board 8 of a 12 board tourney, we have never played together before. EW are not a regular partnership.

[jerdonald]

Having never played with N(partner) before it's tough to read his hand.
I doubt he has the BIG double since he didn't bid a suit on his second
bid unless his pass was forcing.

At this point you would think he has 11-17 and seemingly could have
supported any suit you bid but that doesn't work because he can't
have more than 1 or 2 hearts. He almost has to have a stack of clubs
and some good spades.

East is the culprit here trying to show 5/6 or 4/6 in the majors which
he may or may not have.

I would bid 5 clubs.

The other possibility is he has all the missing diamonds.

All guesses on my part but you can't guess at bridge.

[Bbradley62]

Pass

[rmnka447]

I don't believe RHO 2 ♥ bid. If that hand is 5-6 or 4-6 why wouldn't that hand just pass 2 ♥x. The weak 2 bidder has shown some tolerance for ♥ by passing the double.

If RHO has 5-6 or 4-6 and can't preference back to ♦ then partner has to have a pile of ♦. If partner wants to defend 3 ♦ I don't think a double can be made directly over 3 ♦ as it's still for TO IMO.

So I'm bidding 3 ♥ to expose RHO's psyche if he's made one. If partner can't sit for 3 ♥, He'll probably bid 4 ♣ which will be fine.

[1eyedjack]

Anyone in favour of doubling 2S earlier in the hand? Would it make a difference?

[wank]

obviously rho has diamonds, not hearts.

i presume as you didn't bid 4h over 2h that you think your hand's too strong, ok.

so now you bid 4d.

[the_clown]

4♥. Maybe we can make slam, but in an unfamiliar partnership I like to keep it simple and avoid huge disasters.

[wanoff]

Suspect partner knows I have diamond shortage but not that I have a 5th heart, so I'd keep it simple with 4♥ now.

[Zelandakh]

I think:-
West has a normal weak 2 in diamonds
North has a big balanced hand with some diamond stuff
East has good diamond support and psyched hearts
South wants to be bidding 4♥ as the last double reduces slam prospects.

[ahydra]

Zelandakh, on 2016-February-16, 04:11, said:

I think:-
West has a normal weak 2 in diamonds
North has a big balanced hand with some diamond stuff
East has good diamond support and psyched hearts
South wants to be bidding 4♥ as the last double reduces slam prospects.

Sounds very plausible, but what about the 2♠ bid?

ahydra

[lycier]

kenberg, on 2016-February-15, 20:29, said:

12 board tourney, imps

---

And now? Or how about earlier?

Vampyr, on 2015-December-06, 05:43, said:

This is called a "baby psyche" and is perfectly legal.

Given W-E making psyche, now south should show the feature of hand actively, cuebid 4♦ to probe for potential ♥ slam, don't worry about trumph ♥ since south first double had told own story.

[Zelandakh]

ahydra, on 2016-February-16, 05:18, said:

Sounds very plausible, but what about the 2♠ bid?

I think the jury is still out on how many spades RHO holds but they probably hold a fair few for the West and North bidding to be believable.

[kenberg]

This post was in large part a mea culpa. I see that there was one vote for Pass. That's what I did, but I can barely explain that, let alone defend it. As is the case with many, I have limited experience with fielding psychs. So I was interested in how people saw this and what they would do.

Partner and rho were total strangers t me, rho largely so.

I will say a few words about my thoughts.

(2D)-X-(2H):
Thoughts: I doubt it. How bad can it be to start with X. That should show hearts, although not six of them. We hall see.

(2D)-X-(2H)-X
(P)-(P)-(2S)
Thoughts: Maybe pard would like to hit 2S. I don't expect him to pass after my first round X.
Ok, but I think I should have thought further. If pard had some strange hand where he felt he was too strong to overcall but he has only one or two hearts, he would have pulled the double to show this. Or I think he would. He does not know I have six hearts. So now it is sure that he has hearts, at least some. Three or more, I would think.
Anyway, I passed it around to partner.

(2D)-X-(2H)-X
(P)-(P)-(2S)-P
(3D)-X-(P)

Ok. Whatever the merit of my previous thinking, now is the time to act. I didn't. As I say, I cannot really explain that.

I am not at all sure that 3H would be forcing, so I think 4H is the way to go. If partner and I are in sync, I like the idea of 4D.
But 4H is reasonable, I think.

Here are the hands. Whatever you think partner might or might not have done, I take the blame here.

---

As you can see, it makes 7H. Actually there are 13 top tricks in NT. Getting to 6 would be nice.


A further thought. I have a diamond void, partner had a take out double. It should be clear to me that E has some diamonds to supplement his partner's six card holding. This should have occurred to me at the time, but didn't.

I am fine with the psych, it is my job to field it, but just for amusement I'll note added theatrics at the table. . After the run from 2HX to 2S, lho typed in about 8 question marks, from which no doubt I should conclude that there are three hearts on my left. This was a friendly game, it's ok, I truly mention this only for amusement. We still must field the psychs.

The more I think about it, the more I like 4D. Of course I don't know pard has 22 highs. But he doesn't need 22 for 6H to be right. At least we should get to 6C. Or something.

[kuhchung]

fielding a psych means your partner has psyched, you have no real reason to believe (from the auction) that he has psyched, but you played him to have done so and you are right

in this hand, you just played the role of the sucker, that's all

everyone gets burned by this one once. it's a baby psych. general advice: when their side has preempted, ignore whatever 3rd seat's action is. this also means that you bid as if he had passed (e.g. if it goes 3D p 3H x, it's takeout of diamonds)

[kenberg]

kuhchung, on 2016-February-16, 09:48, said:

fielding a psych means your partner has psyched, you have no real reason to believe (from the auction) that he has psyched, but you played him to have done so and you are right

in this hand, you just played the role of the sucker, that's all

everyone gets burned by this one once. it's a baby psych. general advice: when their side has preempted, ignore whatever 3rd seat's action is. this also means that you bid as if he had passed (e.g. if it goes 3D p 3H x, it's takeout of diamonds)

Yes, better that I say cope with a psych, expose a psych, or some such.

Terminology aside, I like the advice. Had it gone (2D)-X-(P) I imagine I would have bid 4H. Given partner's hand, that would get us to 6 at least. Bidding 3D and then 4H would be better, I imagine, but that might be tricky to control without discussion.


With a four card heart holding, after (2D)-X-(2H) I presume that you advise X, even if I planned to bid 3H if rho had passed? The heart bid on my right might well be real. With X, I get my hearts shown and there will probably be time to show my extra strength as we move along.

I imagine there are several ins and outs here.

[kuhchung]

I like to play double as "I have 4 hearts" and any other heart bids to be normal limit bids with 5+ hearts

[daffydoc]

clear 4H bid I believe - also would have dbl. 2S - and these baby psyches do work - in local KO match last week it went 3D P and on xxxx xx xxx qT8x (white vs red) I bid a 3NT in tempo as RHO had also passed pretty much in tempo - LHO with 15 balanced was stuck and passed. down 6 while teamates made 6M at the other table - so they can work if one gets lucky. daffydoc

[kenberg]

daffydoc, on 2016-February-18, 05:52, said:

clear 4H bid I believe - also would have dbl. 2S - and these baby psyches do work - in local KO match last week it went 3D P and on xxxx xx xxx qT8x (white vs red) I bid a 3NT in tempo as RHO had also passed pretty much in tempo - LHO with 15 balanced was stuck and passed. down 6 while teamates made 6M at the other table - so they can work if one gets lucky. daffydoc

My failure to bid 4H at some point simply defies explanation. Playing on-line pick-up can get iffy, but partner was fine and i just lost my mind.

If I had it to do over, I think I would still double the 2H when playing pick-up [Having X show exactly 4 make sense, but requires some discussion]. Whatever partner thinks, it will be ok, and then I can bid 4H next time. But doubling the 2S run might have produced interesting results. As I noted, when rho ran from 2HX to 2S, lho typed in (inappropriately of course but it's on-line pick -up) several ? marks. Maybe s/he would have "corrected" 2SX to 3H!. It could get interesting.

Some years back a partner and I won a multi day event when the opponents psyched against us during the final session. The psych "worked" in the sense that it kept us out of the 4H we would have bid, and we ended in 3NT instead. But 3NT was making, 4H was not.

Bridge is fun.

[Caitlynne]

If you trust your partner's first double, you would presume that partner has at least 3 card length in hearts (and at least opening hand honor values). Therefore, you guys have 9 or more hearts and a majority of the deck's total of 40 HCP. This means that the 2H bid is very likely to be a psyche.

You doubled to show hearts. So partner should now be alert to the psyche possibility.

Now, when partner passes 2Hx and your RHO flees to 2S, the 2H psyche becomes even more likely. What's more, partner has promised some spade length as well as heart length and, if 2S is honest, your spade honors are well placed. Surely you have anough to bid again. Dbl is reasonable, though with a decent 6 card suit and a diamond void, I suspect RHO is playing games with a big diamond fit. It is time to bid at least 3H to make RHO's shenanigans clear to partner. Even 4H is not unreasonable. But I like 3D better - showing hearts and a good hand - and even 4D - diamond void and hearts - is also attractive.

But, given that you failed to do this and chose to Pass instead, you have to do something now. After all, RHO has engineered the auction into diamonds at a comfortably low level (for the opponents) and you have a decent SIX card suit, FOUR fitting honors, and a known useful VOID. You have a monster. Game is all but assured and slam certainly seems possible.

I would bid 4D now. Since you doubled 2H, this must show a heart suit, a good hand, something good in diamonds (usually shortness).

Partner should recognize this as a hand too good to bid 4H - at least a mild slam try - and should cooperate with a control rich hand with good strong hearts. E.g., a hand like AQxx, KJxx, xx, Axx should get partner to move toward slam. Though slam is not there, the 5 level should be safe.

And, of course, partner can have other minimum double hands where slam is virtually cold - e.g., Axx, KJx, xx, AQxxx (where the opponents would have to engineer a club ruff to beat 6H and this presumes a club lead, 2 or 3 card heart length with the hand with club shortness, and the Ace of hearts with the hand holding club length - i.e., possible but still not too likely to happen).

[Zelandakh]

Caitlynne, on 2016-February-18, 08:30, said:

If you trust your partner's first double, you would presume that partner has at least 3 card length in hearts

So you reject the possibility that Doubler has a big balanced hand or a GOSH? As I wrote above, for me the BBH is the most likely one in this auction and in that case holding 2 hearts is quite possible.