Re: Is this a psych or not?


Richard Pavlicek wrote:
David Stevenson wrote:

... The term tactical bid was coined by North American professionals
for psychological reasons.

LOL, and I thought it was Adam Meredith.

--
Richard Pavlicek
Web site: http://www.rpbridge.net
March poll: http://www.rpbridge.net/8w73.htm

I'm piggybacking off richard's post but my response has nothing to do
with his (other than to remind us that meredith had a predlilection for
bidding spades even when he had 2 or 3 of them as a natural bid back in
the 50s and 60s).

back when a certain flavor of ehaa was popular (undisciplined weak2s, 1
bids promising 13+ hcps, frequent psyches with 0-5 hcps), jay merrill
and edgar kaplan had a lengthy conversation about psyching. after 4
psyches in 8 boards (or something like that), the acbl director wrote,
in red, on merrill's convention card "we never psyche." merrill asked
if the acbl rules permitting initial psyches applied, and the
director's response was allegedly 'yes, but not for you.'

kaplan's point is that two distinctions need to be made: one is between
the legal act of psyching and the possibly illegal act of not
disclosing that partnership agreement (suubsequently the acbl ruled
that psychic controls were illegal). the second involves a disciplinary
penalty for disrupting the game as opposed to score adjustment due to
damage. to illustrate the second distinction, there is no acbl
regulation that forbids drinking during a session, but the director is
empowered to forbid someone who is obviously intoxicated from drinking
any more, or can require an intoxicated player to be replaced.

the issue raised in this initial post seems wrong-headed. i don't
particularly regard 3d as a psyche (what other forcing bid does he
have? 3c?) and think that the bidder's decision to play in hearts shows
that he was masterminding the hand from the start.

the situation would be different if responder had, e.g., x; xxx; axx;
akqxxx and responded 1s to 'stop' a spade lead or overcall. now the
combination of the 3d rebid and the 4h placement of contract would
suggest that opener knew but failed to disclose that responder would
make such lead inhibiting responses. in that case, one might argue for
score adjustment based on misinformation.

i personally deplore the acbl's attitude against psyches but understand
its stance in club games and lower rated tournament games. it does
upset and could keep players away from these games. but at some level,
and at some level of experience, players need to deal with it. my
11-year old son's basketball league doesn't allow for double-teaming or
pressing until after the ball has passed the half court line.
eventually, if he wants to play serious basketball, he'll have to learn
to deal with double teams and presses.

henrysun909

.

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