Questions and Answers about 'Psyches'

1.     What is a 'psyche'

        A psyche - short for 'psychic bid' is a deliberate and gross mis-statement of honour strength and/or suit length.

2.     Are psyches legal?

        A psychic bid is a legitimate ploy as long as it contains the same element of surprise for the psycher's partner as it does for the opponents.

3.     What is a deviation?    

•   Repeated deviations lead to implicit understandings which then form part of the partnership's methods and must be disclosed in accordance with the regulations governing 

              disclosure of system.

• Systemic psyching of any kind is not permitted
• If the Director judges there is undisclosed knowledge that has damaged the opponents he shall adjust the score and may award a procedural penalty.
• Players are required to disclose their agreements, both explicit and implicit.  If a player believes, from partneerships experience, that partner may have deviate from the system this must be disclosed to the opponents.          

    4.  What is fielding?  

• The actions of the psycher's partner following a psyche - and possibly, further actions by the psycher himself - may provide evidence of an undisclosed, and therefore illegal, understanding.  If so then the partnership is said to have 'fielded' the psyche.
• The Tournament Director will judge actions objectively by the standards of a player's peers - that is to say, the intentions of the bidders will not be taken into account.

As the judgement by the director will be objective, some players may be understandably upset that their actions are ruled to be fielding.  If a player psyches and their partner takes action that appears to allow for it, then the TD will treat it as fielding.

    5.   Can a partnership be penalised for a psyche on a single board?

A partnership's actions on one board may be sufficient for the director to find that it has an concealed partnership understanding (CPU) and the score will be adjusted in principle.  This is classified as a red psyche

     6.  What is the purpose of the club's 'Psyche Book'

 Most members do not psyche at all,  The club committee believes that the general membership wants to know which players may make bids than cannot be relied upon.  Directors need to know, from the trend of recorded incidents, where there may be concealed partnership understands.  

• Psyche bids do not have to be reported but a player may ask the director to record them.
• To do so is not to accuse the opponents of malpractice.
• The directors may use evidence from a partnership's actions on two or more boards to access a partnership's understandings.
• Whilst a single instance may not provide sufficient evidence of a CPU to warrant a score adjustment, a repetition reinforces the conclusion that one exists.
• In other words, if two similar psyches are classified as amber, the classification of both automatically becomes red, and the score on all such boards within that session is adjusted accordingly.

7.   Who can record an incident in the club's 'Psyche Book'?

• The director may record any hand if they think fit.

8.  Are players entitled to explain their actions?

• Players whose partners have bid a psyche or a deviation which has been recorded in the Psyche Book are given the chance to explain their actions in writing.  This is because it is that player whose subsequent bidding and play is being looked at.
• Such players who do not expain their actions must realise that failure to do so might lead to unfortunate conclusions.  Notably players who fail to raise partner in such circumstances and do not explain their actions must expect their actions to be judged to be fielding.