[mycroft]

There are two problems, that people complain about:

1e: We are playing Drury, but I forget. I bid 2C with xx x Jxxx AQTxxx. Partner goes to game "knowing" we have a 8-card spade fit; turns out the 5-2 plus the running clubs (he has the CK) make for a game almost nobody legitimately gets to - or, which is worse, they lead a heart, and the heart ruff is the only way to make the game (diamond and a spade switch or initial trump lead sets). "He said he had this hand and he didn't, and it stopped me from making the killing lead!"

No harm, no foul, they just misbid. 70% of the time, you misbid and it hurts you; 20% of the time it makes no difference; it's the 10% that gripes the opponents.

2) There are certain conventions that, when misbid in the common way, have a very high probability of harm. Ghestem, in either of its misconfigurations (3C with clubs or 3C with the wrong two-suiter), is the poster child for this one, as it kills the opponents' (frequently big) fit. 1NT-2D "forget transfer, I really have diamonds" is another, as every time the opponents have the heart suit, you win the partscore battle before it has a chance to start.

I don't have much sympathy for the opponents who complain about "rub of the green" 1e: that's just greed - "They did something wrong, we deserve a good score!" I have a lot of sympathy for opponents of these random suit-killers, especially opening preempt suit killers, even more especially when the bid is a "frequent forget" and where "correct explanation or X if he forgets" would be an illegal agreement under the conditions of contest. Unfortunately, I have no good answer to this one either. Fortunately, the G word is almost nonexistent in my jurisdiction, so people misbidding it is incredibly rare.

In the Netherlands, "everybody" plays Ghestem, and I'm sure there are the same number of "usual suspects" who forget Ghestem at least half the time they hold a 3C preempt, and more who regularly can't remember if 3C is top-and-bottom or two-highest in this partnership as there are in the ACBL who play (in fact, if not in agreement) 2D over 1NT as "hearts, or diamonds if she rebids 3D, because she forgot again".

Michael.

[jtfanclub]

awm, on Sep 6 2007, 02:17 PM, said:

What if someone deliberately psychs?

For example, say we agree that 1♠-3♣ shows diamonds and hearts, but I decide on purpose to bid 3♣ with diamonds and clubs. This talks the opponents out of a 4-4 heart fit, and even worse they misplay their 3NT contract because of the assumption that hearts are breaking 5-0.

In my opinion, it's fine as long as your partner didn't have an inkling that you might bid 3♣ with clubs and diamonds. If your partner did have a clue (such as you'd done it before, or you just started playing it), then I'd argue that you just failed to discose a tacit agreement.

[awm]

hrothgar, on Sep 6 2007, 02:24 PM, said:

Many regulatory authorities have passed rules that bar players from psyching conventions, neatly sidestepping the issue at hand.

In this case it seems reasonable that I can't sidestep the rule against psyching a conventional overcall by claiming it was a misbid and not a psych. There's really no way to tell between the two other than the bidder's (potentially self-serving) statements.

[mycroft]

The EBU have a reasonable way of dealing with that - they have interpreted the Laws on implicit agreements to make fielding a misbid an adjustable infraction. They have a decent (I think) traffic light scheme to distinguish between "this looks like they just got lucky, but...", "this looks suspicious", and "partner knows that this guy makes this misbid a lot, and is deliberately catering for it".

It frequently doesn't help in the Ghestem case, as the problem arises when it's the opponents' hand and partner was going to pass anyway. What does happen is 3C "ALERT" - p; 3D - X; 4C and not only have they killed the spade suit, but we can't nail them for using UI, as opener has xx xxx x xxxxxxx (put honours in as appropriate). Yeah, it'll hit the "fielded misbid" trigger, but...

Michael.