[mycroft]

hmm, ghoulie, no psychics, no Polish Club (I wonder why not? Why would anyone bring PC to a weird-fest?). I'd probably...

EHAA 1st/2nd. Possibly add 1C=13+, known 6+card suit (not necessarily clubs). I'll trade missing the big club fits (against the opps' big anything else fits) for reasonable safety after 1C-4H (speaking of 1C-4H, ghoulie bridge is the best time to psych high-level preemptive overcalls - unless it's the big misfit, try diagnosing the heart fit after I show 8 of them). So 1D/M show 13+ and max 5-5, possibly big balanced (13-20) hands (yeah right, this is ghoulie bridge).

Third seat, sound 5-card suit bidding at the one-level, strong playing strength distributional freaks at the two level, and 1NT for everything else. Alerted and explained. We're allowed to pass, but only vulnerable, and we don't have to, we just can.

It's not a psychic, Director - it's totally systemic, and written up here in our notes. If you rule against us, I will complain.

Oh, you don't want us to play this, either, TD? No problem, we'll just play straightup EHAA. That's legal everywhere, even (after a small adjustment of the classification structure required by the Laws) in Australia.

But we've spent all this time designing our system to meet both your published rules and the different requirements of ghoulie bidding to normal, and if you're going to interpret the rules post facto, we're going to make sure people know.

If the object of the tournament is for people to find out whose bidding system is least damaged by the fact that they're going to spend 90% of the time in the fringe world that most bidding systems ignore because it's too uncommon to be allowed for, fine. But that's like asking people to go down Lombard Street with their choice of ice skates, figure skates, skis or snowboard.

OTOH, Ghoulie bridge to me involves picking your partner after the auction, and psychics expected, especially as dealer. So I can't imagine playing a known weirdie game without the possibility of psychics - especially those preemptive overcalls.

Michael.

[helene_t]

Those TDs who run non-psyche tournaments must do so for good intensions. I can immagine two reasons one might have for banning psyches:
1) Avoid that established partnerships fail to disclose their agreements and subsequently use "it was a psyche" as an excuse.
2) Protect inexperienced partnerships against more experienced partnerships who use psyches in situations in which it is commonly understood among experienced players that a call is likely to be a psyche. For example responses to preempts.

Maybe there are other reasons. Anyway, I have some sympathy for reason 2). There are also a lot of problems with banning psyches. But since ACBL and also some other organizations (the Austrian BF, at least earlier, and the Dutch bridge-site StepBridge) put restrictions on psyches in certain low-level events, it appears to be a topic that one can have different opinions about. So I don't think it's reasonable to dismiss non-psyche tournaments with the statement "It's not bridge".

Even if it is undeniably true that non-psyche bridge is not bridge, then so what? It's just a semantics issue. Is robber-bridge bridge? What about the anual Christmas tournament at the local club, in which a deck contains 53 cards, or you get a bonus for making the last trick with ♦7 ? I don't care if it can be called bridge or not. The important thing is that the TD announces what the rules are. Then you can vote with your feet if you dislike the rules.

In any case, do not insult those TDs who do a hard and unpayed job. They are scarce and will be scarcer as we continue to insult them every time they ask for assistance on this forum.

Personally, I avoid the non-psyche tournaments. Not that it's important to me to make psyches, I almost never do so. And if the TD announced something like "Please remember that you are playing against beginners that are here to practice the very basic of bridge. So try to avoid confusing tactics like psyches, kamikaze-preempts and artificial disrubtive methods" then I would have no problems with it. Then I might still open light in third seat or false-card as declarer, and maybe the TD would tell me not to do it again and I would apologize. We would not be talking about adjustments since that's not the issue. It's about having a nice time and teach the basics to the beginners. Fine.

But the problem is that I know that for many TDs it's hard enough to enforce the laws even when the laws are clear-cut. Now they amend the laws using the ill-defined concept of a "psyche". I would be nervous that any "strange" call or play that I might make could be rated as a psyche. Misclick, up-grading of a good 14 counts to open 1NT, depart from a signalling convention to spare a valuable card etc. OK, you tell me I'm paranoid, that's probably true. But then I say that I play to have fun and when the rules are such that it is not fun for paranoid people like me, then I'm gone.

[McBruce]

♠ K 7 6 4
♥ void
♦ K J 9 4
♣ J T 8 5 2

Recent ACBL Indy, 3 tables. None vul, two passes to me, and I passed as well. Fourth seat LHO opened 2NT and RHO bid 3♦ without an alert (they had agreed sayc I think). I decided to throw in a 3♥ call. LHO doubled, partner escaped to 3♠, and this was passed around to LHO, the 2NT opener, who now bid...5♦. Why? Don't ask me.

South and West passed. So did I, of course.

I led the 4♠ and dummy hit: a 3=5=3=2 22 count.

Declarer was not amused, but lost no time in calling the TD to claim a psyche. When that didn't work, declarer tried to claim a concealed partnership agreement--in an individual tournament! That didn't work either. The declarer had set his skill level as expert and it was clear that this was because of his expertise at nonsensical post-mortems. The result was not pretty, but it's one board--big deal...

This is the type of player who will play no-psyche games.

Me, I allow psyches, although perhaps it would be educational for BBO to run a no-psyches game and give suspensions to anyone wrongly claiming a psyche by an opponent.

[Gerben42]

Quote

  hmm, ghoulie, no psychics, no Polish Club (I wonder why not? Why would anyone bring PC to a weird-fest?). I'd probably...

Why would anyone bring PC to a weird-fest? Well because it is one of the most natural system in the world? Because it doesn't need a 2♣ opening showing a strong hand with ANY distribution? Because it is the standard system where many BBO players come from? Because unlike most standard systems it is actually a good system?

Gee, no idea why anyone would play such a system...

Furthermore I think it is the job of bridge teachers and those who teach bridgeteachers to make sure that everyone is aware that psyching is allowed and not evil.