[blml] A Psyche Classification

[Guthrie]

[Paul Lamford]
Dealer North Love All North Scoring:  Hybrid

............. K 9 7 3
............. 6 4
............. K 10 5
............. K Q 9 7
J 6 4 2 ................... A  5
K J 10 7 5 3 .............. Q 9 8 2
9 ......................... Q 8 6 3 2
6 3 ....................... 10 4
............. Q 10 8
............. A
............. A J 7 4
............. A J 8 5 2

_W _N _E _S
_P _P _P 1C
2H X* 2S 3D
_P 4C 4H 5C
AP

2H was weak; *alerted, "likely to have four spades"
Result: 5C - 1 by  South = -50

Tournament Director's comments: I feel this is close to being Amber
although pass may be the advisable action, many players would have 
raised  spades, and West must have been aware that this is a potential 
psyche situation.  I ruled the psyche GREEN.

The above was a psyche in the Pachabo in England, originally ruled 
green by  the TD and reclassified by the L&E as red. It would seem 
from  later minutes  that East-West produced the opinion of three 
Grandmasters who  would all have passed on the West hand. East-West 
submitted arguments that 2S implied a heart fit (it is clearly fit non 
jump to any average plus player), and pass therefore showed a minimum. 
I would tend to agree with them - West knows  that it is  not their 
hand, and raising spades will only help North-South  diagnose a double 
fit, when East-West may have to save at the five (or even six) level.

I can understand that antipathy towards "nasty, dirty, horrible" 
psyches generates this type of verdict. I would however, have 
reclassified it as amber,  rather than green. It is a common psyche 
situation, and the benefit of the doubt  has to be given to the 
opponents of the pair who psyched. After the red classification there 
should have been a score adjustment when South  had gone off in a cold 
game, although I did not see this adjustment in the  L&E minutes.
How would others have classified it?

[Richard Hills snipped]
As I have noted many times before, the correct nomenclature is "common 
pseudo-psyche situation".  If in that partnership they have an 
implicit partnership understanding to commonly use so-called "baby 
psyches", then 2S was actually a "baby pseudo-psyche" and a concealed 
partnership understanding (CPU) infraction of Law 40B.

Therefore, in my opinion, the EBU Laws and Ethics Committee decision 
to reclassify the 2S bid as a "Red Psyche" (accurate nomenclature 
would be "Red Alleged Psyche") was justified by the available facts.

{nige1]

I've also proposed a vocabulary for describing psychs several times 
here and elsewhere.

Richard advocates the mainstream definition: "deliberate gross 
departure from agreed methods".

I prefer the EBU interpretation which seems to be: "deliberate gross 
departure from disclosed methods." I also feel that the word *gross* 
should be dropped.

My reason for preferring the EBU interpretation is that it is more 
practical. For example, it provides a concise description of what 
happened at the table here:

(Digression: Opener's pass may be tactically correct although, if 
responder's 2S is a fit nonjump, systemically, then perhaps 2S should 
be alerted. However, let us assume the pass was antisystemic for the 
purposes of this argument. Anyway Richard and I both feel that East 
and West made antisystemic bids. They both psyched in the EBU sense).

If East pass is a "psych" then it could just be coincidence. But a 
suspicious director may consider it as evidence for a concealed 
partnership understanding or unauthorised information -- which would 
make West's earlier 2S "psych" a proper *Richard psych*.

Richard's definition of "psych" is no use for concisely describing 
events until *after* the ruling. Even then, unless the pair confess, 
the designation will still be a matter of subjective judgement. Hence,
to accuse a pair of a "Richard Psych" is a potential libel.

The "EBU red psych" is nearly equivalent to a "Richard psych" -- but 
not quite. The red-psych classification is statistical not absolute so
less offensive and more useful.

I agree with Richard that the EBU was right to reclassify this "psych" 
as red.