Excessive psyches

by Jonathan Siegel, Washington, DC, USA

In the newsgroup rec.games.bridge, the question was asked:

The use of a psychic bid at least one or more times a game by one of our club players is disturbing many of our players. How can this frivolous bidding be stopped, or at least controlled? The player insists that he has the right to psyche whenever he wishes.

This was Jon Siegel's reply:

I think you and the other club members should imagine someone coming to you with the following complaint: "One of the players in our regular poker group is disturbing the other players by bluffing. All our other players can always be counted on to have the hands that their bets indicate, but this one player bluffs several times a session -- sometimes getting good results, sometimes not -- and it's really disturbing the others. What can we do?"

What would you say to the person who made this complaint? Probably you would say: "Bluffing is a part of the game of poker. Every poker player has the right to bluff, and without any bluffs the game would be less interesting and less fun. You can always choose not to play with this difficult member of your group, but your criticism of the practice of bluffing is not well-founded. The best resolution would be for the other members of the group to become more skilled at detecting and counteracting bluffs."

The same answer, I believe, applies to bridge. Psyches are part of bridge and the other players in your club should become more skilled at detecting and counteracting them. I know that's not the answer you wanted but I'm afraid my sympathies are with the psycher.

Editor's note:

• If you want to comment on this article, why not write direct to Jon Siegel?
• He will be pleased to hear from you!

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