[olegru]

ACBL online game.
I am playing with partner I played before.
We are using weak (11-14) 1N opening.
From experience I learn that if my partner open 1 minor with 15-17 points, he will rebid 1NT after my 1 major reply to show his points range even with 4 cards support for my major.
My partner open 1♦ and by some reason I decided it is a good time to bluff with 1♥ reply with 2 small ♥. We don’t have any history of this kind of psych bids; I don’t think I ever psyched with him as a partner at all.
But I have an additional safety based on his tendency described above.

Is my psych bid still legal?

[ahydra]

I think so. If partner had 4 hearts and an unbalanced hand, he'd raise, and still be as surprised as the opponents when you eventually show up with only 2 of them. Bidding 1NT with support for the major isn't controlling a psyche, it just makes it slightly safer. It'd only be controlling a psyche if he was forced to respond 1NT on a lot more hands and then you had a bid, say 2C, for "actually it's a psyche, let's play some other suit".

That's my understanding of it anyway (probably wrong).

ahydra

[Codo]

I do not understand it? With x,AKxx,AKQxx,xxx he will rebid 1 NT? I dislike your system, but this is not the question. So, I would rate your bid a legal psych as long as you announced the really non mainstream use of the 1 NT rebid beforehand.
Without a clear announcement I would judge psych control as TD, because I cannot see any merit in your unusual treatment besides the effect that it can be used as a psych control.

[bluejak]

Perfectly legal. A psychic control is an artificial call which, by agreement, tests whether partner has psyched. Semantically, it cannot exist, of course, since a real psyche is one that is not part of the partnership agreement, so you cannot have a psychic control.

The original psychic controls, as played by Kaplan and Sheinwold, were responses of 2NT and jump shifts to 1M. A rebid of 3M showed 2-4 HCP, and 4-5 cards in the suit bid: any other rebid showed a full opening bid. These days people would say that the 1M openings were illegal agreements, not psyches.

In effect I believe that while psychic controls are banned, they are also misnamed: in effect a psychic control is a combination of agreements. Part of the agreement is that a player may make a particular type of psyche, and the control allows for it. The reason for calling it a psychic control is because the original call is one that looks like a psyche to everyone else, but is not really.

Now, if you always respond to 1♦ with 1♥ whenever you have, let us say, 3-6 points, two hearts, and fewer than four spades, that is not a psyche: it is an agreement that you are playing 1♥ as either normal, or as 3-6 points, two hearts, and fewer than four spades. That is your agreement, and is either permitted by your jurisdiction, or not. In the EBU it is perfectly legal: you may play it, but of course you have to alert it and put it on your SC. Of course, once you disclose it you may feel it is not worth playing!

This question of psychic controls keeps being raised because there are some psyches that are safer than others in every system. For example, if you play a 2♣ opening as strong, artificial, with an automatic 2♦ response, a psyche on a weak hand is much safer with six diamonds than with six spades. Some people always mutter about psychic controls then. But the fact such a psyche is safer does not make the response a psychic control.

[bluejak]

Codo, on 2012-March-12, 09:42, said:

I do not understand it? With x,AKxx,AKQxx,xxx he will rebid 1 NT? I dislike your system, but this is not the question. So, I would rate your bid a legal psych as long as you announced the really non mainstream use of the 1 NT rebid beforehand.
Without a clear announcement I would judge psych control as TD, because I cannot see any merit in your unusual treatment besides the effect that it can be used as a psych control.

I don't think he is suggesting he would rebid 1NT with that hand. But I have known players who believe showing a balanced hand is important, so after opening 1♦ with a 3=4=4=2 hand they rebid 1NT even over a 1♥ response.

[olegru]

Codo, on 2012-March-12, 09:42, said:

I do not understand it? With x,AKxx,AKQxx,xxx he will rebid 1 NT?

Sorry, missed the word "balanced" in the original description.
I really hope he would not rebid 1NT with that hand

[barmar]

The point is that he doesn't allow a fit with partner to stop him from rebidding 1NT on hands he otherwise would have. So it does make the psych a little safer. But the 1NT rebid isn't designed for this purpose, it's primarily intended to limit responder's strength better than a 2♥ raise would. Since the "control" only works on the off chance that partner happens to have a strong NT hand, I think you could hardly be counting on this when you make the psych.

[Phil]

This doesn't sound like a psychic control so much as a 'risk-free (or at least 'risk-reduced')' psyche.

This is similar to pairs that open very light in 1/2 and psyching 1N in 3rd, since partner will never hang them.