SOL3: Gipson vs Faben

In a rescheduled Friday game we played Team Gipson, who won the last iteration of the league. The Gipsons play a very complicated system, and the other pair, Peterkin-Punch are known to be very aggressive in the bidding. So I was determined not to be pushed out, and to bid confidently.

In the first half we played Paul and Alex Gipson. Things went fairly well, as we found a 24 point slam, and benefitted from a rare mix-up on the other side. However, there were a couple of times they made 4♠, both tricky hands that went down on a different defence on the other table. So we lost the first half 30-19 IMPs.

In the second half I followed the rule of pre-empting to the max.

After they bid 1♥-1♠ it's the perfect time to interfere, as partner has passed and the opponent's don't have a fit. I weighed in with 4♣. After a think North doubled, and South bid a hesitant 4♥.

John lead a Club. This contract is doomed to lose two Hearts, one Spade, two Diamonds and a Club, and duly did, for 4♥-3.

I was pleased we beat the contract, but after we took so many tricks I wondered, could we have made our own game? 5♣ is missing three Aces and 3NT has only eight top tricks, so I felt we were safe. However, on the other table South had passed the 1♥ opening and West overcalled an intermediate 3♣. When East bid 3NT South lead partner's suit and declarer could now make 3NT. Only a Spade lead beats it.

So what I thought was a good board was a 7 IMP loss. Perhaps the Spade lead could have been found to beat 3NT, or John could have doubled 4♥ on our table, or perhaps my 4♣ overcall wasn't as clever as I thought it was.

The other two big swings in this half were my fault:

3NT has seven top tricks, so I just need to establish a Heart and a Spade for 9 tricks. However, North lead the ♠9 and the defence were able to set up the Spades before I got my Heart, and it went one down. Going down in 3NT here is not easy, as it requires a Spade lead, guessing who has the long Spades wrong, and guessing the Heart Queen wrong. It felt unlikely this would happen at the other table, and indeed 3NT made easily there with South on lead playing a low Diamond.

I'm more annoyed at this one:

I opened 1♣ and it came back to me at 4♠. John's double shows 4+ Hearts so I know we have a fit. He is also likely to have a Spade void, with the opponent's probably having 10 between them. I knew my hand was big so bid 5♥, but of course there's no way John can raise that and we played in 5♥, making +2 when the trumps split. I think it's up to me to just bid 6♥, which would be unlucky not to have good play.

On the other table North bid 2♠ and South bid 2NT, perhaps some sort of psyche? This backfired here, as when West doubled East could jump to 4♥. That was enough for West to jump to 6♥. I wonder if the North-South auction went 2♠-4♠ if East-West would find the slam then. Probably, as Jun said afterwards "opps played well".

John and I had a few good boards in the second half but they were flattened at the other table. So the only swings were those three hands above. We lost the second half 34-4, to lose the match overcall 64-23 IMPs. This gets us just 2.45 Victory points.