Peebles Session 1: Friday Teams

I played the Friday afternoon team at Peebles with Ian Angus. We had Jake Corry and Troy Van de L'isle at the other table. It's split into several sections, and then scored on total IMPs, which means you have to take full advantage when playing against the weaker teams, and that which section you're drawn in can have a big impact on your result. We had a good start, making 1NTX + 2 on the second board, and then spent most of the rest of the session doing vaguely sensible things, which were enough to win most of our matches comfortably, and get us joint second place overall. 

Here's one where both of us felt we might have done more:

Ian overcalled 3S, and I bid a normal 4D with my hand. It's possible that Ian should try something else now. It's not entirely clear he can though - would 4H just be some sort of general slam try? 

At  the time, Ian tried to blame himself, but looking at the hand again, I think it's clearer for me to bid again. It's pretty hard to imagine a hand Ian can have for his bidding where we don't have five level safety, so I can roll out keycard, and when he shows 3, I can count at least 5 spades, 2 aces and 6 diamonds (even assuming I have to ruff one), for 13 tricks, and I think I should bid the grand (this isn't completely clear, we could be missing the spade jack, and he might not have a 6th spade). We will at least find our way to slam this way. 

Here's another one, which I think might pose potential ethical issues:

At Paul Gipson's table, he chose to open a strong NT. This caused a problem for Jake, who wasn't sure whether he was playing a penalty double of a strong NT, and chose to show a hand with both majors. Before the auction was over, however, they realised they were sat at the wrong table, so it's not clear whether they would still have found their way to the spade game anyway. Paul wasn't willing to replicate this auction against the pair who arrived next ("there are some players I pysche against, and some I don't"), so the board had to be scrapped. Jun chose to open the North hand 1S, and Ian picked a weak 2D (we didn't realise we weren't supposed to be playing it until after declarer had wrapped up 10 tricks in NT).

Does it cause any ethical issues that North chose to open at all three tables where I know the auction? I know this is a "standard" psyche situation, but isn't that part of the problem? Should I alert all of my partners' 3rd seat openers at favourable as "possible psyche"?

Anyway, that was a successful first session, and my first M&S vouchers of the weekend with the first of three partners. We went off to the house, unpacked our bags, and started preparations for the first session of the congress teams.