Blueberry Precision Club is a modernized Precision Club mixing new ideas from BTU. It is a 5-card major strong club system. It is highly experimental and subject to change without notice.

Shared methods

Looking for a chapter that is missing here? These methods are covered in Strawberry Polish Club:

• 1♥, 1♠, 1NT
• Multi 2♦
• Muiderberg 2♠
• Unusual 2NT
• BTU Namyats

Polish 1♥, 1♠, and 1NT ranges are 1 point higher than our 10–15 majors and 14–16 1NT. See opening meanings and ranges in this system.

Notation

This book follows Strawberry Polish Club for hand evaluation, bidding notation, and punctuation in tables and prose.

References

General methods

• Jan Eric Larsson. Good, Better, Best: A comparison of bridge bidding systems and conventions by computer simulation. ISBN 978-1771402415
• Thomas Andrews. Thomas’s Bridge Fantasia
• Bridge Base. GIB Bid Descriptions

Precision Club

• Adam Meyerson and Samuel Ieong. IMprecision
• Daniel Neill. Standard Modern Precision: Getting from Here to There. ISBN 978-1771401791
• Edward Piwowar. PC - Meckwell Lite Precision Club

Other strong clubs

• Arturo Franco, Marco Pancotti, and Daniel J. Neill. Blue Team Club
• Jan Eric Larsson, Anu Uus, and George Wang. Kaninklöver / Cottontail Club: A Cheatsheet (2022)
• Bo-Yin Yang. Terrorist’s Moscito, or Major-Oriented Strong Club, with Interpid Two Openers

Openings

The notrump ladder

• 11–13: 1♦
• 14–16: 1NT
• 17–19: 1♣ - 1♦ - 1NT
• 20–23: 1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 1NT
• 24+: 1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 2NT

Strong 1♣

Blueberry employs an approach similar to Viking Precision 2007. However, I frown at extensive transfers. It would be annoying to declare the phoney strain the strong opener actually holds. See natural positives for the full argument.

Natural positives

Viking Precision swaps the suits in its positive responses: 1♥ shows spades, 1♠ hearts, 2♣ diamonds, and 2♦ clubs. Opener then relays, so the strong hand usually declares responder’s suit. Blueberry keeps these responses natural for four reasons.

• The stakes are small. A positive response forces to game, so both hands hold honors worth protecting from the opening lead. The declaring side matters most when the strong hand faces a bust, and after 1♣ - 1♦ opener names the suits anyway.
• Opener need not relay. The Viking card lists only the relay after 1♥ and 1♠. Blueberry opener can also rebid naturally below 2NT, so responder is not the only hand the defenders hear described.
• The relays take the right strains. 1♣ - 1♥ - 1♠ gives opener the spades, and 1♣ - 1♠ - 1NT gives opener the notrump. Only responder’s own suit is left to responder.
• Opener keeps the other major. A swapped response bids a suit responder need not hold. Viking opener can never declare spades after 1♣ - 1♠ or hearts after 1♣ - 1♥, however good the suit.

The price is real. When opener relays to the end and the contract lands in responder’s suit, the described hand declares and the strong hand is dummy, so the defenders know both shapes. Viking never pays this price in spades, where the relay itself is 1♠. It does pay in hearts whenever responder rebids them: 1♣ - 1♠ - 1NT - 2♥ shows a balanced hand or 4+♠, which includes 5332, the most common shape with a 5-card suit.

Minors 2♥

Three-suited 2♠, 2NT

Opener relays. Responder directly reports the singleton so the right hand declares.

Negative 1♦

Relay structure from Viking Precision 2007 nest very strong hands into 1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥. This treatment rescues the 2NT opening from the notrump ladder and frees 2NT up for preemptive uses.

Strong 1♥

Kokish 1♥

Positive minor suits

Competing through (2♣)

Interference over 1♣ follows Viking Precision 2007, with suits made natural the same way as the natural positives.

I used to frown at forcing passes, but not anymore. The strong 1♣ is unbounded in strength and shape. Using the double as a brake lets the 1♣ opener describe their hand in layers, something a limited 1NT opener never needs. Responder doubles with nothing and passes with middling values or a trap. Opener usually reopens with a relay double.

• Pass: forcing, 5–7 or a trap pass
• Double: negative, 0–4
• 1NT: forcing to game with a stopper
• Cuebid: forcing to game without a stopper
• Jump cuebid: usually the highest two-suiter
• 2NT: some other two-suiters

The notrump bids shift up over (1NT) and (2♣), as their tables show.

Over non-transfer overcalls

Overcalls with no anchor suit are treated as natural because advancer passes with that suit. The trap pass is still meaningful in holding strength and their suit.

Viking keeps its system on over (X) and (1♦). I don’t. These principles work at every level, and decent opponents put their strong hands into (X) and (1♦), which is where the uncontested system is least effective.

The only non-forcing pass is (X) P. Opener may sit for 1♣x, which may produce 200+ points in reasonable circumstances.

We drop club two-suiters over a double because they can be rebranded as traps.

Over (1NT), the two cuebids are 2NT and 3NT. There is no longer a reason to drop club two-suiters. A Wilkosz-like 2NT must be game-forcing for enough space.

Opener tries to declare suit contracts after a notrump cuebid.

Over (2♣), 2NT shows the stopper, so 3NT takes over the two-suiters.

Over transfer overcalls

Transfer overcalls are too many to enumerate, so two rules cover them all.

• The suit they show is the cuebid. Stoppers and trap passes refer to it.
• The suit they name is natural for us, like any other new suit.

The cuebid now comes a level lower, and its cheapest bid is the stopperless game force. Wherever the jump cuebid falls below 2NT, the useful space principle swaps their roles:

• 2NT: unusual, the lowest two suits
• Jump cuebid: some other two-suiters
• The rest follows the non-transfer overcalls.

TRAP serves as the model, where (X) shows hearts and (1♦) shows spades. (X) P stays non-forcing, though advancer seldom leaves 1♣x in.

Competing over (2♦♥♠)

Pass and double keep their meanings from the lower overcalls. Responder still passes with middling values or a trap and doubles with nothing.

Rubinsohl replaces everything but the pass and the double. A transfer shows the suit at once and leaves its strength for later, so one bid replaces both the invitational new suit and the slam-try jump. The strong hand also declares.

Suits still available at the 2-level stay natural and non-forcing, which makes transfers to them forcing to game. Opener completes an invitational+ transfer only with a hand that would pass the invitation.

Against (2♠), swap 3♥ and 3♠ as in Larry Cohen so that opener declares hearts.

Over transfer overcalls

Rubinsohl reads the suit they show, not the bid they make. Every bid from 2NT through 3♥ transfers to the next suit, and 3♠ transfers to 3NT or 4♣. The transfer into their suit is Stayman. A transfer to a suit we could bid at the 2-level is forcing to game, and any other is invitational or better.

A transfer overcall therefore takes the table of the suit it shows. (2♦) showing hearts follows the (2♥) table, and (2♥) showing spades follows the (2♠) table, swap included. The only new bid is their suit at the 2-level. As over the lower transfer overcalls, it is the cheapest cuebid, a game force without a stopper.

Catchall 1♦

Wilkosz defense

Caution

Wilkosz is originally an opening. Its brown sticker status carries over to this overcall if over a natural opening. This defense is legal only when any of these holds:

• The event permits brown sticker methods, or
• Our 1♦ opening is classified as artificial.

The latter is contested. See my research notes on possibly-void Precision 1♦ precedents.

I still suggest Wilkosz 2♦ even though I regard our 1♦ opening as natural. Wilkosz covers 5 of the 6 possible two suiters. I prefer it against nebulous minor suit openings, but it calls for the legal precautions above.

There are two kinds of choice of games:

• 4♣ by strength
• 4♦ by distribution

Such distinction helps judging how to react to interference. Besides, 4♣ lets the strong hand declare. On the other hand, 4♦ closes the auction ASAP.

Precision 2♣

The 2♦ relay

The 2NT puppet

Competitive bidding

Lyric 2♥

The related 2♦={both majors} opening is known as Ekren or Ekrens after the Norwegian grand master who invented it. Bjørn Olaf Ekren prefers the 2♦ incarnation should not bear his name.

—Bridge: 2♥ as weak in both majors, Chris Ryall

I prefer BTU Terrorist’s continuations.