Blueberry Club

Welcome to Blueberry Club! This bidding system is largely based on Blue Club. Changes are made with my improvisation.

Notable differences from the original Blue Club

Strong opening auctions are one point lower.

• 1 ♣ : 16+ HCP (17+ balanced)
• Reverses: 14–15 HCP

The 1NT opening is 14–16 HCP to fit the ranges above. Modern 3-point ranged strong notrump works better than a weak or wide-ranged one.

The precedence for opening a 4-card suit is ♥ > ♠ > ♦ . Opening 1 ♥ for 44 in majors provides better constructiveness.

We don't care about suit quality in constructive bidding. Non-forcing raises are mixed to some extent. There is either extra strength or a good fit, but not both.

Nebulous 2/1 responses are natural game forces or something constructive with a major suit, yet 1 ♠ -2 ♥ is a negative free bid.

The responses to 1 ♣ are natural Polish-like instead of control-showing. MAFIA applies to minimum game force.

References

• Jan Eric Larsson. Good, Better, Best: A comparison of bridge bidding systems and conventions by computer simulation. ISBN 978-1771402415
• Daniel Neill. Standard Modern Precision: Getting from Here to There. ISBN 978-1771401791
• Jan Eric Larsson, Anu Uus, and George Wang. [Kaninklöver / Cottontail Club: A Cheatsheet (2022)](https://github.com/Egroegw/Kaninklover)
• Bo-Yin Yang. [Terrorist's Moscito, or Major-Oriented Strong Club, with Interpid Two Openers](https://bridgewithdan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/terr_mosc.pdf)
• Arturo Franco, Marco Pancotti, and Daniel J. Neill. [Blue Team Club](https://bridgewithdan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BTC2000_gmeier.pdf)
• Edward Piwowar. [PC - Meckwell Lite Precision Club](https://sites.google.com/view/bbaenglish/description-of-systems/pc-meckwell-lite-precision-club)

Hand evaluation

• High card points (HCP) : the well-known Milton Work's 4321 count
• Total points : HCP + distribution points (void = 3, singleton = 2, doubleton = 1, subtract 1 for each short suit with HCP)
• Zar points (ZP) : 6-4-2-1 + Zar distribution points (a + b + a - d, where the letters are the number of cards from the longest to the shortest suit)
• Fifths : 4.0–2.8–1.8–1.0–0.4, adjusted HCP for notrump contracts especially 3NT
• BUM-RAP : 4.5–3–1.5–0.75–0.25, adjusted HCP for suit contracts
• NLTC : Count 1.5–1.0–0.5 losers for each missing AKQ

NLTC is a good single hand evaluator but not very additive. It suits preemptive initial actions but not for showing supports. I have a blog article on that topic.

https://jdh8.org/nltc-a-good-single-hand-evaluator/

Stopper

We evaluate stopper quality as GIB does.

• Partial stop : length + HCP = 4
• Likely stop : length + HCP = 5
• Stop : A, QJx, or length + HCP at least 7
• Two stops : length + HCP at least 8

References

• Thomas Andrews. [Thomas's Bridge Fantasia](https://bridge.thomasoandrews.com/valuations/)
• Bridge Base. [GIB Bid Descriptions](https://www.bridgebase.com/doc/gib_descriptions.php)

Opening bids

Note that we don't open 11 HCP balanced hands. Unlike aggressive sibling systems, we keep our opening range narrow for easier responses.

Choice of suit openings

Contrary to popular belief, a modern Blue Club is pretty natural.

• Treat two suiters longer than 5-5 as 5-5
• Bid the longest suit
• Bid the higher-ranking suit but choose 1 ♥ for 4-4 in majors

Variants of the 2 ♣ opening

We removed the balanced variant (332)5 from the 2 ♣ opening. The remaining variants are:

• 6+ ♣
• 4M(xx)5 (but not 4M225, which is considered balanced)

We choose 1 ♦ over 2 ♣ for (xx)45 like most strong club systems.

Maximum canapé (14–15 HCP)

For maximum unbalanced opening hands, we open the secondary suit on purpose. If there is a second round, opener reverses with the primary suit. However, canapé cannot happen if either the primary or secondary suit is clubs because 2 ♣ must be long.

• 5-5 or longer two suiter : open the lower ranking suit if it is not clubs
• (54) not involving clubs : open the 4-card suit
• 4441 : open 1 ♦

The notrump ladder

• 11–13 : 1 ♦ ♥ ♠
• 14–16 : 1NT
• 17–19 : 1 ♣ -1 ♦ -1NT
• 20–22 : 1 ♣ -1 ♦ -1 ♥ -1 ♠ -1NT
• 23–24 : 1 ♣ -1 ♦ -1 ♥ -1 ♠ -2NT
• 25+ : 1 ♣ -1 ♦ -2NT

Strong 1 ♣ opening

We use Polish style responses to the 1 ♣ opening. These responses are derived from canapé style in "PC - Meckwell Lite Precision Club" by Edward Piwowar:

https://sites.google.com/view/bbaenglish/description-of-systems/pc-meckwell-lite-precision-club

These exactly 4-card 1M responses are canapé style, i.e. there can be a longer side suit. With (54) in majors, we usually bid the 4-card major first. However, with a 45(xx) mild slam try (11–13 HCP), we bid 2 ♥ and then rebid 3 ♠ .

Negative 1 ♦ response

Positive 2M responses

The 2M responses are game-forcing and show 5+ cards. Except 45(xx) mild slam try, the other major is not exactly 4 cards.

Over 1 ♣ -2 ♥ , things are pretty natural. Over 1 ♣ -2 ♠ , however, bidding 3 ♥ would be too high if we want to find both 5-3 and 6-2 fits. Therefore, we swap the meanings of 3 ♣ and 3 ♥ .

With heart support over 1 ♣ -2 ♠ -3 ♣ , there are several ways to reach 4 ♥ . In general, we want to cede declarership with a weak hand, so we assign weaker support to bids with higher transfer rate. However, we can also reuse the weakest forcing bid for strong hands (~2+ tricks above minimum) to save bidding space.

• 3NT : Minimum game force (8–9 HCP or 8.5 NLTC), non-serious Splinter (~ 8–10 HCP), or strong slam try (14+ HCP or 7.0− NLTC)
• 3 ♦ : 10–11 HCP or 8.0 NLTC
• 4 ♥ : 12–13 HCP or 7.5 NLTC
• 4 ♣ ♦ : Serious Splinter (~ 11–13 HCP)

The 3M rebid sets the trump suit. If opener wants a choice of games, bid 2NT instead.

Suggested defense

Our defense was derived from Terrorist's Moscito. We pass strong hands since we are always given a chance to bid again. This is arguably the only sane usage of coming out after a pass.

• 16+ HCP : pass everything
• 11–15 HCP : try bidding a major suit
• 4–10 HCP : bid if you can

Competitive bidding

The strong club is fertile ground for bidding gadgets and psychic bids. We ignore the meaning of overcalls in the first round for simplicity. Dealing with just the nominal overcall also serves as a countermeasure against psychic bids.

The following bidding structure is derived from Terrorist's Moscito. I changed our natural 1M responses to exactly 4 cards.

1. It makes more sense to bid 4 cards at 1-level and 5+ cards at 2-level.
2. This also fits in our constructive bidding structure.

As for (X), we use a similar approach to (1 ♦ ).

Competing over (1NT) is quite straightforward.

The nature of 1 ♣ -(2X) is similar to 1NT-(2X), yet there are some differences. We use plain Rubinsohl instead of Transfer Lebensohl here. The 1 ♣ opener is unlimited and perhaps unbalanced. Preempting with a long suit is no longer a good idea:

• The preemptive value is overvalued due to a probable misfit.
• Opener can bid again with extra values.

There is extra space over 1 ♣ -(2 ♣ ), so we transfer at the 2-level as well.

The 1 ♦ opening

The only case opener has only 2 diamonds is 3325. Responder should assume that opener has 3+ diamonds.

With normal responding strength (8+ HCP), responder always bids a natural major suit first, even when there is a longer minor suit.

The 1M responses

Major suit openings

Our major suit raises mix length and strength together to make them difficult to compete.

• Single raise : weak 4+ cards or constructive (~7–9 HCP) 3 cards. Opener only rebids unbalanced maximum hands.
• Double raise : invitation that can contain fewer points with a better fit. Opener bids game with all maximums and good minimums.
• Bid 2 ♣ first : with something in between. Opener rebids above 2M with maximum hands. You can filter maximum hands again.
• Jacoby 2NT : game force with 4+ cards.
• Jump to game : signoff with 5+ cards. Bid 2NT with exactly 4 cards for a possible better fit or 3NT.

We respond to 1 ♠ with Twisted 2/1 by Ting-Yu Ye (TpKotoba). I simplify 2 ♣ to contain 5+ hearts always. This method is similar to Kaplan Interchange.

https://hackmd.io/@TpKotoba/refx

Since 1 ♠ -2 ♣ generally asks for 2+ hearts to sign off, I advise responding 1NT with an invitation with 5= hearts and 0–2 spades to query minimum 3+ hearts.

I simplify rebids to a minor suit game force. Rebidding 2NT shows a minimum with hearts.

In this bidding system of limited openings, opener usually wants to reverse with a maximum. However, keep in mind that there are hands with nowhere to jump over 1NT:

• Balanced (5332) : rebid the major suit like minimum 6+ cards.
• (4441) : bid the lowest 4-card suit if no fit is found yet.

BTU 1NT

This bidding system has a strong notrump opening (14+ HCP) that does not contain a 5-card major. We use the BTU continuations after the 1NT opening. Stayman takes care of invitation with 5+ spades.

Stayman

Stayman has multiple variants in BTU 1NT:

• Weak: T/O with short clubs (Garbage Stayman)
• INV: 4–5 ♠ or 4= ♥ (BTU)
• FG: 4= ♠ or 4= ♥
• S/T: 5+ ♠ and 5+ ♥ (BTU/jdh8)

We employ Smolen at both levels to take care of spade invitation.

Jacoby transfer

The opener always accepts Jacoby transfers. We super-accept with maximum and 4 trumps. We hide the doubleton just below the trump to avoid retransferring problems like 1NT-2 ♦ -3 ♦ !-3 ♥ ?.

Minor suit Multi/Stayman

We can take care of all interesting hands with minor suits by 2 ♠ and paradox advances. Responder rebids a major suit for Splinter. Opener can reject 3NT with P/C.

Competitive bidding

Competition does not affect auctions at 3NT and above.

Over (Dbl)

We keep things simple over a strong double (10+ HCP). Everything is natural.

Over (2 ♣ )

We play systems on over 1NT-(2 ♣ ). Most bids keep the same meaning. This is because 2 ♣ is so low that we can treat it as (mirrored) (1 ♣ )-1NT.

• If there is no anchor suit, we completely ignore the 2 ♣ bid.
• With one anchor suit X, we treat it as (1X)-1NT, where systems on also applies.
• With a major and a minor anchor suits, we ignore the minor suit.

We recommend Leaping Michaels over a sole anchor suit. Take natural clubs for example.

The real headache is when (2 ♣ ) shows both majors e.g. Landy. We recommend reverse Unusual vs Unusual.

Note that we pass when we can penalize both majors. A delayed double is for penalty since a takeout can usually penalize the other major.

Over (2 ♦ ♥ ♠ )

We play BTU Transfer Lebensohl against overcalls 2 ♦ ♥ ♠ (link lost). Specially against 2 ♠ , we use Larry Cohen's version to avoid declaring hearts via Stayman.

https://www.larryco.com/bridge-articles/transfer-lebensohl

Over (2NT)

We have a special Unusual vs Unusual structure over 1NT-(2NT) because we have not yet shown a suit.

The 2 ♣ opening

Our 2 ♣ opening is heavily influenced by Precision Club and Polish Club.

Multi 2 ♦

Our Multi 2 ♦ shows a 6-card weak two of either major.

Suggested defense: Multi vs Multi

I regard Multi vs Multi as a specialized version of Unusual vs Unusual. X remains "penalizing" either suit but longer. Cuebids are reordered and show unbid (minor) suits.

https://chrisryall.net/bridge/multi-v-multi-2d.htm

We frequently pass 2 ♦ x with 4+ diamonds to ease slam exploration, especially for minor suit slams.

When RHO bids, X is penalty and usually short in the other major. We play Rubinsohl here because we need to bid diamonds. Please refrain from penalizing with length in both major suits. It is usually better to make our own contract than setting their doubled partscore.

After opener shows their major, doubler always penalizes when holding the same suit. This action is mostly safe because doubler sits behind the opener. More importantly, this treatment creates a negative inference that a pass implies holding the other major.

• (2 ♦ )-X-(2 ♠ ); (3 ♥ )-X = Usually hearts
• (2 ♦ )-X-(2 ♠ ); (3 ♥ )-P = Spades!

Muiderberg 2M

Weak twos in this bidding system show exactly 5 cards in the bid major and a side minor suit. Multi 2 ♦ already takes care of 6+ cards.

Unusual 2NT opening

The unusual 2NT opening is a preempt with 5+ ♦ and 5+ ♣ .

We advise against opening 2NT for (30)55 in the first two seats.

BTU 4-level preempts

In National Taiwan University Bridge Club (BTU), we use a 4X scheme that conveys approximately 0.58 more bits than traditional or Meckwell Namyats.

• 4 ♣ : solid major suit without any outside A/K
• 4 ♦ : semi-solid major suit with 0–1 outside A/K
• 4M : non-solid (1.5+ NLTC) major suit