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Cranberry Moscito

Cranberry Moscito is a major-oriented strong club system. Transfer openings work best in the first two seats. Please play another bidding system, preferably with natural major suit openings, in the last two seats. Examples are:

Hand evaluation

  • 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)
  • 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
  • QP: 3–2–1, AKA Reese or relay points (RP)
  • 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 support. I wrote a blog article on that topic.

Stopper

I 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

Punctuation

Descriptions in bidding tables are dense in information. To make them concise, I use abbreviations suggested by WBF. Besides, for natural reading flow, I use common punctuation marks to connect conditions. Their meanings are usually self-explanatory in a bidding table.

  • The comma (,) works as AND.
  • The semicolon (;) works as OR.
  • The colon (:) follows the general description of the call.

A notable example is the 1♣ opening in Strawberry Polish Club.

References

General methods

Moscito

Project BOLD by Phil Rocquemore features unlimited transfer openings. Although its 1♣ opening is a transfer to hearts rather than a strong club, its general approach is similar to Moscito.

Other strong clubs