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:

• Precision Club (e.g. Blueberry Precision Club)
• Polish Club (e.g. Strawberry Polish Club)
• Natural 2/1 (e.g. Watermelon Dutch)

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

• 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
• D.L.H. Morgan. Relay Systems and More
• Bridge Base. GIB Bid Descriptions

Moscito

• Paul Marston. MOSCITO 2005
• Jari Böling. J-Moscito
• Bo-Yin Yang. Terrorist’s Moscito, or Major-Oriented Strong Club, with Interpid Two Openers
• Moscito Notes

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

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

Openings

One-of-a-suit and 1NT openings split the HCP scale into three zones, from strongest to weakest:

• Strong (16+): any shape opens the strong artificial 1♣; the notrump ladder resolves further range steps.
• Heavy (13–15): always open — balanced hands bid 1NT, unbalanced hands open with a transfer (1♦/1♥/1♠).
• Light (10–12): the leftover range. Open a transfer when the hand qualifies under Rule of 20 (HCP + lengths of the two longest suits ≥ 20), or Rule of 19 with a 5-card major. Pass an off-shape 12-count such as (32)44 and (4333) — the system has no suitable opening for it.

Since 2023, it is no longer a highly unusual method (HUM) to show one of the minor suits at the 1-level. I take this chance and make 1♠ ambiguous between the minors. This frees up 2♣ as a preemptive opening.

The 2-level openings handle the preemptive 4–10 zone separately.

Choice between suits

Choice between major suits is similar to Transfer Walsh responses.

1. Transfer to the longer major suit
2. Transfer to spades with 5+♠ and 5+♥
3. Transfer to hearts with 4=♠ and 4=♥

Pick a major suit over a minor suit most of the time, but open 1♠ for the minor suit when you have 6+ cards in a minor suit and only 4 cards in a major suit.

The notrump ladder

• 10–12: 1♦♥♠
• 13–15: 1NT
• 16–18: 1♣-1♦-1NT
• 19–21: 1♣-1♦-1♥
• 22–24: 1♣-1♦-2NT
• FG: 1♣-1♦-1♥

Transfer 1♦

Transfer 1♥

Minor Multi 1♠

I find it too difficult to have all the following:

• A strong 1NT relay
• Forcing major suits
• Preemptive major suits

This is a major-oriented system, so I give up the strength of the 1NT relay. When responder lacks 5-card major, they are usually interested in minor suits regardless of strength.

Note that the spade transfer is 2♣ because it needs more space to handle both 5-5 and 5-4 hands.

Lebensohl 2NT is home to 3-level one-suited preempts. It paradoxically asks the worse minor suit to pass or correct.