Blue Club

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Blue Club is a bridge bidding system, developed mainly by Benito Garozzo. It was used by the famous Blue Team and became very popular in the 1960s and has been in decline since.

The main features are:

Strong club system: 1♣ opening promises 17 or more HCP, with step answers showing controls or HCP (1♦ being negative and 1♥ showing 6+ HCP but with no more than one control)

6-18HCP(but less than three controls, K=1 and A=2 controls) 1S* upwards showing the number of controls held>

Four-card majors: 1♥ and 1♠ and 1♦ openings are limited (12-16 HCP),
Canapé. With two-suited hands, the opener's second bid is in the longer suit, whereas other more popular systems bid their shorter suit second. However, unlike "fellow" Roman Club, there are many exceptions to this rule in Blue Club.
1NT ranging from 13-17 high card points. It can be either 13-15 pts which is essentially a replacement bid for a balanced club suit with two specific shapes, 3=3=3=4 and 3=3=2=5. It can also be 16-17 pts and balanced.

[edit] Advantages and disadvantages

Blue Club gave significant advances in finding safe slams, which other systems of that time could miss. It was thought to be complicated and artificial but practitioners consider that it is in fact relatively straightforward. In particular, it was developed as an entire concept, whereas other systems such as Standard American have steadily evolved to enable players to compete against other modern systems. However, modern players who wish to adopt a strong club system are increasingly using variants such as Precision Club.

On the other hand, the system, as any, has a number of weak points, the most notably:

The wide ranging 1NT opening can lead to responder having to probe for game more often and is not always easy in competition. The more modern treatment seems to be to play 1NT as either 15-17 balanced or 13-14 with the club hands (but not both).
Sequences that go 1X−1NT; 2Y. Due to inconsistent canapé, responder has no idea which is the long suit.
As with all strong club systems, the 1♣ opening is vulnerable to enemy preemption, especially at unfavorable vulnerability.