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Harold Vanderbilt, who invented contract bridge in 1925,
published his Vanderbilt Club bidding system in 1929. With it, all
strong hands were opened 1 C (club). Responder, with a weak
hand, responded 1 D (diamond). Opening bids with weaker hands
were bid as in standard methods.
After falling out of favor for decades, in the 1950’s the Strong
Club philosophy was revived by the great Italian Blue Team. With
it they dominated World Championships from 1956 until their
retirement in 1970.
The bridge world was amazed at this unheard-of dominance.
Experts agreed that our top stars played their cards even slightly
better. The superiority of their incredibly accurate bidding more
than compensated for any slight advantage any other team may
have had. Experts everywhere began to take seriously, study and
devise systems using the strong club philosophy.
In Milwaukee, in 1956, my regular partner and I learned and
played the Blue Team’s Neapolitan Club system. Although our
bidding improved, it was thought to be too complex and had an
unfair advantage over players using standard methods.
Early in 1957, I devised this simple Strong Club System that
affords its many advantages but otherwise retains the philosophy
and hand evaluation methods espoused by Charles Goren and
used by most American players.
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