[awm]

I've always thought the point of 4-card majors with strong club was to make the rest of the system as natural as possible. You can do something like:

1♣ = 16+
1♦ = 4+♦
1♥ = 4+♥
1♠ = 4+♠
1NT = 12-15
2♣ = 6+♣

The one-level openings can have longer clubs, so you open 1♥ with 3415 (for example). You get two big wins here compared to regular precision -- no more nebulous diamond, and you free up the 2♦ opening for some sort of preempt. The downsides are the four-card majors themselves (wider range of hands opening 1M, harder to handle in competition) and the wider 1NT range. If you want two notrump ranges below 1♣, you can go back to 1♦ being 2+ (actually it's only two with 3325 exactly, provided you're willing to open a four-card major on 4324 and the like).

[johnu]

I sugggest you find and read either the The Italian Blue Team Bridge Book by Forquet & Garozzo or The Blue Club by Garozzo & Yallouze. Then you have a benchmark to rate other approaches and how they handle different hand types.

e.g. For 2 suited hands, you have

1. Reverse and non-reverse hands
2. Hands including clubs or not including clubs
3. Higher ranking suit is longer or same length, or lower ranking suit is longer.
4. How do you handle ambiguous length auctions,
1♠ - 1NT
2♥

[straube]

The book "Simply Blue" by Macmillan has limited hands using reverse and jump canapes to show extra strength (15-16 hcps). For example
1S-1N, 2D would be a minimum 4S/5D pattern while 1S-1N, 3D would be the 15-16 4S/5D pattern. This is uncomfortably high for safety and also doesn't allow for full pattern resolution.

The book also recommends opening 2M for 11-15 and 5M/4+m (meeting certain suit requirements). There go your weak two openings. I think this sacrifice of 2M openings is pretty common for strong club 4-cd major systems.

[pat260z]

You should try Schenken Club - I have played it for years. It is strong club based on opening 4 card majors. Contact me at pat.fung@sympatico.ca if you'd like more information. I have the original book.