Pass pass pass slam

Okay guys, I've been reading up on bidding systems, and I've decided that the next time we play I'm bidding according to the Eclectic Symmetric Pass system, in which I open one heart regardless of distribution if I have 0 to 7 points, one spade if I'm 4-4 in the minors, and pass if I have 13 or more points. Got it?

I read over this collection of bidding systems and I'm pretty impressed. They're categorized by opening style, into "Standard Systems," which we've been using; "Strong 1C Systems," in which an artificial club opening shows extra strength (this incidentally is the collection's author's recommendation); "Weak/Strong 1C Systems," wherein the one-club opening has multiple possible meanings, inferrable from context -- for example, in Cloudberry, my 1C bid means I have either 8-10 points and a balanced hand, OR 17-plus points. Hmm. Then we get to "Artificial 1C/1D Systems," a wide variety of systems involving artificial 1D responses to 1C openings; and "Strong Pass Systems," -- such as Eclectic Symmetric Pass -- in which you pass to indicate strength, and bid to indicate weakness. Presumably the "responder" doesn't pass too, but still this last category is a little fringy-sounding to someone raised on a standard system.

It'd be interesting to play around with some of these ideas, maybe a strong 1C, if we feel up to it. I'd love to have a better way to show 18-21 points than opening one of my suit and hoping the bidding comes around again.

What we need first though, grrr, is a system for actually getting four people at the same table at the same time!