[bluecalm]

Which system do you prefer, which do you think is better for MPs/IMPs.
What do you especially like/don't like about the systems ?

My opinion :

Things in favor of Polish Club:
-very good 1D opening (5+ in general, 4 only with 5clubs in most versions) which allow you to preempt/find suit in competition easily
-Four free openings at two level (2D/2H/2S/2NT) which can be played as something useful (usually 2D as multi and 2H/2S/2D as 2suiters)
-Easy handling of 15-17 twosuiters (natural opener and natural jump rebid)
-You don't have to use strong 2 no trump opening


Things in favor of Precision:
-you can open every 11 and many 10 counts and easily get away with it
-you can jump to game quickly in many auctions giving away less information than in Polish Club
-you have better 2C opener (promising 6+)
-in polish club very strong (gf) hands are not comfortable if responder has a weak hand (1C -1D - 2D = any gf which is quite high) in precision it's much easier
-1D is higher than 1C which has preemptive effect on the opponents if you have 11-13bal;
-I think but I have no arguments other than feeling that precision 1C fares much better in competition than polish 1C

My overall opinion is that two systems are quite similar. I would prefer to play precision because it is probably more fun but I have a feeling that polish club is "sounder" which means that you will play less silly contracts using it.

Any comments/thoughts welcome

[gwnn]

you can use non-strong 2NT in precision too. I think at least 50% of all strong club players don't play it as strong. anyway, getting lead directs in on the 1 level can be annoying when you have 20 balanced, I was never a member of the "oh no strong 2NT sucks" movement.

[awm]

The original (CC Wei) variant of precision had 1♦ showing 4+ and 2♣ showing 5+. While there's definitely merit to the more modern style of 1♦ 2+ and 2♣ 6+, I wouldn't say either of these is really inherent to playing precision. It also seems easy to incorporate the hands with a five-card club suit into the polish club 1♣ opening (which already contains 4414 hands), allowing you to play 2♣ 6+ in a polish club base.

The main differences that I see are:

(1) Higher upper limit for polish club one-suit openings.
(2) Weak notrump inclusion in polish 1♣.

The first usually is an advantage when you have the 16-17 point hand and open a suit, but prevents you from opening super-light as in precision. The second means that opponents can't interfere as aggressively over the 1♣ opening, but also means you have more trouble sorting things out when opponents do intervene.

Maybe the biggest thing I've noticed is that to play Polish club, you basically have to play negative free bids after 1♣-(interference). For people who usually play negative free bids anyway and are used to this style, that can be an advantage. But if you're coming from a "free bids forcing" environment it can be a difficult adjustment.

[MickyB]

There are a gazillion threads on this, I'm sure. I don't find Polish and Precision to have that much in common as systems, it is easier to compare Polish with a short club IMO.

But here we go -

Weak NTs do better in Polish
Unbalanced with diamonds does better in Polish
Majors are *slightly* better in Precision

For strong hands, Precision does better given the same opposing actions, be they passing or bidding; but the opening definition encourages preemption, as opener is known to be strong.

[Siegmund]

I'm a big believer in the Polish family.

Of course the Precisionists believe their 11-15 openings gain more than their 16+ 1C loses; I never felt I was losing THAT much playing Standard 12-20ish 1Ms so I don't happen to agree with them. (My experience is also that opening all 11s is possible in a Polish structure, and that negative free bids after 1C-interference are not necessary, but obvious others' mileages have varied.)

As noted, Polish club feels a lot more like SA+short club that it does like Precision; and the 1D and 2C openers work better than their Precision equivalents do.

Polish+weakNT, just switching 1C-1X-1NT and 1NT ranges, is IMO bad and defeats the purpose of including weak bids in the 1C opener. Now, 1NT=11-14 denying 4CM and 1C=11-14 promising 4CM, or 15+ bal/clubs or 19+ any, THAT can be interesting

The 2D-and-higher bids are more or less interchangeable in any system. If Wilkosz was legal in the US I'd gladly take that one convention into my SA or 2/1 system any day