Unusual Positives: A Universal Standard

[gurgistan]

Hi guys,

 

So I am learning Wei Precision and it has many faults one of them being Impossible Negatives, as you do not get to show it if opener's RHO intervenes.

 

However, it occurs to me that UNLESS you have an ESTABLISHED PARTNERSHIP playing an agreed standard for Unusual Positives then Impossible Negatives are a good fall back as it is difficult to understand an Unsual Positives system described to you at the table.

 

What is the nearest thing to a universal standard for Unsual Positives?

 

Please note that this is NOT the same question as "What system of Unusual Positives should I be playing?".

 

BTW, I play 2♥, 2♠, 3♣, 3♦ as Unusual Positives with the bid suit denoting a singleton in the suit above it. I am playhing it with 8hcp+.

[Stephen Tu]

You are dreaming if you are planning on playing Precision in non-established partnerships. It's really impractical and silly. To play Precision you have to get a regular partner and discuss.Stick with standard or 2/1 when playing with a pick-up partner. Even if you decide to play strong club in your serious partnerships, it's still valuable to learn how to bid well in standard; besides allowing you to play with good players who don't play strong club, it allows you to make inferences about the opponent's hands based on their bidding, which helps you in the play.

 

The closest thing to std Precision is agreeing on a book to follow, and the most commonly available book today that isn't ancient is the Berkowitz/Manley one, using 3c/3d as the positives.

 

2h/2s are played as weak natural jump shifts, not unusual positives in the vast majority of the literature.

[PrecisionL]

There is no Universal Standard for Unusual Positives.

 

A possible improvement on Precision Today's Unusual Positives:

 

1♣ - 3♣ = 4-4 in the majors and unknown minor singleton.

Now, 3♦ asks for the singleton and 3♥ = 1♣ & 3♠ = 1♦.

 

1♣ - 3♦ = 4=1=4=4 Singleton ♥ (1-under)

 

1♣ - 3♥ = 1=4=4=4 Singleton ♠ (1-under)

 

This allows for setting the suit being RKC and bidding the singleton as BETA for the number of controls.