Precision or Strong Pass or Gazzilli?

[32519]

Precision’s biggest weakness is the 1♣ opening, because good opponents will pre-empt as high as possible making it harder for your side to find a suit fit at a low level. The same applies after an opening “Pass” showing a strong hand. The Italians were possibly the first to see this weakness, and so the Gazzilli convention was invented. Now your side has, a) managed to show an actual suit before being pre-empted, and b) Gazzilli allows your side to show a hand equal to a Precision 1♣ opener.

 

I think the Italians got it right.

[wank]

i'm surprised a religious fundamentalist smokes such powerful *****.

[awm]

While I agree that Gazzilli is a good convention, there's still a big gap between 2/1 plus Gazzilli and a strong club. Some examples:

 

1. Gazzilli doesn't help you at all when opener has 18/19 balanced. In fact some of the Italian pairs feel compelled to play a 2m opener just to show this hand type, but this wastes a two-level opener and still will not obtain as good results on these hands as a strong club.

2. Gazzilli doesn't help you when opener has a strong minor-oriented hand.

3. Gazzilli doesn't let you open as light as precision pairs do. If you try it, you will run into trouble in competition and in 2/1 auctions because opener's range is so wide (in neither of these cases does Gazzilli help you).

4. Gazzilli doesn't prevent missing a game by bidding 1M-Pass (of course you can treat 1M as forcing, as Fantunes do, but this brings its own issues).

5. Gazzilli doesn't help you on strong 2♣ openings, whereas a strong 1♣ may conduct better auctions with the additional space.

6. There are still some hand types where strong club allows for a better auction; for example where responder has a 5/5 hand and you are better off hearing him describe.

 

Of course, it's true that strong club can itself be preempted on some shapely hands, and that one or both of the nebulous 1♦ and natural 2♣ openings may occasionally lead to bad results.