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Combined bergen raises. Purpose of combined Bergen raises. To get to the correct level quickly To make it easy t0 make the best judgments Bergen raises follow the L aw of Total Tricks. Combined Bergen Raises. 1 of a Major 3♣ shows 4 trumps with 7-12 points.
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Purpose of combined Bergen raises • To get to the correct level quickly • To make it easy t0 make the best judgments • Bergen raises follow the Law of Total Tricks
Combined Bergen Raises • 1 of a Major • 3♣ shows 4 trumps with 7-12 points. • If opener wants to know how strong, he will bid 3♦ asking how strong. • With 7-9 responder will bid 3♥. • With 10-12 responder will bid 3. • If responder shows 7-9 points and • If opener has no interest in game, he corrects at the 3 level. • If he wants to play game he bids it.
Combined Bergen Raises • 1 of a Major • 3♣ shows 4 trumps with 7-12 points. • If opener wants to know how strong, he will bid 3♦ asking how strong. • With 7-9 responder will bid 3♥. • With 10-12 responder will bid 3. • If responder shows 10-12 • Opener bids game. • Or if slam a prospect: • Cuebid. • Ask for controls.
Combined Bergen Raises • 1 of a Major • 3♦ shows 3 trumps and 10-12. • 2 of major shows 5-9 and 1NT forcing may or may not be used with 3 trumps. • 3 of major shows 4 trumps and is weak. • 4♣ shows at least 4 card support and 16+ points. • 4♦ shows 5 card support in the major with 1 1/2 tricks outside of trumps. • 4 of major is weak with 5+ trumps.
Combined Bergen Raises Ambiguous Splinters You may think that it would be better to splinter directly in the short suit but, actually, having an ambiguous splinter does have an advantage apart from saving bidding space. If opener is not interested in slam opposite any singleton, he can simply sign off and the opponents are none the wiser as to where responder’s shortage is.
Combined Bergen Raises Ambiguous Splinters Now the Bergen Raise structure for relay splinters is fine but I prefer to make these ambiguous splinters more user-friendly. It seems logical that, after the inquiry, 4 and 4 should always mean and splinters – a sleepy opener is less likely to forget. Also, we can actually distinguish between singletons and voids. It’s easy when ’s are trumps and I will go into how to do it with ’s in much more detail when I put up something on major suit raises when playing 2/1 (we will go through the forcing NT to show a void opposite a 1 opening).
Examples Combined Bergen W N E S 1♠ 3 ? AKxxxTxxJxxAx North J9xxKJ9xxQx Kx South