{"id":218,"date":"2014-10-22T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T19:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/?p=218"},"modified":"2014-10-22T15:06:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T19:06:09","slug":"bergen-raises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"Bergen Raises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not going to go into depth here, but some of my students are experimenting with Bergen Raises. \u00a0This is just a quick summary of the convention, which applies after your partner opens 1 of a major suit. \u00a0When you have 4 or more trumps for your partner you can show that plus your HCP range with one <em>alertable<\/em> bid:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With 0-6 HCP jump to 3 of partner&#8217;s major. \u00a0Note: \u00a0This is not a suicide pact. \u00a0You don&#8217;t have to do it if the points are low and the vulnerability is long.<\/li>\n<li>With 7-9 HCP bid 3 Clubs.<\/li>\n<li>With a limit raise, bid 3 Diamonds.<\/li>\n<li>With a game force, bid Jacoby 2NT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s easy enough to remember. \u00a0Marty Bergen posits that having more ways to raise your partner is always good. \u00a0Additionally, it gets you to the level suggested by the Law of Total Tricks right away. \u00a0You do lose the 3C and 3D natural jump shifts, be they weak or strong.<\/p>\n<p>Some people switch the meanings of the 3C and 3D bids, so 3C is the limit raise and 3D is the &#8220;constructive&#8221; 4 card raise. \u00a0This makes some sense, so the more you have the lower your response (2NT game force, 3C limit, 3D constructive, 3 major weak). \u00a0When I play Bergen raises I prefer to do it this way.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things you need to discuss with your partner if you&#8217;re going to play them:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Are they on or off in competition? \u00a0Some reasonable choices are:\n<ol>\n<li>Off in all competition (this is my preference).<\/li>\n<li>On over a double, off over a bid.<\/li>\n<li>On if you can still jump.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>How does opener make a game try after the 3C or 3D response? \u00a0My recommendation is to use any available suit bid as an artificial general &#8220;do you feel lucky?&#8221; game try. \u00a0For example: \u00a0after 1S &#8211; 3D, opener bids 3H as a game try and 3S to sign off. \u00a0After 1H-3D opener either goes or doesn&#8217;t go. \u00a0There&#8217;s no room for a game try.<\/li>\n<li>What if responder is 4-3-3-3 with the 4 card suit being the trump suit? \u00a0Should she make the Bergen Raise? \u00a0My preference is to make the simple raise to 2H in lieu of the constructive raise if I have a flat hand. \u00a0Partner will still make a game try with a suitable hand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I like Bergen Raises. \u00a0The Bergen Raise system is my second favorite major suit raise\u00a0system. \u00a0(I prefer the system of raises in Max Hardy&#8217;s Two Over One book). \u00a0However, they are not essential to a player&#8217;s development until they&#8217;ve developed some judgment and have the more standard conventions down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not going to go into depth here, but some of my students are experimenting with Bergen Raises. \u00a0This is just a quick summary of the convention, which applies after your partner opens 1 of a major suit. \u00a0When you&#8230;<br \/><a class=\"read-more-button\" href=\"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/?p=218\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bigfootbridge.club\/bigfootbridge\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}