[Wackojack]

Scoring: IMP

Bidding:
p 1s p 3c
x 4c p 4s

---

Bergen is very popular on BBO but in f2f bridge I have never played it, so I found this hand interesting. We had agreed reverse Bergen.

I have just googled and looked in BBO advanced and not found what the continuations to a Bergen raise are. So my questions:

When is a new suit bid by opener a splinter?
How do you bid a feature if you cannot splinter?
Are rebids the same after the intervening double as here?
If I knew for certain that partner's 4♣ was a splinter I would have bid 4♦ to show a control.

fwiiw without Bergen I see an auction that goes like this?
1♠ 2NT (raise to 3 or better)
4♣ 4♦
4♥ then key card check if you are feeling lucky.
4♣ is splinter with some slam interest.

Any suggestions for bidding the slightly better than 50% slam?

[vang]

without agreement, i'd say splinter is with jump, otherwise bid naturalish. in the example above, 1S - 3C - (X) - 3H - 4D - 4NT etc

[Flame]

What is 3C in your version of bergen ? its not the normal bergen.

[mike777]

Lot of issues on this hand.
1) For those playing lTC it looks like 8 + 5 losers so 24-13=11 tricks only.
2) Please note Bergen does not agree with Reverse Bergen, it puts slam before game. I think Bergen prefers his version for a reason!
3) Let's try and use plain old bridge logic to figure out what 4clubs means on this auction:
P=1S=P=3C!
x=4C?

pass of x should mean club length do you want to play 3c x pard?
xx of 3cx should mean ace of clubs but not promise club length.
4c must show shortness.

Not sure you really want your first cuebid to be shortness on this hand but that is another issue.
4) new suits at 3 level are either long suit game tries or advanced cuebids, assume game tries until partner informs you otherwise.
5) No matter what 4c means you must cue 4d on this hand, no choice.

[neilkaz]

I'm in complete agreement with mike777, no matter what 4C means, you have a maximum for your Rev Bergen limit raise with decent controls. Clearly partner is interested in slam, so good bridge logic would dictate cooperating with him via a 4D Q, after I suspect you'll end up in 6S.

I don't find anything online (please link us) about opener's responses to Bergen either, but how would you play in standard if 3S was limit. I think opener's 4C Q bid is really supposed to mean 1st or 2nd round club control and obvious slam interest. Clearly in the sequence given, where your artifical 3C was doubled, opener's 4C cannot mean a real club suit.

.. neilkaz ..

[sceptic]

Quote

Clearly in the sequence given, where your artifical 3C was doubled, opener's 4C cannot mean a real club suit.

I would think that your partner thought along the same lines, even if he was not 100% sure what his options were

3S asking more
4S quit that all I have to say
I just thought 4C could not be a suit and that was best option for more info and slam going interest

[Wackojack]

sceptic, on Jun 29 2006, 12:51 PM, said:

I would think that your partner thought along the same lines, even if he was not 100% sure what his options were

3S asking more
4S quit that all I have to say
I just thought 4C could not be a suit and that was best option for more info and slam going interest

Am I getting this right about Bergen raises?
1♠-3♣ with reverse Bergen = 10-12 HCP with 4 spades.
I assume this is meant as an equivalent raise to 3 or 4. I would take this as LTC= 8 or 7 with no singleton (1♠-3♦ is then a pre-emptive raise to 3) Thus a rebid of 3♠ cannot be forcing.
Then surely:
3♠ rebid says I am min for my opening. not asking for more
3♦♥ control bid with slam interest
4♠ to play with some extra (LTC = 6)