[coyot]

helene_t, on Jul 20 2005, 10:04 AM, said:

Reverse Bergen is an extremely simple convention. It may even make bidding theory less complex by taking away those strong jump shifts that nobody knows how to deal with. It may not belong in a beginner's course but the same could be said about 4th best lead, transfers, ace-asking and count signalling. It's just that some marginal conventions are popular among those who write textbooks for beginners and others are not. Matter of taste.

Anyway, the issue here was the soundness of the jump to 6♥, which is perfectly well placed in the beginner/intermediate forum.

For starters, intermediate players would be better off with splinters (Strong jump shifts? Never heard of... ).

To waste 3♦ on a conventional raise instead of showing a limit raise with a simple meaning (and partner knowing to de-value his wasted points)?

I've played Bergen raises, they're not really hard, but you'll have a lot of far from natural bids. I mean, splinters are really EASY to understand - you basically only need to be taught to use them with with 4+ trumps.

If you agree that splinters are significantly simpler than Bergen, reversed or not, either Bergen goes to advanced or splinters go to beginner - what's your choice? )

beginner/intermediate forum would then at least deserve a proper explanation of the Reverse Bergen raise in the original post. If the beginner does not know what the limits of the bid are (and what other bids would promise), he will hardly recongnize where the errors were in the bidding.