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Bergen Raises
In contract bridge, Bergen raises are conventional treatments of responses to a major suit opening in a five-card major system. Developed by Marty Bergen and first published in April 1982, Bergen raises are based on the Law of total tricks, a hand evaluation concept which states that with a combined nine trumps in the partnership one should compete to at least the three-level regardless of combined high card strength. Bergen recommended that instead of the more rare occurrence in the use of the 3 and 3 response as a to show a strong hand, these bids should be redeployed to provide more precise information about the length and strength of support held by responder for partner's five-card major suit opening when responder has four-card support. Bergen raises are used in response to a 1 or 1 opening bid to show hands of specific length in trump support and strength as follows: *1NT followed by 3/3 on next round – invitational to game (typically 11-12 high card points) with three- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contract Bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level. The game consists of a number of , each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players; then the players ''call'' (or ''bid'') in an auction seeking to take the , specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners use their bids to also exchange information about their hands, including o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bridge Convention
A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial or a set of related artificial calls. Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "natural" (that is, are based on a holding of the suit bid, or a balanced distribution in the case of a notrump bid) or "" (show a feature unrelated to the named denomination). Purpose Contract bridge is a trick-taking card game played by four players in two competing partnerships in which a sequence of , also known as the auction, precedes the play of the cards. The purpose of this bidding is for players to inform their partners of the content of their hand and to arrive at a suitable contract at which to play the hand (or to prevent the opponents from arriving at a suitable contract). Although bidding is often "natural" (describing a hand by simple reference to possession, shape, and strength of the named suit), players may also bid using conventions, which as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bidding System
A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the meaning of each treatment and convention. The purpose of bidding is for each partnership to ascertain which contract, whether made or defeated and whether bid by them or by their opponents, would give the partnership their best scoring result. Each bidding system ascribes a meaning to every possible call by each member of a partnership, and presents a codified language which allows the players to exchange information about their card holdings. The vocabulary of is limited to 38 different calls - 35 level/denomination ''bids''A bid consists of two components — the level in range of 1-7, and one of five denominations: clubs (), diamonds (), hearts (), spades () and notrump (NT) plus ''pass'', ''double'' and ''redouble''. Any bid becomes a contract if followed by three successive passes, therefore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marty Bergen (bridge)
Marty A. Bergen (born April 21, 1948) is an American bridge teacher, writer and player. A ten-time national champion and American Contract Bridge League Grand Life Master, he retired from active competition in 1993. He is still a bridge teacher and writer and is a World Bridge Federation World International Master. He was recently voted to be the 22nd most influential person in the history of bridge. Bergen has been a columnist in the monthly ''ACBL Bridge Bulletin'' since 1976. He has also written a total of 69 bridge books and booklets from 1995 to 2018 Two of his books won the ABTA Bridge Book of the Year award, ''Points Schmoints!: Bergen's Winning Bridge Secrets'' in 1996 and ''Declarer Play the Bergen Way'' in 2005. Bergen is known for his development of many new conventions and treatments. His most popular ones are DONT, Bergen raises, 1NT semi-forcing and The Rule of 20. He and Larry Cohen were one of the most successful pairs in the 1980s, and they later were instrumen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Law Of Total Tricks
In contract bridge, the Law of total tricks (abbreviated here as LoTT) is a guideline used to help determine how high to bid in a competitive auction. It is not really a law (because counterexamples are easy to find) but a method of hand evaluation which describes a relationship that seems to exist somewhat regularly. Written by Jean-René Vernes for French players in the 1950s as a rule of thumb, it was first described in English in 1966 International Bridge Academy Annals. It received more notice from appearing in The Bridge World in June 1969. In 1981 Dick Payne and Joe Amsbury, using their abbreviation TNT (Total Number of Tricks), wrote at length about it for British readers. Later, in the US, Marty Bergen and Larry Cohen popularized the approach, using their preferred abbreviation: 'the LAW' (all capitals). It was prefigured in S. J. "Skid" Simon's 1945 book '' Why You Lose at Bridge'' in his aphorism "When in doubt, bid one more". Definition LoTT can be stated as f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand Evaluation
In contract bridge, various bidding systems have been devised to enable partners to describe their hands to each other so that they may reach the optimum contract. Key to this process is that players evaluate and re-evaluate the trick-taking potential of their hands as the auction proceeds and additional information about partner's hand and the opponent's hands becomes available. Hand evaluation methods assess various features of a hand, including: its high card strength, shape or suit , , fit with partner, quality of suits and quality of the whole hand. The methods range from basic to complex, requiring partners to have the same understandings and agreements about their application in their bidding system. Basic point-count system Most bidding systems use a basic point-count system for hand evaluation using a combination of high card points and distributional points, as follows. High card points First published in 1915 by Bryant McCampbell in ''Auction Tactics'' (page 26), the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacoby 2NT
Jacoby 2NT (Swedish: ''Stenberg 2NT'') is a bridge convention in which a bid of 2NT over partner's opening bid of one heart (1) or one spade (1) shows a hand with both * opening strength or better - normally at least 12 HCP or a hand meeting the " Rule of 20" criteria, and * at least four-card support for opener's major suit. The 2NT response is forcing to at least game in opener's major suit. If the partnership also plays splinter bids, the Jacoby 2NT response tends to deny the shape for a splinter (i.e., no singleton or void). However, it might be the best alternative as prelude to possible slam exploration with unbalanced support in a holding stronger than the agreed range for a splinter bid. Origins In most bridge literature, the convention is said to have been developed by Oswald Jacoby. However, credit for its development has also been attributed to Leo Baron. Opener's Rebids Over a Jacoby 2NT Response With a balanced hand, opener rebids as follows: ACBLbr>"Bidding Tool ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Splinter Bid
In the card game "contract bridge", a splinter bid is a convention whereby a double jump response in a side-suit indicates excellent support (at least four cards), a singleton or void in that side-suit (but preferably not the ace or king), and at least game-going strength. Some partnerships agree that the maximum strength can be only that necessary to reach a game contract; stronger holdings with major suit support instead might temporize with a Jacoby 2NT bid. The idea was developed independently in 1963 by David Cliff, the first to write about it, and Dorothy Hayden Truscott; it grew out of two earlier bidding tools, the Fragment bid and the Void-Showing bid. Examples For example, a four clubs (4) response to a one heart (1) opening establishes hearts as trump suit and indicates a singleton or void in clubs. Different bidding systems may specify different strengths for responder's hand, e.g. 10-12 high card points (HCP), 10-14 or 11-15, for a splinter. With a strong hand, a resp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
