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 with three-card support
2/2 – weak with three-card support
3 – weak with four-card support
3 – a limit raise with four-card support; invitational to game
3/3 – very weak and four-card support
4/4 – very weak and five-card support
Over 3, Opener may sign off in trumps, but a bid of 3 asks partner to bid three of the major with a weaker hand, i.e. 7-8 points, or bid four with a stronger hand, i.e. 9-10 points. Many partnerships which employ Bergen raises also use Jacoby 2NT and splinter bids in response to major suit openings for game-forcing hands with trump support. A direct raise to game is then preemptive on a very shapely hand. Modifications to Bergen responses do exist. One such method is to reverse the meanings of the two minor suit responses at the three level, thereby creating a system of responses that denote progressively weaker hands on subsequent bids.
Bergen Raises over One-of-a-Major Doubled (BROMAD)
Some partnerships play an extension of Bergen Raises after opener's bid has been doubled. This is called "BROMAD". There are several schemes, including one which keeps 3 and 3 and adds 2 and 2 with similar meanings, but with only three-card trump support. Others simply have one raise at each level for 7-10 HCP, and use Jordan 2NT with four trumps and 11+ HCP. Bergen himself indicates that different partnerships have different preferences for which suit to use. In all cases, the direct raise shows a 'pre-emptive' three-card raise, limited to 6 HCP.
