Best slam bidding conventions

By Paul Dalley · Updated

Best slam bidding conventions

Slam bidding is a very important area of bridge, and we need to be quite accurate. There is a common mentality among expert players of being content to bash game and hope for the best, while trying to be surgically precise with slam where possible — it is not nice to go one or two off when your side holds a huge share of the points!

So let's look at some of the most critical slam conventions:

  1. Jacoby — lots of our slams will arise out of big major fits. When partner opens 1♥ or 1♠, Jacoby is typically a 2NT response, showing 4+ card support and game-forcing values. By quickly agreeing the trump suit and creating a game force, the stage is set to show partner various important details about each other's hands, including:
    • Shortage
    • Strength
    • Extra trump length
  2. Splinters — one of my very favourite conventions. A splinter is a very specific bid over a 1♥ or 1♠ opening that shows 4 trumps, a singleton or void in a suit, and a tightly defined range of points and card quality.

Here is an example:

On this hand, South has shown 1-2 diamonds, 4-card spade support, and about 9-11 points with sharp cards (Aces and Kings are perfect!). You now have a perfectly predictable hand, so partner should be well placed to judge what the contract should be!

  1. Cue bids — an essential tool for slam bidding. Cue bidding helps your side figure out whether you are missing two top losers in a suit. You can have 33 high-card points, but if you are missing, say, the A-K of spades and you are in 6NT, it usually won't work out well!
  2. Blackwood, or RKCB (Roman Keycard Blackwood) — this is one of the very best conventions. It is there to help you stay out of slams where you are missing two Aces or two keycards (if you include the King of trumps). Those slams are usually completely hopeless, so this should really rank #1 as the most useful convention. Also, RKCB can help you find out whether your side has all four Aces and the King and Queen of trumps — so if you aspire to bid a grand slam, you really need to make sure you have all those cards before you go!
  3. 2 over 1 — this is a very common modern-day agreement: if one player responds at the 2 level to a 1-level opening (other than by making a simple raise), the partnership agrees they are in a game-forcing auction. That is great because you don't need to worry about partner passing, or jump and waste bidding room just to force partner to keep bidding. With that concern out of the way, you have more energy and space to show the features of your hand that matter. Many good slam auctions begin with a 2-over-1 game force, which allows both players to show their hand and strength in an unrushed fashion.