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Introduction to Contract Bridge:

Slam Bidding

Yanlai Yang

NYU Bridge and Spades

Spring 2023

Template adapted from ai.berkeley.edu

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Agenda

  • Slam Bidding for Notrump
  • Slam Bidding for Suits

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Agenda

  • Slam Bidding for Notrump
  • Slam Bidding for Suits

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Slam Bidding for NoTrump

  • After an opener’s notrump bidding (e.g. opening or rebidding 1NT/2NT), the responder can directly jump to 4NT, 6NT or 7NT.
    • 4NT is an invitation to 6NT. Opener bids 6NT with extra values, otherwise pass.
    • In general, you need at least 33-34 points for 6NT and 36-37 points for 7NT.
  • Slam contracts in NoTrump is usually harder than those in suits. Hence we usually prioritize finding suit fits.
  • Sometime we also want to know whether we are missing Aces or Kings (e.g. with 35 points, we can probably try grand slam with all Aces and Kings, but if we are missing an Ace we must stop at small slam)
    • To do this, we use the Gerber Convention

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Gerber Convention

  • A jump response of 4C to any natural NoTrump bid is Gerber. It is artificial and forcing.
    • e.g. 1NT-4C; 2NT-4C; 1C-1H-2NT-4C
  • Partner responds how many Aces they hold:
    • 4D: 0 or 4 Aces.
    • 4H: 1 Ace.
    • 4S: 2 Aces.
    • 4NT: 3 Aces.
  • After hearing partner’s response, the Gerber bidder can bid 5C to ask for Kings.
    • Responses are similar: 5D-0/4, 5H-1, 5S-2, 5NT-3.

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Agenda

  • Slam Bidding for Notrump
  • Slam Bidding for Suits

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Slam Bidding for Suits

  • After one player bids a suit and their partner supports the suit, the trump is set, meaning that they have agreed this suit to be trump.
    • E.g. After 1H-2H; 1C-1H-2H; 1H-1NT-2H-3H; etc. Hearts is agreed to be trump suit.
  • We can then start the process of slam bidding for that agreed trump suit.
  • The most popular way to try slam with an agreed trump suit is to use the Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB, RKC) Convention.
    • Similar to Gerber; in addition to the 4 Aces we also care about the King of trumps.

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Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB)

  • After a trump suit is agreed, the asker bids 4NT (RKCB). This is artificial and forcing. It asks partner the number of “key cards” they hold.
    • “Key cards” include 4 Aces and the King of trumps.
  • The responder bids:
    • 5C: 0 or 3 key cards.
    • 5D: 1 or 4 key cards.
    • 5H: 2 or 5 key cards, without King of trumps.
    • 5S: 2 or 5 key cards, with King of trumps.
  • After hearing partner’s response, the asker can rebid 5NT to ask for Kings
    • The responder bid their “cheapest” king below the trump suit on the six level (or bid the trump suit if no king below the trump suit)

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