Slam-seeking conventions Slam-seeking conventions Slam-seeking conventions are codified artificial bids used in the card game contract bridge. Bidding and making a small slam (12 tricks) or grand slam (13 tricks) yields high bonuses ranging from 500 to 1500 points. However, the risk is also high as failure to fulfill the slam contract also means failure to score the bonus points for a game (300-500). Conventions have been devised to maximise the opportunity for success whilst minimising the risk of failure. Contract bridge bidding systems are mainly "natural" (most bids have an obvious meaning) or "artificial" (many bids have a meaning unrelated to
Law of total tricks contract. It is of most value in competitive bidding situations where the HCP are divided roughly equally between the partnerships. LoTT is said to be most accurate when the HCP are fairly evenly divided between the two sides and the bidding is competitive. Experts apply adjustment factors to improve accuracy. Payne and Amsbury's "Bridge: TNT and Competitive Bidding" (1981) may have been the first major book on the topic. In the introduction, the authors acknowledge Jean-René Vernes as the first writer to investigate TNT (Total Number of Tricks) Theory. Page 19 includes a key table that may not have been