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
History of contract bridge clubs or spades); and there were slam bonuses. Despite the popularity of whist, this game, and variants of it, "bridge" and "bridge-whist", became popular in the United States and the UK in the 1890s. In 1904 auction bridge, known for a time as "royal auction bridge", was developed where the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so. The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of