Grand slam force Grand slam force The Grand Slam Force is a bidding convention in contract bridge that was developed by Ely Culbertson in 1936. It is intended to be used in cases where the combined hands of a partnership are so strong that a slam (winning at least 12 tricks) is a near-certainty and a grand slam (winning all 13 tricks) is a possibility. It allows one partner to gain information on the quality of trumps in the other partner's hand. When this convention is in force, a bid of 5NT (five notrump), when it does not conflict with other conventions used
Law of total tricks 16. That is, if North-South can take eight tricks playing in hearts, then East-West can take 16 - 8 = 8 tricks playing in spades; if North-South can take nine tricks in hearts, LoTT says East-West can take only seven tricks in spades. Note, however, how minor card rearrangements affect the law: There are a number of bridge conventions that take advantage of this principle. For example, Bergen raises following an opening bid of one of a major (using a 5-card major system): In 2002, Anders Wirgren called the accuracy of the "law" into question, saying it works on only