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
Bidding (cards) Bidding (cards) Bidding is the process in many card games, such as Skat, Pinochle, Binokel, Bridge, Solo Whist, Préférence, L’Hombre, Bauernschnapsen and most types of Tarock, whereby players vie to be able to specify the type of contract, the trump cards and/or to be able to pick up a set of face-down cards known variously, for example, as the talon, skat, dabb. Players may raise the bid (by bidding a higher contract or point value) until the highest bidder is determined when the others all say "pass". Bidding may be done in successive pairs as in Skat (in the sequence: