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 supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge." Led by Ely Culbertson, contract bridge enjoyed a boom in popularity in the US and the UK in the 1930s. In the US and Australia today, bridge is usually "duplicate bridge" played at clubs, at tournaments, and online. In the UK, bridge is still widely played in private homes (rubber or Chicago) as well as at clubs (duplicate and rubber) and tournaments (duplicate). History of contract bridge The history of contract bridge, one of the world's most popular partnership card games, may be dated from the early