SLAM BIDDING BASICS

© Kitty Munson 1997

I. WHEN PARTNER OPENS 1NT- ADD THE POINTS UP

It takes 33 points to make a small slam and 37 to make a grand. Do you have them? When you have a good balanced hand of your own, add your points to partner’s minimum and maximum to see what the possibilities are. The following table shows your bids over 1NT, the point ranges assume a 16-18 1NT opener.

Bid

Your HCPs

Meaning

4NT

15-16

Please bid 6 with a maximum

5NT

19-20

Please bid 7 with a maximum, else bid only 6

6NT

17-18

This is what we can make (you may not raise)

7NT

21+

This is it.



Exercise 1. Partner opens 1NT, 16-18, make a bid with each of the following hands:

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

Spade A4

Spade KQ6

Spade AQ6

Spade A98

Spade KJ9

Spade J109

Heart KQ4

Heart K7

Heart KQJ

Heart AK43

Diamond AK63

Heart K532

Diamond K432

Diamond KQ7

Diamond KJ32

Club KJ43

Club A75

Club AKQ3

Club AJ72

Club J6

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Bid _________

Bid _________

Bid _________

Bid _________

Bid _________

 

II. USING STAYMAN WITH A SLAM TRY

When you have a four card major and a strong balanced hand, use Stayman before jumping in NT. The 4-4 fit will often make an extra trick for a better score. If partner bids your major, you can jump to 5 of the major to say "bid 6 with a maximum," otherwise you can make the same bids in NT that were available immediately over 1NT. This means that 4NT is not Blackwood when partner opens in NT.

Partner

You

Meaning

1NT

2Club

 

2Heart

4NT

Says bid 6NT if you are maximum else pass (and shows 4 spades)

1NT

2Club

 

2Spade

5Spade

Says bid 6Spade if you are maximum, else pass



Exercise 2. Partner opens 1NT, 16-18, make a bid with the following hands. Should you choose Stayman, indicate what your next bid will be when partner bids your major and when partner does not.

A.

B.

C.

D.`

E.

Spade A4

Spade KQ6

Spade AQ62

Spade A98

Spade KJ93

Heart J1098

Heart KQ42

Heart K7

Heart KQJ7

Heart AK4

Diamond AK63

Diamond K532

Diamond K42

Diamond K3

Diamond KJ32

Club KJ43

Club A7

Club AKQ3

Club AJ72

Club J6

         

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Pts _________

Bid 1 _______

Bid 1 _______

Bid 1 _______

Bid 1 _______

Bid 1 _______

Bid 2 _______

Bid 2 _______

Bid 2 _______

Bid 2 _______

Bid 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______

or 2 _______



 

III. USING JACOBY TRANSFERS WITH A SLAM TRY

For those of you who have learned Jacoby transfers, a transfer followed by a bid in NT is the same as bidding NT directly over 1NT, except that 5NT after a transfer ask partner to choose which slam to play. So 6NT is used to ask for a choice between 6 or 7.

Partner

You

Meaning

1NT

2Diamond

2Heart

4NT

Asks partner to bid 6Heart or 6NT if maximum, else pass (5Heart is to play)

1NT

2Heart

 

2Spade

5Spade

Asks partner to bid 6Spade if maximum, else pass

1NT

2Heart

 

2Spade

5NT

Asks partner to choose between 6Spade and 6NT

1NT

2Diamond

 

2Heart

6NT

Asks partner to pick between 6NT and 7Spade or 7NT



 

 

IV. THE GERBER CONVENTION

You cannot use Blackwood in NT auctions, because 4NT is a quantitative slam try. Another bid is used to ask for aces, which is 4Club , the Gerber convention. You must not alert it - no ace asking bids are alertable.

Suppose you hold a hand with a lot of tricks, such as:

Spade 3
Heart KQJ109643
Diamond 5
Club KQJ

This evaluates to 16 points, but it is easy to see that if partner has all four aces, you will make 7NT, that with three aces 6Heart will make, but with fewer aces, no slam will make at all. Therefore, all you really want to do is ask for aces.

1NT - 4Club

How many aces do you have?

   

4Diamond

0 or all 4

4Heart

1

4Spade

2

4NT

3



Rmember the following rule: 4Club is Gerber is whenever you jump to it over partner’s NT bid. You can also play that 4Club is Gerber when bid immediately after Stayman and after Jacoby transfers. This is particularly useful when your side has the requisite 33 or 37 points, but you have counted distribution heavily, so that you could easily be missing an ace or two.

1NT

2Club

 

2Heart

4Club

How many aces do you have?

     


Note that after using 4Club Gerber for aces, 5Club asks for kings. and 4NT is to play

Exercise 3. Partner opens 1NT, 16-18, and you hold the following hands, make a bid:

A.

 

B.

 

Spade K2

Pts __________

Spade KQJ3

Pts __________

Heart KQJ987

Bid 1 ________

Heart KQ98

Bid 1 ________

Diamond KQ98

Bid 2 ________

Diamond 3

Bid 2 ________

Club 3

or ________

Club KQ72

or ________

 

or ________

 

or ________

VI. USE THE SAME CONVENTIONS OVER BIGGER NT OPENERS

When partner opens 2NT, again add your points to their minimum and maximum and if you are in slam zone you can use 4NT quantitative to invite a slam. 3Club is still Stayman and 4Club is still Gerber. So all the charts for bidding after 1NT apply. The exception is that after using Stayman or transferring, 4Club is no longer a jump, so it cannot be Gerber. Many players use the leap to 5Club to ask for aces, this is called Super Gerber.

The problem comes when partner opens 3NT, since 4Club has to be Stayman, there is no ace asking bid unless you choose to play the Super Gerber convention and use 5Club (after which 6Club would ask for kings).

 

VII SLAM TRIES IN SUIT AUCTIONS: CUE-BIDDING

Point count is not very accurate with unbalanced hands that have a fit. Tricks and controls, or controls with distribution and lots of trump are the hand types that make slam easily with less than 33 points. For example, the following two deals both make slam and neither has the required points.

West

East

 

West

East

Spade AJ3
Heart KQ1065
Diamond A3
Club 85
Spade KQ10987
Heart A97
Diamond 965
Club 6
  Spade AJ987
Heart 4
Diamond A7652
Club A7
Spade KQ1065
Heart A9854
Diamond 5
Club 63


In the first example there are 13 tricks available (6 spades, 6 hearts, and 1 diamond) and the opponents have only 1 trick. The Club A. Here there are plenty of tricks in hearts and spades with both minor suits controlled, one on the first round (ace of diamonds) and the other on the second (singleton club). The auction would start

1Heart

1Spade

3Heart

?



Now East should say to herself,

" My partner has a good 6 card heart suit and I have the ace - 6 tricks, if she has the Spade A I have 6 spade tricks, if she has the Diamond A as well, or the Club A and the Diamond K then the opponents cannot cash 2 tricks before we take our 12."

So how does East make a slam try? She makes a cue-bid of 4Club . In this type of auction, 4Heart is always a playable game as is perhaps 3NT or 4Spade . You would not go looking for a minor suit to play in, thus bidding 4 of a minor shows a control. The bid of a control rather than a real suit is called a cue bid, it usually shows the ace,but sometimes can be the king or a singleton with interest in slam. How do you think the above auction should proceed?

West

 

East

 

1Heart

 

1Spade

 

3Heart

 

4Club

cue-bid

4Diamond

cue-bid

4Heart

well, I made my slam try

4Spade

cue-bid

6Heart

that's what I needed to hear



New suits, once we have established a fit, are usually cue bids. They are always cue-bids when you have a major suit and the auction cannot stop below game. If your fit is in a minor, new suits below 3NT are usually tries for NT (I can stop this unbid suit, can you stop the other one?), but new suits above 3NT are cue-bids.

.

Exercise 4. In the following unfinished auctions is the last bid a cue-bid (Y or N)?

 

A.

B.

C.

D.

1Heart

1Spade

 

1Spade

2Club

 

1Heart

2Diamond

 

1Diamond

1Heart

3Spade

4Diamond ?

 

3Spade

4Diamond ?

 

3Diamond

4Club ?

 

2Heart

3Club ?


 
 
 


 

E

   

F

   

G

 

1Heart

2Heart

 

1Spade

3Spade

 

1Spade

2Club

3Diamond ?

   

4Club ?

   

3Club

3Heart ?


 
 


 

Exercise 5. What would you bid on each of the following hands:

A.

   

B.

   

C

   

D.

 

1Heart

1Spade

 

1Heart

2Diamond

 

1Diamond

1Heart

 

1Spade

2Heart

3Spade

?

 

3Diamond

?

 

3Heart

?

 

3Heart ?

 
                     


Spade AK8764

Spade 765

Spade K654

Spade A4

Heart K3

Heart A2

Heart QJ43

Heart KQJ986

Diamond A43

Diamond KQJ9865

Diamond 543

Diamond 32

Club 86

Club 3

Club A2

Club K75

       

____________

____________

____________

____________



Exercise 6 What suit do you hope to hear your partner cue-bid on the three hands above where you cue-bid?

A.

B.

C.

D.

____________

____________

____________

____________

 

Exercise 7. What would you bid next if partner in the above 2 hands bid:

A. 4Heart ?

B. 4Diamond ?

C.

D. 4Diamond ?

       

____________

____________

____________

____________

 

To summarize, once you have a fit, when you need to tell partner that you have a hand that might be suitable for slam, you make a cue-bid. Often you need to know that partner has specific controls before bidding a slam, you find this out by using cue-bids rather than Blackwood. It is also possible to bid 4NT, Blackwood, after you hear partner cue-bid the suit that you were looking for a control in.

 

VIII When to Use BLACKWOOD

A commonly asked question is when should you use Blackwood as opposed to using cue-bidding . The answer is that that you shouldn't use Blackwood without a first or second round control in every suit. Also, you should not use it if partner's answer would not help you decide whether or not to bid a slam. If you have a doubleton or a tripleton with no ace or king in it, then you have no way of knowing that the opponents couldn't cash the AK of that suit. When one suit is not controlled, that is the time to use cue-bidding rather than Blackwood.

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