Contract Bridge Slam Bidding: Gerber Convention, Part 2
Mother never promised making a Notrump contact would always be easy. Dad went one further, telling to be extra careful playing in a Notrump slam contract. Sure enough, as we get more mature we realize our parents were usually right about life and Bridge.
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When it comes to Gerber bidding, it turns out wise players make an extra effort to discuss some of the extraordinary Gerber slam bids than come up from time to time. In today’s blog, videos, and polls we share our views and offer you the opportunity to test your knowledge.
Slam Notrump Considerations
1. Self-Sustaining Suit versus Misfits
2. Hand Evaluation: Trick-taking Power
3. Conventional Agreements
4. Play of the Hand: Analysis
Fits, Misfits and Conundrums:
We first search for major suit fits.
If not, we look for stoppers to play in a Notrump contract.
Without stoppers, we revert to a minor suit contract.
Still worse, we face a misfit between the two hands.
Notrump Distributional Points:
Our goal is to take tricks – when investigating slam, we seek extra critical tricks:
1. Long minor suit, as a 6+ card suit
2. Partnership fit, as a 5-4 or 5-3 suit with top honors
3. Balanced hand with top honors
4. Misfits can be a problem, requiring special tactics (squeeze play, all or none finesse, etc) [Read more…]
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