Scoring: Games & Slams
📋 What it is
You aim for a "game" (enough tricks to score a big bonus); bidding and making all 12 or 13 tricks is a "slam".
🗣️ Coach says
Points aren't just for tricks — big bonuses come from reaching a "game" contract (like nine tricks in notrump). Bid and make twelve tricks and it's a "small slam"; all thirteen is a "grand slam", the biggest prize. The score chart decides how ambitious to be.
🧠 Memory hook
Reach GAME for the bonus. Twelve tricks = small slam, thirteen = grand slam.
😂 Giggle
Why did the contract feel like a promise?
Because the winning bidders promise to take a certain number of tricks!
😲 Whoa!
A bid-and-made grand slam (all 13 tricks) is one of the rarest and most celebrated results in bridge — pairs remember them for years.
✅ Quick check: How many tricks must you bid and make for a GRAND slam?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
All 13 tricks — a grand slam takes every trick in the deal; twelve tricks is only a small slam.
Grand slam = 13 tricks; small slam = 12.
🪄 Trick question: Is a "small slam" all 13 tricks?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — a small slam is 12 tricks; taking all 13 is a grand slam.
Small slam = 12, grand slam = 13; they are different targets.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Look at a simple score table and see how much bonus a "game" earns vs just making a small contract.