SLAM

(Game by Sid Sackson) 2011 Tautrimas Pajarskas

These rules are based on the game SLAM published in A Gamut of Games (1992) by Sid Sackson. Do not try to memorize all the values and multipliers. These are conveniently compiled at the end of document like Sid Sackson did in his explanation of rules. Players: 2 Preparation: Remove the 2s to 6s from the standard deck of cards. In-game card rank is (high) A-K-Q-J-10-9-8-7 (low). SLAM is played in hands (dealer alternates between consecutive hands, first dealer is random). When one player scores 20 or more points below the line (explained later), he wins a game. When any player wins 2 games, scores are rounded up and the winner of a rubber is announced. You can play as many rubbers as you want. Quick play of one hand overview. Every step is explained in detail later. Bidding phase Deal 10 cards each. Each player bids once. Deal 2 more cards. Bids once. Deal 2 more cards. Bid till one player passes. Winner declarer, the other defender. Declarer names a trump for the first time. Defender may double. Preparations phase Deal 2 last cards to each player. Both players may score honor melds now. Lay-off 3 cards each. Trick phase Play 6 tricks. Pickup the lay-off. Play 4 more tricks. Score! Let's examine a hand gameplay starting with trick taking. Then we will move back to the bidding and preparations. This will make it easy and fast to learn SLAM.

Trick taking
During preparation phase, as seen in hand overview above, you will have to lay-off 3 of your cards. Therefore, when you start playing tricks, players have 13 cards each in their hands and 3 cards face down besides them. Play 6 tricks. Rules: Player who won the last trick starts by playing a card. Any card after that must follow suit of the leading card. If a player cannot follow suit, he can only then play any other suit he likes (including trumps). Second card is laid on the table by the opposing player. Turns alternate two more times until 4 cards are played. Trick is won by the highest card of the leading suit or if any trumps were played, the highest trump card. After 6 tricks, you have only 1 card left in your hand. Pick up 3 laid-off cards. 1

 Play 4 more tricks only 2 cards per trick. Both players will have zero cards left.

Scoring
Scores are kept above the line and below the line for each player. One scores above the line for various bonuses like honor melds. Only the declarer (bid winner) can score below the line. The player who won the bidding is a declarer. Only after the auction he names trump (contract) he was bidding for. Contract values (all explained below): Clubs trump.......................6 points Diamonds trump................6 points Hearts trump......................8 points Spades trump.....................8 points No trump..........................10 points Nullo................................10 points Declarer has an advantage, therefore he has to win more than 5 tricks out of 10 in order to score positive. Score is the [count of tricks won over 5] multiplied by current contract's value. For example: Declarer won 7 tricks with hearts as a contract. Score: (75)8=16 Declarer won 5 tricks with clubs as a contract. Score: (55)6=0 Declarer won 3 tricks with spades as a contract. Score: (35)8=16 Declarer won 10 tricks with no-trump as a contract. Score: (105)10=50 In order for the declarer to write score below the line, after playing tricks he must score equal or more points that he bid. Reminder: a game is won when one of the players score 20 points below the line. If the declarer has accomplished the contract (score bid), he scores amount of points bid below the line. Amount of points won over the bid goes above the line as a bonus. Example: Bid 15, spades contract. Won 8 tricks. That 3 over five is worth 24 points. 15 goes below the line, 9 above the line. That's why you don't want to bid too low. Player is vulnerable when he has already won one game in the current rubber. If the declarer fails to fulfill (is being set) the contract (score < bid), then the defender scores 3x (5x if vulnerable) amount of points above the line that the declarer is missing. Example 1: vulnerable declarer won the bid with 24 points, named spades trump as a contract but won only 6 tricks. Score is 8 and is less than a bid (24). Therefore, defender scores (248)5=80 above the line. Example 2: not-vulnerable declarer won the bid with 24 points, named spades trump as a contract but won only 3 tricks. Score is -16, because (35)8=16 . Defender scores (24(16)) 3=120 points above the line. No-trump is a contract where there are no trumps. Nullo is a contract used when the player receives all low cards. Therefore he can go nullo and instead of winning tricks, he aims for loosing them. In other words, if a player bids and wins nullo contract, he is scoring 10 (from the table above) for each trick lost over 5 (exact opposite of the normal scoring). For example. Bid 23, wins 2 tricks. That means, he lost 8. Score is (85)10=30 . Below the line goes 23, and 7 as a bonus above the line.

Bidding
Since we have some grasp of trick playing and scoring, the hand is explained from the very beginning. General rules for bidding: Bid minimum of 1 point higher or pass. No more than 5 points higher than the last bid. If player passes at any time, he is effectively out of an auction and can no longer reenter the bidding. First bidder is the dealer. Dealing alternates between hands. First bid must be 6 or more points. Deal 10 cards to each player. Each player bids once. Deal 2 more cards (12 in hand). Each player bids once more. Deal 2 more cards (14 in hand). Now bidding alternates until one player passes. The winner can further increase the bid as many times as he wishes. If at the round when holing only 10 cards both players passes, hand is dealt again. Player who won (becomes declarer) the auction for the first time announces his contract. If the defender feels that the declarer have gone too far, he may double. Declarer may pass, which means he plays doubled contract (explained shortly). Furthermore, he may redouble if he feels confident or may switch to other contract. If the last choice is made. If switch has been selected, defender may again double. Declarer may again switch contracts but cannot return to the first contract. ------------ If the declarer accomplishes the doubled contract, he gets all the points for the tricks doubled below the line. In addition, he gets 40 points above the line if vulnerable and 25 points if not vulnerable. If confident and redoubled, then receive quadrupled score below the line and bonus doubled above the line (80 and 50). Penalty: if not vulnerable declarer fails to accomplish the contract (score < bid), penalty is 3x if not doubled, 10x if doubled and 20x if redoubled. If vulnerable, then multipliers are accordingly 5x, 15x and 30x. After the 2 last cards are dealt (see hand overview), honor melds are scored by both players. If contract is a trump, then that trump sequence of 4 or more cards is a meld. Four cards is 15 points above the line. Any additional card is worth 15 more points up until 75 for all 8 cards of a trump. If contract is no-trump, then 3 aces score 20 points, 4 aces score 40 points. If contract is nullo, then 3 sevens score 20 points, 4 sevens score 40 points.

Overall rules
A rubber and a game. As mentioned earlier, first player to reach 20 or more points below the line wins a game. After finishing a game, both players draw new bottom line. This effectively transforms scores below the line to above the line. Both players have 0 points below the line for the 3

new game. First player to win two games, scores a bonus of 150 points if opponent has not won a game and 100 points otherwise. This completes the rubber and rubber winner is a player with the most points totaled across all the lines. Slam bonus. Slam bonus can be awarded only to the declarer that actually bid slam (9 tricks small slam, all 10 tricks grand slam). If slam is bid and made, score above the line according to the table: Not vulnerable, small slam................100 points Vulnerable, small slam......................150 points Not vulnerable, grand slam................200 points Vulnerable, grand slam......................300 points If bid slam is not made, simply use normal penalty rules. Exception in bidding: a player may bid slam any time on his turn regardless of the points he needs to reach it. Remember that one can raise bid value only by maximum of 5 points. Quitting rubber early. Quoting A Gamut of Games (1992) by Sid Sackson: Just wait until the end of hand, award 60 points to a player who may be ahead one game to nothing, award 10 points to any player with a partial toward game, and settle up the unfinished rubber.

Slam quick scoring reference (from the Sid Sackson's book)

20 points are game Value of each trick over 5 Clubs trump.......................6 points Diamonds trump................6 points Hearts trump......................8 points Spades trump.....................8 points No trump..........................10 points Nullo................................10 points Doubled 2, Redoubled 4. Rubber bonuses 2-game rubber....................150 points 3-game rubber....................100 points Game, unfinished rubber......60 points Partial, unfinished rubber.....10 points Slam bonuses Not vulnerable, small slam................100 points Vulnerable, small slam......................150 points Not vulnerable, grand slam................200 points Vulnerable, grand slam......................300 points Making doubled contract bonus Not vulnerable.....................................25 points Game, unfinished rubber.....................40 points Redoubled 2 Set penalties Not vulnerable.....................................3 points Not vulnerabledoubled....................10 points Not vulnerableredoubled.................20 points Vulnerable...........................................5 points Vulnerable doubled..........................15 points Vulnerableredoubled.......................30 points Honor Melds No-trump...............3 aces 20; 4 aces 40 points Nullo............................3 7s 20; 4 7s 40 points Trump sequence of: 4 15; 5 30; 6 45; 7 60; 8 75 points

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