One of the ways that we investigate slam in a suit contract is the use of control showing bids. When one member of the partnership is interested in slam then they show this interest by making a control showing bid. Based on our partnership agreement this control showing bid either shows a 1st round control or a 2nd round control in the suit bid. Once we start the process of making control showing bids then we continue to do so to explore slam. But as the auction approaches game we have a big decision to make: should we go past game or not? This can be a difficult decision; we should not go past game without a good reason, often some extra values. In this situation we would like to have a way to make “one more try for slam”. The way that we do that is with a convention called the Last Train to Clarksville (“Last Train”). Let’s see how this gadget works!

When we find a Major suit fit at the 3-level in a game forcing auction, then partner is usually expressing interest in slam (because without slam interest, partner would have applied the Principle of Fast Arrival and bid 4M.) In this case, now we usually express whether we have slam interest or not by either making a cuebid or simply bidding game with 4M. A partnership can use a gadget called “Non-Serious 3NT” to gain even further clarification about a player’s level of slam interest.

When we have a minor suit fit, keeping the auction below 5-minor while trying for slam is one of the advantages of Minorwood — using 4-minor as an Ace-asking tool. By making an improvement to our Ace-showing structure in Minorwood, we can combine both Keycard-asking and quantitative bidding into one structure. This new structure is called Q-Minorwood.

When partner bids 4NT as Keycard in our established fit, a void in a side suit can be useful. We may still be able to make a slam if we are missing two Aces/Keycards if the void is in a suit of one of those missing side Aces. We need a way to tell partner about this void if we haven’t already done so earlier in the auction.