Splinter bid

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This article concerns Contract Bridge and uses terminology associated with the game. See Contract bridge glossary for an explanation of unfamiliar words or phrases.

In contract bridge, a splinter bid is a convention whereby a jump bid in a side-suit indicates a trump fit and a singleton or void in the suit bid. For example, a 4 clubs response to a 1 heart opening establishes hearts as trump suit and indicates a singleton or void in clubs. A splinter bid like this is made on hands of such a strength that a slam in the agreed trump suit is makeable opposite a suitably strong hand that might be held by the partner. Although they consume bidding space, splinter bids are very descriptive as they help partner to revaluate his/her hand: soft honors (a king, queen or jack) in the splinter suit lose value, while honors in the other three suits gain value.

In some positions if a simple bid of the suit would be forcing then a single jump can be a splinter. For example, in a system where 1♥–2♣; 2♦ is a forcing sequence, 1♥–2♣; 3♦ may be used as a splinter. (However, this approach would require a specific agreement in advance—many players use this sequence to denote a strong two-suiter.) Some partnerships use certain single jumps as "mini-splinters" that promise less strength, allowing partner to choose between part-score and game rather than between game and slam.

The short suit in a splinter hand is preferably a small singleton, though it can occasionally be a singleton honor or a void. The idea is that partner can easily tell if he has wasted values in the splinter suit; for example, Axxx is ideal whereas KJ9x is almost worthless.

The 4 diamond bids in the following bidding sequences (with East-West passing throughout) are generally agreed to be splinter bids establishing spades as the trump suit:

North	South
1♠	4♦

North	South
1♣	1♠
4♦

North	South
1♣	1♥
1♠	4♦