Strong notrump after passing (SNAP) is a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

bidding convention A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial or a set of related artificial calls. Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "Contract bridge glossary ...

originated by

Jeremy Flint Jeremy M. Flint (30 August 1928 – 15 November 1989) was an English contract bridge writer and one of the world's leading professional players. He was also a horse racing enthusiast. Flint was born in Leeds but lived in London. Life and bridge ...

and

Tony Priday Richard Anthony (Tony) Priday (13 August 1922 – 9 October 2014) was an English bridge player and journalist, who had a longstanding and successful partnership with Claude Rodrigue. He was a member of Great Britain teams that finished third in th ...

and is a one notrump (1NT) bid by a passed hand in response to a one-level opening by his partner. Similar to the

Drury convention The Drury convention is a bridge convention, used to show a game-invitational major suit raise by a passed hand while guarding against a light opening by partner in third or fourth seat. It is initiated by an artificial and forcing 2 response by t ...

, SNAP is intended to keep the contract at a low level when it is possible that partner has opened with a light or minimum hand in third or fourth seat. While a 1NT response would typically show 6-9 (or 6-10) high card points (HCP) in most

Standard American Standard American is a bidding system for the game of bridge widely used in North America and elsewhere. Owing to the popularization of the game by Charles Goren in the 1940s and 1950s, its early versions were sometimes referred to simply as 'Go ...

partnership agreements, the SNAP 1NT response instead shows a relatively balanced hand with 9-12 (or 10-12) HCP and no five-card major that could have been bid at the one-level. When using SNAP, a 2NT response shows a balanced limit jump raise in opener's suit.

Limitations

Responding hands containing 6-8 points are problematic, especially if partner opens in spades. Some 6 point hands are passed and some 8 point hands are bid at the two-level. SNAP gives an advantage in a partscore deal and is therefore more suited to competitive bidding in

Matchpoint scoring While a deal of bridge is always played following a unique set of rules, its scoring may vary depending on the type of event the deal is played on. There are two main categories of scoring: rubber and duplicate. Rubber scoring, and its popular va ...

. The risk of obliging a Pass or overbid holding 6-8 points deters some players from adopting the convention while others favor it owing to the frequency of occurrence.

References

{{WPCBIndex Bridge conventions

Limitations

See also

References