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NAMYATS - The benefit of NAMYATS is to differentiate between a strong distributional hand, which may provide a slam opportunity with less opponent interference, and a preemptive bid which has no slam opportunity.

An artificial opening bid of 4C or 4D used to signify a good hand with 7+ card length in Hearts or Spades, respectively.  Opener's hand should hold 8 or 8 1/2 playing tricks with good honors in the major suit, usually accompanied by an outside Ace or King.  Conversely, an opening bid of 4H or 4S shows a weak preemptive hand not meeting that criteria.

NAMYATS was created by Sam Stayman who, after creating the Stayman 2C response to partner's Notrump opener, coined the NAMYATS convention using his name in reverse order (Sam originally suggested the opposite meaning to friends who told him it was backwards; he agreed to their suggestion, saying he would give it his name, albeit with backward spelling of his name!

Bid Meaning

4C - 4H;

4D - 4S;

Opener shows a good 8 card major with some defensive values, responder signs off in game

4H - P;

4S - P;

Opener shows a weak 8 card major with no defensive values, responder signs off in game

4D - 4N;

Responder's 4N initiates a straight-forward Blackwood slam convention.


Method 1: Slam Asking NAMYATS Sequence

Opener's 4C/4D bid promises only 1 side suit has 3+ losers.
Responder bids the first step to identify this suit.
 

4C - 4D;
4x

4D - 4H;
4/5x

Opener's rebid notifies responder of weak 3+ card side suit.  A rebid of Opener's major suggests no side suit with 3 losers.


Method 2: Key Card NAMYATS Sequence

Responder's step bids shows (not asks) responder's Key Cards.
 

4C - 4x;

4D - 4x;

1st step    = 1 or 3 key cards
2-5th step = 2 key cards, with 2 quick losers in suit bid
5 trump     = 2 key cards, no suit with 2 quick losers

Also see books on Slam and other slam conventions: 1430, Baby Blackwood, Blackwood, Controls, Exclusion Blackwood/Voidwood, Gerber, Grand Slam Force, Jacoby 2 Notrump, Key Card Blackwood, Kickback, Last Train,  NAMYATS, Pick a Slam, Quantitative Notrump Bid, Rolling Blackwood, Serious 3 Notrump, Slam Try - Stayman, Splinters, Opener Jump Shift, Strong Jump Shift, and legacy treatments as Roman Asking Bids, Roman BlackwoodRoman Gerber.  Slam treatments also include interference of an overcall by opponents, as Negative Slam Double, DOPI, DEPO, ROPI.

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