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 Blackwood,
Roman Gerber. Slam
treatments
also include interference of
an overcall by opponents, as
Negative Slam Double,
DOPI,
DEPO, ROPI. |