Romex Namyats

The basic structure remains the same. An opening bid of 4 is a preempt in Hearts whereas an opening bid of 4 is a preempt in Spades. However, the employment of the original version of Namyats is definitely defined and must meet certain requirements, but the requirements of the Romex Namyats is stricter still regarding the distribution, the quality of the trump suit, the number of losers, and the number of controls. All these requirements must be met before the player may open a Romex Namyats bid on the four level.

The requirements are listed below with possible clarifications.

1. The Major suit must have a length of at least 7 cards, and an 8-card or even 9-card suit is even more preferable.

2. The holding of the player may contain no void, which is essential.

3. The holding must contain one or two Aces and one or two of the five Key Cards, which are the 4 Aces and the King of the trump suit. In the case that the holding contains only one Key Card, the holding must also then contain the Queen of the trump suit.

4. The holding may not contain as many as five controls. The controls are defined as: Ace equals 2 controls and the King equal 1 control.

5. The holding should contain between 4 and 4.5 losers. The designation of losers in the Romex Bidding System is defined as follows:

• 1. In any suit shorter than three cards, a loser is counted for each card that is not an Ace or King.
• 2. In any suit longer than two cards, a loser is counted for any of the three top honors that are missing.
• 3. No suit may have more than three losers.

Examples

To compare the differences demanded by the Romex Namyats, the following two examples are included for illustration purposes:

Hand A. AKJ9865 43 5 KQ9

Hand B. AKQ97654 void K7 932

In evaluating Hand A, it can be determined that it contains four controls, 4.5 losers, one Ace and two Key Cards. Since the hand meets all the requirements for a Romex Namyats opening, the correct bid is 4.

In evaluating the Hand B, the hand may not be opened with 4 due to one factor. The holding contains a void. All other requirements are met except this one particular feature.

Responses and Rebids

Since the partnership agreement is that all the requirements must be met before opening a Romex Namyats 4 or 4 bid, the responder is aware of the quality, shape and minimum suit length of the intended trump suit. This means that for reaching game, the responder must have at least two Key Card and his holding must cover three losers.

The requirement is that if the holding of the responder does not measure up to meeting these conditions, then the responder signs off by bidding 4 and/or 4. The opener must accept this sign off and may not continue the auction.

On the other hand, if the responder has at least two Key Cards and has at least a second round control of all side suits, which is perhaps the first priority, then the responder can explore for slam. In order to ask for the number of Key Cards, the convention Key Card Blackwood is employed. This means that if the opening bid is 4, and the responder wishes to explore for slam based on his holding, then the responder bids: 4. If the opening bid is 4, and the responder wishes to explore for slam based on his holding, then the responder bids: 4.

The following chart outlines the rebids by the opener to further describe his holding by naming the number of Key Cards:

• First Step: Shows 1 Key Card with the Queen of trump.
• Second Step: Shows 2 Key Cards without the Queen of trump.
• Third Step: Shows 2 Key Cards with the Queen of trump.

The following auction illustrates such continuations:

AKJ9865 43 5 KQ9

1074 KQ AKQ86 A73

4	Pass	4*	Pass
4NT**	Pass	6

* Key Card Blackwood, ** Shows 2 Key Cards without the Queen of trumps.