[mr1303]

LHO opens 4♦, alerted as showing a good 4♠ opening. Partner doubles. What should the double mean.

You hold

J
1098xxx
AQ
Jxx

What do you bid (if anything) when RHO bids 4♠ after the double?

Mark

[MickyB]

Over a Namyats opening, your main priority should be judging when to compete. They are giving you the option to show a (relatively weak) takeout double without the risk of offering partner a choice between 990 and 1100, IMO it is clear to take advantage of this. With a strong balanced hand, pass then double 4♠.

This hand is a clear 5♥ bid, well, actually it may depend what the 13th card is.

[Echognome]

For what it's worth our defense to Namyats is as follows:

Double = Either the bid suit OR a penalty oriented double (i.e. big balanced or not very suitable for T/O double).

Pass then Double = Takeout

Over 4♣ - X - 4♥ - ? or 4♦ - X - 4♠ - ?, then
X = wanting to sacrifice in partner's minor if he has the long minor suit hand
Bids = Suit of your own

Of course Namyats takes up a lot of room, but we found this to work fairly effectively.

[FrancesHinden]

We do our defence the other way round.
Our defence to any form of transfer pre-empt with exactly one suit defined is:

x = take-out of the their suit
x then x = more take-out of their suit
Pass then x = strong balanced, although no trump stack (usually passed)
Cue bid = 2-suiter

We have them this way round so that if the next hand pre-empts you immediately know partner had a take-out double (perhaps less relevant over NAMYATS but useful to have one agreement), while if you are strong balanced you don't mind if they want to pre-empt.

If they have promised two suits (e.g. 2NT showing both minors) we do something slightly different.

So with that agreement, I bid 5H (well, depending on my 13th card).

[pclayton]

I always thought this was a standard defense to Namyats:

1) Double - takeout of their suit
2) Cue - major / minor 2 suiter
3) Pass then double - penalty oriented
4) 4N - minors

[joshs]

FrancesHinden, on Oct 10 2006, 09:31 AM, said:

We do our defence the other way round.
Our defence to any form of transfer pre-empt with exactly one suit defined is:

x = take-out of the their suit
x then x = more take-out of their suit
Pass then x = strong balanced, although no trump stack (usually passed)
Cue bid = 2-suiter

We have them this way round so that if the next hand pre-empts you immediately know partner had a take-out double (perhaps less relevant over NAMYATS but useful to have one agreement), while if you are strong balanced you don't mind if they want to pre-empt.

If they have promised two suits (e.g. 2NT showing both minors) we do something slightly different.

So with that agreement, I bid 5H (well, depending on my 13th card).

This is how I play versus Namyats, since there is very little chance of the bid getting passed.

My first x can be pretty light, say a 5431 11 count at favorable. X then x is a sound takeout x, say 16+ or so. Pass then x is more penalty oriented, usually a strong NT, but it should not be made based on a trump stack alone since partner is allowed to take it out. A balanced 16 count is a MUCH more common than a pure penalty x and if you have that hand you might want to defend or declare depending on what partner has, so its much more important to be able to show the balanced hand. With the other hand, just pass and go plus.