Vienna System

Last updated April 14, 2019

The Vienna System or Austrian System was one of the earliest highly-conventional bidding systems in the game of contract bridge. It was devised in 1935 by Austrian player Paul Stern.^[1]^[2]^[3]

A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the meaning of each treatment and convention. The purpose of bidding is for each partnership to ascertain which contract, whether made or defeated and whether bid by them or by their opponents, would give the partnership their best scoring result.

Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing bridge at the regional level.

Paul Stern was an Austrian international bridge player and lawyer, who fled to London in 1938. He was a bidding theorist and administrator who contributed to the early growth of the game. He founded the Austrian Bridge Federation in 1929, and was its first president.

The Vienna System used the Robertson count to evaluate bridge hands: A=7, K=5, Q=3, J=2, 10=1.^[4] That method (devised by Edmund Robertson in 1904) has long been obsolete, and has been almost entirely supplanted by the Work count (HCP) (A=4, K=3, Q=2, J=1).

The characteristic features of the Vienna System were not in its methods of hand evaluation, but in its bidding structure:

1♣ - minimum opener (up to about 17 HCP in modern terms), no 5-card suit except perhaps ♣. Forcing: responder is not allowed to pass. Responder's possible bids include:
- 1♦ - a bad hand
- 1♥♠2♣♦ - natural and forcing
- 1NoTrump - artificial, forcing to game
- 2♥ and higher jump bids - signoff, a so-called "negative jump response"
1♦♥♠ - minimum opener, 5-card suit. Responder's bids include:
- 1NoTrump - no fit for opener's suit; encouraging but not forcing
1NoTrump - maximum opener (at least about 18 HCP in modern terms), undefined hand, forcing; responder may not pass. Responder's possible bids include:
- 2♣ - a bad hand
- 2♦♥♠3♣ - 5-card suit, game-forcing
- 2NoTrump - no 5-card suit, game-forcing

Austrian teams captained by Stern, playing the Vienna System, won the European championships (Open category) in 1936 and 1937, and defeated Ely Culbertson's American team in a challenge match in 1937 (see: Bermuda Bowl#Predecessors).

Elie Almon Culbertson, known as Ely Culbertson, was an American contract bridge entrepreneur and personality dominant during the 1930s. He played a major role in the popularization of the new game and was widely regarded as "the man who made contract bridge". He was a great showman who became rich, was highly extravagant, and lost and gained fortunes several times over.

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References

↑ Stern, Dr. Paul (1938). The Stern Austrian System. Translated by Margery Belsey. George G. Harrap & Co.
↑ Smith, A. J. (1942). The Vienna System of Bidding. Foreword by Paul Stern. Faber & Faber.
↑ Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Cohen, Ben, International Edition Editor; Barrow, Rhoda, International Edition Editor (1967). The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia. London: Paul Hamlyn. p. 567-568. OCLC 560654187.
↑ Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Cohen, Ben, International Edition Editor; Barrow, Rhoda, International Edition Editor (1967). The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia. London: Paul Hamlyn. p. 424. OCLC 560654187.

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[1] Stern, Dr. Paul (1938). The Stern Austrian System. Translated by Margery Belsey. George G. Harrap & Co.

[2] Smith, A. J. (1942). The Vienna System of Bidding. Foreword by Paul Stern. Faber & Faber.

[3] Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Cohen, Ben, International Edition Editor; Barrow, Rhoda, International Edition Editor (1967). The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia. London: Paul Hamlyn. p. 567-568. OCLC 560654187.

[4] Frey, Richard L., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan F., Executive Editor; Cohen, Ben, International Edition Editor; Barrow, Rhoda, International Edition Editor (1967). The Bridge Players' Encyclopedia. London: Paul Hamlyn. p. 424. OCLC 560654187.