The Vienna System or Austrian System was one of the earliest conventional

bidding system 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 bid ...

s in the game of

contract bridge 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 o ...

. It was devised in 1935 by Austrian player

Paul Stern Paul Stern (4 April 1892 – 12 June 1948) 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 Br ...

. The Vienna System used the Bamberger point count to evaluate bridge hands: A=7, K=5, Q=3, J=1.Said to be an adjustment of the Robertson point count. and OEB 4th ed p367. That method has been generally 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 ** 12 - natural and forcing ** 1NoTrump -

artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...

, 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 ** 23 - 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 Elie Almon Culbertson (July 22, 1891 – December 27, 1955), 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 wide ...

's American team in a challenge match in 1937 (see: Bermuda Bowl#Predecessors).

References

{{reflist Bridge systems