Vienna Coup by Foxymoron

The Vienna Coup was originally a play in whist.  It is so named because it was originally published by James Clay (1804-1873) after observing it being executed in the days of whist by "the greatest player in Vienna". James Clay (20 December 1804, London – 26 September 1873, Brighton) was an English politician and a leading whist authority. A colourful character, he lost his seat in 1853 after a bribery scandal. His son was the musical composer Frederic Clay. Sadly, the Vienna Coup did not get known as the Clay Coup, which does not have the same ring to it. Its prime feature is the cashing of an ace in a suit in which you do not have the king, to avoid that hand being squeezed first. A good example occurred today:

Given that NS were playing a strong club, and the South hand comes in at 18.95 on the K-R evaluator, I would have opened it 1C, and I presume that South was able to show a 4-4-1-4 16-19, but if not then some improvement in the methods are needed.

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Even opposite the actual hand, 6D or 6NT was no more than 50%, and North could have been facing AK32 A432 2 A432 which is certainly a maximum, but no more, which would be a claim in 7NT. I presume North could have asked how many controls South had and the answer "six" might have interested him. I must admit that I would have jumped to 6D on the North hand, and 3NT was too conservative. And in the play, North might have done better. East led a small club, a bit naive as South had shown four of these, and North won with the jack. Now North should cash the ace of spades, a Vienna Coup, and then run the diamonds. West get squeezed on the last of these, and even if East is guarding hearts there will be a double squeeze. Making 13 tricks scored the same as making 12, strangely.

The odd thing about this hand was that there were six different results at the six different tables. At one table declarer made an overtrick as South when West threw too many hearts, at another, declarer guessed to play a club to the king in the ending and made. And, finally, another declarer took the spade finesse in 6NT as South and went off. So, a tricky board, but you do want to be in slam, by South, so that they cannot attack your options.

Despite the above below average result, Klein and Ewell had another fine win, with 63%.