The first act

Get them to play rapidly the deal of the day : deal No 5A

The contract is obviously 3NT by South with the lead of the Ace of Hearts….(advice 6.1). Therefore the contract fails without declarer being able to do anything about it; and yet..the Decision Table says that with 25 honours points in both hands you must bid and make nine tricks in NT…
Make them guess why, then, this bid failed and introduce the notion of protected suits: here Hearts were not protected, i.e. there were not enough high value Hearts to take tricks and prevent the opponents' string of Harts tricks.
How to proceed then when one has enough points to play at a certain level but one suit is not protected? One should abandon NT and play in Trumps; i.e. choose a suit in which one has more cards than the opponent and which will have priority over the other three suits. (advice 6.2).
How will this priority show itself?

Only by trumping in with a trump card another suit which you don't hold or have none left and win the trick thanks to the priority of the trump suit. Quick, an example on the board! :

You have chosen Spades as trumps and the opponent leads the Ace of Hearts; you have:

K 8 2

10 6 4 2

A J 7 5 3

7

The opponent wins the trick and plays the King of Hearts; whilst in no trumps he would have taken this trick (and maybe many more), here you trump in with the 3 of Spades and win the trick (advice 6.3).

Insist on the optional nature of trumping in : Bridge is a "game of freedom" where you can do more or less what you like with your cards but insist on the enormous advantage of trumping in to win "cheap" tricks. Also introduce the notion of over-trumping and its equally optional nature.

Now is the moment to bring up the problem: when to play in Trumps or No-trumps?
When one has at least eight cards of a suit one has what is called a "fit" (advice 6.4).Make them guess why the minimum number of eight. Simply to be sure of having superiority over the opponents who can't have more than five.

Show that this possibility of trumping in is not only the right of the declarer. The opponent can do it too. Come to the following deduction: you must draw trumps quickly to be at ease in this respect.

Take the example deal again and confirm that Spades are the ideal trumps; ask how many Heart tricks the opponents will make if you play a Spades contract (advice 6.5) compare this with the SIX tricks one would concede in no-trumps.

Deduce the consequence: in NT the short Hearts suit was a disadvantage (because the opponents led lots of them and you could do nothing about it) whereas in Spades it is an advantage (because you can trump in as soon as you have none left). So, when you have to choose a Trumps contract, you think about short suits which are not good for NT bids.

Distribution points

It is so important to have short suits or even "void" to play in trumps that after counting Honours points one adds extra points when you have found "fit" with your partner in a certain suit (advice 6.6).

Give the values and the definition of the words in bold:

Give the extra value of 1 point for each trump above the ninth and ask them to guess why: accept answers like: "we've got a lot" or (better) : "the opponents haven't got many". Give top marks to anyone who says: "the opponents' trumps will fall more quickly".
Give the name of these extra points and make explicit the concept of DH points*[Distribution & Honours] (advice 6.7).

Look again at the deal of the day, but this time counting the D[istribution] points in Spades as Trumps. Insist on the use of the same table of points Õ tricks in Trumps and No-trumps.

The second act - the bidding

We will go to South's hand to check that we have arrived at a total of 33 DH. Don't accept a mental calculation and insist on seeing in "black and white" the following count:-

- North: 10 H points & 2 D points (singleton Heart) = 12 DH points
- South: 16 H points & 2 D points (doubletons in & ) = 18 DH points
- extra for 11 trumps in the two hands = 3 D points
	Total : 18 + 12 + 3 = 33 DH points.

So you reach the contract of 6 played by South.

Play the deal asking for the same lead and continuation in Hearts: however they play it they cannot fail.

Finish the lesson by asking them to draw the "moral" of the deal: either 3NT "stolen" or failed by two tricks or a small slam in Spades impossible to fail. Make them deduce that whenever you can, it is preferable to play in trumps, because one can stop a run of master cards in the opponents' hands of a certain suit.

Suggest this "utilitarian" definition of trumps:-

A trump serves only to trump an opponent's master card and never to lose control of the situation.

Before going on to the free deal, (there is often not enough time to play it, but tell the children that this lesson is possibly the most important of all) , do the oral evaluation exercises of the DH points of the following hands:

K 3		Q J 7 3 2
A 7 6 4 3		A K 8 6 4
9 8 7 5		8
A K		A 2
A Q 9 4		A K 9 8 5
K Q 8 2		7 2
-		Q J 7
10 7 5 3 2		K 7 3