pecohen

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I think I now have a pretty good picture of the issue.

I was told the other day that the Standard American Bridge criteria for a balanced hand had changed recently to allow a hand with a singleton to qualify so long as there is not a singleton or doubleton in another suit. My question is what other changes have been made to accommodate this one. The situation that puzzles me is if I open 1N with a singleton ♥ and my partner responds with 2♦ then traditionally I was required to bid 2♥. That seemed a reasonable requirement under the traditional meaning for a balanced hand, but now this could leave me playing a heart contract with our opponents holding seven hearts. How is this to be avoided now?