But you have short spades!

[Phil]

x

AQ8xx

K9xxx

xx

 

All vul, MPs, pass - pass - 2♠ - ?

[JLOGIC]

pass!

[whereagles]

It's MP and I have the short spades, so I have to bid. 3♥ it is.

[jdonn]

I hope the next time I play with whereagles he doesn't hold this hand minus the heart ace.

[pooltuna]

well I have my guessing shoes on and are they ever heavy so heavy in fact that I can only reach the green cards in the bidding box :rolleyes:

[Fluffy]

I would pass, partially because neither overcall is particularilly appealing.

 

But given that RHO is probably heavy and LHO is very likelly having support, there is some appeal into bidding 4♦ and see LHO raising, if we could just shut out partner before we can double it...

[awm]

Certainly one could imagine bidding here working out, but there has to be a limit to the madness and I'd pass here.

 

There is a common problem with these hands that partner is under some pressure and will bid game on a substantial fraction of the hands where 3♥ (only) makes. We also might induce a bad double of 4♠ from partner, and there is the chance of going down doubled (or down two undoubled) in 3♥ for a bad result. I suspect that if partner expected this kind of hand for a 3♥ bid (and thus won't overbid the hand) we might do better bidding than passing, so perhaps the "blame partner" crowd bids and then transfers the blame when we get too high, but I'd prefer partner to be able to play me for some cards when I make a vulnerable three-level overcall.