Balancing in Direct Seat

In 2nd seat (none vul.) you hold:

balance1

RHO opens the bidding one club, taking away your opening bid. You wisely (in my view) decide to pass and await developments. LHO responds one heart, partner passes and RHO raises to two hearts. It’s your turn. Is it time for you to come into the auction? If so, what’s your bid?

It sounds like the opponents have found a heart fit of at least eight cards. That means your partner will have at most a doubleton in hearts, leaving at least 11 spaces in partner’s hand that can contain spades. Mike Lawrence gaves us the insight that you likely have a spade fit (because of the distributional value implied by your three little hearts!). You should pre-balance by bidding two spades. You likely have a fit, you’re only at the two level, and your high cards in the minors look like they are working.

Here is an earlier post in which I did not quite satisfy the logic for balancing in direct seat.

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