Eureka! A Successful Balancing Bid


K
Q 8
10 8 7 6 5 2
A Q 9 2
J 9 7 6 4 A 10 8
10 9 5 3 A K J 6 4
K Q J 3
7 5 10 8 3
Q 5 3 2
7 2
A 9 4 Vul: No one
K J 6 4 Opening lead: 10 of hearts

NorthEastSouthWest
Pass 1 Pass 2
Pass Pass Dbl 3
Allpass

Here is a successful use of the balancing bid (just to show that I'm not rigidly anti-balancing). And the remarkable thing is that this was effected by the computer! Neither North nor South has a clear-cut bid before E-W show a willingness to let the bidding die, though each is close, to be sure. Now when the bidding does die, South steps in with a double, uncovering their diamond fit (and modest strength) and a makable 3 diamond bid through a few pieces of luck, losing only a spade, two hearts and a diamond.
It does have a flaw in that E-W can make 3 hearts, it would seem evident, so the successful 3 diamond bid does depend on timid opponents, which you're not always going to get. But it worked here. And South, who just might have doubled that one heart bid had he been very aggressive, now makes a non-vulnerable takeout double at the two level and comes out smelling like a rose, as declarer loses a spade, two hearts and a diamond.
Example 12 gives another illustration of a balancing bid over two hearts that works for another reason, this one not by the computer but from Alan Truscott's column.
[I don't know that I should call the balancing bid flawed because the opponents could make 3 hearts. At that vulnerability, N-S could go to the four level with impunity. Minus 100 still beats what 3 hearts brings the opposition. And if the opposition lets you have the bid for plus 110, well, so much the better. The productive fit was uncovered, neither North nor South had a clear-cut bid beforehand, and what the hey! If they work, they work. I've never denied that possibility. I've only said that I've seen far, far more disasters than benefits come out of balancing bids.
[Couldn't North have opened with a weak two at that vulnerability? He might have (assuming they were playing weak two diamonds bids and not Flannery), but I wouldn't fault him for not doing so. But that's what I meant when earlier I pointed to a narrow window for productive balancing bids.]