I made a really gross balancing bid tonight.  It might have worked, but in hindsight it certainly wasn't worth the risk.

I was playing with Jeff against a couple of BBOers and was dealt this in 3rd, all red.

K983 / K / T8 / QT8543

A couple of passes to me ...

I really wanted to bid 3 clubs, but stiff kings take more tricks on defense and I don't know for sure that the opps have either A) hearts or B ) game or slam.  So I passed.

I heard 1 Club on my left (hey, maybe I did good!) 1 Heart on my right and 2 Hearts on my left passed back around to me.

I've passed this hand twice already! Pard is marked with values! Surely pard will bid 2 Spades if I double, he might even read that I have 2 suits not hearts but not necessarily diamonds and spades (since I've passed twice already) so I doubled. Pard bid 3 Diamonds and we went -300 (down 5 on perfect defense). 2 Clubs was cold our way, 3 was touch-and-go. Sometimes 'risky' preempts prevent you from making 'idiotic' balancing doubles.

Jeff held

76 QT54 J753 AK9