Had a short set with Jeff yesterday.  First time we'd played since he got back from Shanghai and it was nice to get a few reps in.  13 boards and the opponents made almost no mistakes so we ended a very low-scoring set down a couple.  I badly misdeclared one partscore, but that only cost an uptrick.  Here was our worst result:

I picked up in 4th all red:

3 / QJ63 / KQJ6 / T932

Lefty opened 1 Club.  Jeff bid 1 Heart.  Righty bid 1 Spade.

Simple enough auction, but I was stumped as to my best way to proceed here.

My choices seem to be 2 Clubs (cuebid) 2 Spades (cuebid) 3 Diamonds (fit bid) 3 Spades (splinter) and 4 Hearts.

If I was 100% sure this was a fit bid situation and was crystal clear on the ramifications of 'fudging' in this situation, I'd probably bid 3 Diamonds in spite of only having a 4 bagger.  If I was down 5 or 6 on the last board of a team match I might bid 4 Hearts and then double if the opponents bid on.  I'm nowhere near good enough to splinter (and don't really want to give the opps a roadmap if they end up declaring the hand in Spades.)  That leaves the 2 cue bids.  What's the technical reason to prefer one or the other?  What should each bid mean?

I ended up bidding 2 Clubs because it seemed like that sounded a little less natural than 2 Spades.  (Without the 1 Heart overcall, 2 Spades would be natural, but then so would 2 Clubs.)  Not the best reason, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Lefty doubled (support) and Jeff passed (alerted as extras.)  Righty bid 3 Clubs.

Now what?

I felt like 3 Hearts was enough here.  I'd already cuebid and now bidding 3 Hearts should just about guarantee the 4th Heart.  I also didn't want to push the opponents into a possibly cold 4 Spades that they weren't getting to on their own.

3 Hearts was passed around to Righty who bid 3 Spades.  I stuck to my guns and passed.  What's your lead?

It didn't seem like we were destined to take too many tricks in Hearts so I made the normal-looking lead of the King of Diamonds.

A74 / AT75 / T32 / KJ8 Dummy (LHO)

3 / QJ63 / KQJ6 / T932

Jeff overtook the Diamond and returned a Heart, ruffed by Declarer, who continued with a low Diamond.

By the end of trick 1 I was pretty sure Declarer was 5-0-5-3.  If only I'd led 4th best from my longest and strongest we'd be in better shape.  I doubt Declarer has xxx in Clubs or he would have likely taken a pitch already and probably wouldn't have bid Clubs in the auction.  I can win the Diamond and try a low Club, hoping he puts in the Jack, but he doesn't have much to lose by trying the 8, so that's unlikely to gain.

I won the Diamond and continued pounding Hearts, trying to get the Ace out of the way and then maybe getting a tap going.

Declarer again declined to play the Ace and took the tap.  Now he played a top Spade and another to the Ace before knocking out my last good Diamond.

I played my penultimate Heart, finally forcing him to take the Ace and setting up my Jack.  Of course, I'd never get a chance to cash it.

7 / T / - / KJ8 (Dummy)

Q / - / 9 / A75 (Declarer)

Declarer played a Spade to the Queen and then cashed the good 9 of Diamonds.  Jeff was down to the last trump and Qxx of Clubs.  -140 was lose 6.87 IMPs

http://online.bridgebase.com/myhands/fetchlin.php?id=4563287&when_played=1191784109

Going back to the bidding, passing 3 Clubs would probably have been the winning decision.  West MIGHT have passed and ended up in a 3-3 fit.  4 Hearts had no play and would have been doubled, unless East couldn't take the heat and pulled with his Heart void.