Answer
You are 3rd seat, unfavorable.
What’s your call? We expect that most players would overcall one heart without giving much thought, but we would wonder where the spades are: the answer is that probably West has a lot of them. Give partner 7-8 HCP, give East 12 for the opening bid, you have 13, so that leaves 7-8 for West. A one heart overcall won’t shut West out, but a two heart overcall might do so, and a three heart overcall isn’t out of the question. Might we miss a game if we make a jump overcall? Here’s one way to think about it: if partner has an above-average passed hand with a heart fit, the opponents might well be able to out-bid us in spades (and might well have ten tricks), so as South we wouldn’t be worried about missing a game. We recommend a two heart (or, for more adventurous players, three heart) jump overcall, though it’s not wrong to overcall one heart.
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