With no one vulnerable, I dealt and opened two clubs (strong) with ♠ AKQ9 ♡AKJ87 ♢82 ♣ A8. I counted 8.5 tricks but had only 21 high card points.
Partner raised to 3 clubs (positive). I bid my suit, three hearts, partner raised to four, and I passed, not trying for slam, because I had opened "light." This was opposite a partner who once declared, "I would never open 2 clubs with less than 23 high card points unless I had six cards in my main [heart} suit." Dummy came down with the 8 high card points that I expected (giving us a total of 29). At this point, I felt good about my decision because most slams require over 30 high card points.
But we made six because partner's distribution was the following: ♠ 52 ♡T52 ♢A ♣ KJ95432. I had expected something more like ♠ 52 ♡T52 ♢A43 ♣ KJ952. The pairs like us that bid four hearts and made six shared a "top" but any pair that had bid six could have soloed. Partner wondered aloud why I didn't go further.
I held back to 4 hearts because 1) generally, because I couldn't envision partner's favorable distribution or 2) specifically in light of my partner's previous remarks that indicated that my opening hand would have been a disappointment to him. Was there a way for either partner or myself to determine whether we had enough "extra" (over 29 points) to try for slam?
Note: This question been edited to ask "how to determine what to do," which is less subjective than "what to do."
